Antecedents of Customer Adoption of Online Food Delivery Services (OFDS) in Malaysia during COVID-19

Tan, Rou Yen (2022) Antecedents of Customer Adoption of Online Food Delivery Services (OFDS) in Malaysia during COVID-19. Final Year Project (Masters), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

Text Tan Rou Yen.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (1MB)

Abstract

The study aims to examine the antecedents of customer adoption of online food delivery services in Malaysia during COVID-19. The antecedents examined in this study are based on the existing theories of Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) and Health Belief Model. They are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, price value, and perceived threat which consists of perceived susceptibility and perceived severity. Behavioural intention to use online food delivery services act as a mediator between the aforementioned antecedents and customer adoption of online food delivery services. Moreover, trust is included to examine its positive moderating effect on relationship between behavioural intention to use online food delivery services and customer adoption of online food delivery services. In overall, the core idea of this paper is to examine the customer behaviour in the emerging industry of online food delivery business during pandemic when Malaysia was reported to be one of the Southeast Asia countries with highest infection rate relative to its population. The study employed a quantitative method and 290 respondents participated in this study. The questionnaires are distributed using a judgemental sampling technique technique and data is analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the Partial Least Squared– Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The result shows that two independent variables, namely effort expectancy and perceived threat have a positive relationship and significant effect on behavioural intention to use online food delivery services where it enhances the customer adoption of online food delivery service in Malaysia during COVID-19. Behavioural intention to use online food delivery services has a significant and positive effect on customer adoption of online food delivery services. Furthermore, trust is found significant to negatively moderate the relationship between behavioural intention to use online food delivery services and customer adoption of online food delivery services. The output of this study has several practical contributions. Online food delivery service has become an essential service when pandemic has a great impact on everyone routine. The study provides the input for online food delivery services providers to decide the expansion, innovating and marketing services plan. Restaurant merchants can also make decision based on the findings from this study if they want to outsource their delivery services during the pandemic or expand their in-house delivery services. Specifically, it is suggested to keep the online food delivery services as simple as possible, effortless and less step because consumers in Malaysia are still at learning phase in surfing and browsing. Besides, online food delivery services providers should magnify the benefit of online food delivery services in lowering the probability of COVID-19 infection which will cause severe impact, in marketing strategies. Online food delivery industry in Malaysia is still at early stage and demands greater researches for better understanding by academicians and practitioners. This paper expands the limited existing research related to online food delivery services and explores consumer behavior in the industry. From managerial perspective, the paper contributes to understanding consumers more broadly by looking into food-buying drivers that attracts new online food delivery services users which in turn to improve the customer base and revenue.