Diagnostics in the catering services market

Abstract

Background. The effective management of any enterprise, both in the short and the strategic perspective, depends on how its managers are able to properly diagnose changes that taking place in the market, and to develop and implement managerial solutions that are adequate to the results of diagnosis. If such a diagnosis is not carried out, then the company may receive incorrect development decisions.
Changes in the market (especially in the service sector, including catering trade) are often due to innovations that are directly or indirectly related to the innovative activity of enterprises. That is why the managers should continuously monitor intra-industry and inter-sectoral innovations and evaluate the level of enterprises’ innovative potential for the possibility of implementation these innovations.
The problems of catering trade development in Ukraine and the state regulation of the restaurant business, as well as the problems of innovation development and the probable changes related to intra-industry and inter-sectoraldiffusion of innovations in the catering trade servicesmarket have been researched in the scientific papers of foreign and domestic scholars.
The aim of the study is to carry out a diagnosis of the changes taking place in the market of catering trade services nowadays, as well as give a description of the catering trade development in Ukraine from the beginning of 2014 till present day. In accordance with the aim, the following objectives were formulated: to analyze the development of catering trade in Ukraine; to identify innovations that directly or indirectly influenceto progressive changes in the market of catering trade services; to compare the factors that prevented the innovation development of catering enterprises in Ukraine before and after 2014; to create a model of innovations’ diffusion in the catering services market.
Material and methods. The information base of the research was official data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the scientific publications of foreign and domestic scientists on the issues of innovations’ diffusion and innovation changes in restaurant business, and data collected during the survey of restaurant business managers and consumers of catering services. To achieve the aim and objectives there were used the following methods: system analysis, comparison method, methods of statistical processing of data, methods of marketing research, modeling, etc.
Results. According to the results of the diagnostics of catering trade development in Ukraine after 2013, the following changes were identified:

• the dynamics of catering enterprises during 2014–2017 decreased on average by 13 % annually;
• even in the conditions of market threats dominance, new catering enterprises are constantly emerging;
• the number of individual catering entrepreneurs is constantly increasing and the share of small catering enterprises remains constantly big, which is primarily due to tax advantages in their development compared to large and medium-sized enterprises;
• starting in 2014, the volume of sold products (goods, services) by catering enterprises-legal entities began to exceed the corresponding volume of sold products by individual entrepreneurs in catering sphere;
• decrease in volumes of catering turnover during 2014–2015 years compared 2013 in both actual and comparable prices (at the same time, it should be noted that in 2015 the following situation was observed: the volume of catering turnover in actual prices was increase, but its volume in comparable prices continued to fall down);
• the innovative potential of catering enterprises of Ukraine was low in all segments of the market institutional division during 2014–2016. That is why in the nearest time periods most of the catering enterprises in Ukraine will be unable to rapidly develop radically new technologies and to bring in high-cost innovative changes; etc.

It was found that such factors must be added to the group of factors that prevented the innovation development of catering enterprises in Ukraine: general economic instability; psychological tension in society caused by geopolitical instability; reducing the number of potential consumers by reducing the volume of tourist flows to Ukraine, the temporary loss of part of the territory, abroad migration of some consumers with high incomes; losses of material and technical base of catering enterprises as a result of hostilities.
It is substantiated that now changes in the catering services market are related to both product and process innovations (from the production of new branded dishes and beverages to the emergence and development of new formats of catering facilities).
According to the results of the diffuse models formation and comparison, it has been established that the curve of innovations diffusion in the catering services market has shifted toward increasing share of innovators, early followers and early majority.
Conclusion. As a result of the changes diagnosis in the catering services market, it has been established that they are usually due to economic, demographic and geopolitical factors, as well as to the influence of intra-industry and inter-sectoral innovations on the development of catering enterprises. It was found that most of the changes in the Ukrainian catering trade development were negative after 2013, but since 2016 signs of positive change have emerged.
The results of the study may be further used to improve the tools for choosing strategies of catering enterprises development and implementation of innovative catering projects. They will also be a basis for the development of conceptual foundations and strategic plans of the catering trade development in Ukraine.