Social Media Use Status according to the Level of Innovative Work Behavior among Chefs

This study aims to empirically analyze the differences in social media usage behaviors and work-related applications according to the level of innovative work behavior among chefs. A survey was conducted with 292 chefs working in hotels or foodservice establishments in the Seoul and Gyeonggi regions. Based on factor analysis and reliability testing of innovation-related items, participants were classified into high- and low-innovation groups. The results revealed significant differences between the two groups (p<0.05, 0.01, 0.001). Chefs in the high-innovation group were more likely to actively use social media platforms, especially for obtaining information on food, dining trends, and cooking techniques (p<0.05). They also reported longer daily usage times (p<0.01) and more frequent application of social media content during food preparation, dining out, and purchasing food ingredients (p<0.01, 0.001). In terms of work-related tasks, the high-innovation group perceived social media as more helpful across multiple domains such as menu trend analysis, benchmarking, plating design, and recipe exploration (p<0.001). Additionally, platform preferences differed between groups, with high-innovation chefs favoring Instagram, while low-innovation chefs showed a stronger preference for YouTube and Naver Blogs (p<0.05). These findings suggest that chefs’ innovative behavior has a meaningful influence on their ability to utilize digital information and apply it to practical culinary tasks. This study provides valuable insights for developing practical training programs and digital strategies to enhance culinary workforce competencies in the foodservice industry.