Purpose - The purpose of this study is to identify the critical factors that restaurant management should consider strategically when making a decision after COVID-19 under the digital transformation and non-contact service expansions environment.
<br>Design/methodology/approach - The thirty six experts and managers who have 5 years or more experience in restaurant industry in Korea participate this study. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and SER-M were used to analyze the experts’ opinion Findings - As a result of the analysis, 'management environment' (0.313) showed the highest relative importance priority, followed by 'brand (0.263)', 'management characteristics (0.254)', and 'physical factors (0.17)'. And, as for the sub-factor value, 'lifestyle (0.087)', 'awareness (0.084)', 'consumer desire (0.075)', and 'loyalty (0.068)' were ranked highest among the 19 influencing critical factors.
<br>Research implications or Originality - In the case of large restaurant enterprises, it is judged that the subject(CEO, Management) is actively pursuing a strategy to acquire the necessary resources for the given environment of digital transformation and customer demand for non-contact services. On the other hand, in the case of middle and small restaurant enterprises, it seems that they are fully aware of the demand for expansion of non-contact services and the digital transformation required in the post COVID-19 era, but information technology utilization ability, usage experience, technology acceptance ability, and education and training support for this are only available to large enterprises.
