Antecedents of Using the Online Food Delivery Subscription Services

Consumers’ interest in Online Food Delivery Systems (OFDS), especially in subscription services, has increased recently, leading hospitality scholars to strengthen their interest in understanding the use of subscription services. However, to date, little is known about consumers’ intentions to use and loyalty toward OFDS subscription services. The current study addresses this lack of research and examines the antecedents of consumers’ intentions to use OFDS services and consumers’ loyalty toward OFDS based on benefit and risk. Study 1 aimed to explicate consumers’ intentions to use OFDS subscription services. The study reconstructed the UTAUT2 (Venkatesh et al., 2012). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the proposed measurement model. Based on the CFA’s results, it was concluded that the instrument is characterized by appropriate reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity. A Structural Equation Modeling analysis was used to test the hypotheses using a sample of 573 OFDS users from the U.S. Study 1 indicated that consumers’ intentions to use OFDS subscription services are impacted most strongly by social influences, while effort expectancy and perceived security had relatively lower impacts. Study 1 also confirmed the significant relationship between compatibility and performance expectancy and between convenience orientation and effort expectancy. Study 2 investigated consumers’ loyalty toward OFDS subscription services based on Social Exchange Theory (SET) (Blau, 1964). Study 2 elucidated the role of benefit and risk in shaping consumers’ loyalty toward OFDS subscription services based on the data from OFDS subscribers (262 respondents). Study 2 used CFA to assess the measurement model, and SEM was conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 2 found benefit to be the strongest antecedent of consumers’ loyalty toward OFDS subscription services. Benefit was confirmed as a second-order construct with two dimensions, perceived social benefit and economic benefit. Risk was also confirmed as a second-order construct with three dimensions, perceived privacy risk, perceived performance risk, and perceived overall risk. Specifically, while social benefit was considered the most important aspect of benefit, perceived privacy risk was evaluated as a fundamental concern for consumers while completing food ordering tasks.