Published Paper Details:

In an era of culinary globalization, the promotion of regional food heritage such as Maharashtrian cuisine presents both opportunities and challenges for restaurant managers. Grounded in the Resource-Based View (RBV), this study examines how four firm-level factors--consumer awareness, economic barriers, operational constraints, and marketing challenges--influence managerial intention to preserve and promote local cuisine. Data were collected from 125 restaurant owners and managers across major cities in Maharashtra using a structured questionnaire and analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that consumer awareness is the strongest enabler, underscoring the role of market knowledge as a valuable intangible resource that encourages strategic commitment. In contrast, operational and financial constraints emerged as the most critical deterrents, highlighting persistent shortages of skilled labor and concerns over profitability. Marketing challenges also reduced managerial intent, reflecting the difficulties of building strong brand equity in a competitive environment. Overall, the model explains nearly half of the variance in promotion intention, reinforcing that cultural preservation is contingent not only on consumer demand but also on a firm's ability to secure and mobilize its resource base. The study contributes theoretically by extending RBV into the domain of culinary heritage and offers practical guidance by emphasizing the need for investment in financial viability and human capital development as prerequisites for sustaining regional food culture.