Restaurant Profitability Management: The Evolution of Restaurant Revenue Management

Abstract

While the term restaurant revenue management was defined in this journal in 1998, the history of publications in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (CHQ) related to managing restaurant profitability spans nearly fifty years. Of the 160 published articles related to restaurant profitability, more than one-quarter have appeared in the CHQ, which is more than three times that of any other journal. This article presents a new, decision-based framework for restaurant profitability, which expands on the earlier revenue-focused framework. The existing CHQ articles are categorized using the framework, and the gaps are used as the basis for identifying a large number of worthwhile, but as yet unanswered research questions related to restaurant profitability.