Capturing Competitive Advantage through Product Innovation: Study of A Small Culinary Business

Abstract

In the early phase of the Covid-19 outbreak, all aspects of life, including the culinary sector, were impacted very hard by this outbreak in addition to the existing tight competition. Many businesses were in danger of going bankrupt. However, there was a culinary brand that continued to make an expansion in Bandung, Indonesia. There are seven branches opened by this brand until 2021. Hence, it is interesting to study the phenomena. This study aims to determine the effect of product innovation on the competitive advantage of this culinary brand. Besides this, the customers’ evaluation regarding product innovation and competitive advantage is revealed by this study as well. This research uses a quantitative method by surveying with the purposive sampling technique. The questionnaires were distributed to 100 customers who had made transactions more than once within the last six months before the survey began. The descriptive data analysis was carried out to investigate the customers’ evaluation. It is examined that product innovation has a positive impact on the competitive advantage after a simple linear regression analysis was conducted. This result is strengthened by the t-test that shows the acceptance of the hypothesis. Moreover, the coefficient of determination test presents that the impact of product innovation on competitive advantage is 51 percent. It means that the product innovation has provided 51 percent of the information needed to predict the competitive advantage in this small culinary business. From the overall results of the descriptive analysis, the consumer assessment scores obtained fall into the medium to high category range. This result proves that the response given to the company’s competitive advantage and product innovation is still quite good and positive. The result of this study is expected can inspire other culinary companies to survive their businesses during a difficult situation like the Covid-19 outbreak and to sustain for the future. Further study can compare the condition during and after the Covid-19 outbreak.