| Abstract [eng] |
71 pages (without appendices), 39 tables, 5 pictures, 48 references, 3 appendices. The main purpose of this master’s thesis is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial situation of different restaurants and identify which operational aspects may have mitigated this impact. The research work consists of an introduction, four chapters, conclusions, bibliography, and appendices. The literature analysis is divided into two sections: 1) examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on restaurant business globally and in Lithuania, as well as the differences in restaurants that may have led to different effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; and 2) reviewing the theoretical aspects of a study into the financial condition and business continuity of enterprises, models and methods for predicting the probability of bankruptcy. What comes next is methodology pertaining to the study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on restaurant business; furthermore, the essential part of the study, its tasks and assumptions are described, so is the course of the study. The results of 6 semi-structured interviews showed that restaurants providing takeaway services, fast food restaurants and restaurants cooperating with Wolt / Bolt couriers may have suffered less financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is confirmed by the results of a quantitative study which analyzed the impact of 67 aspects of restaurant operations on the changes in their financial indicators between 2019 and pandemic 2020, examined by the SPSS program. Demonstrating that state support slightly equalized the changes in the probability of bankruptcy of those companies, which received support and those, which did not, research findings suggest that such support enabled some restaurants to survive the crisis. Logistic regression analysis did not find a link between government support and changes in sales revenue, net profit, and working capital turnover in 2019–2020. However, it should be noted that 1) there were other criteria for receiving support; 2) due to the difficult situation, the state provided support earlier than it assessed the financial indicators. The author of the present research paper sets forth the guidelines for further scientific investigation and hopes that the recommendations provided will advantage the restaurant business during imminent epidemiological crises. |
