From click to cuisine: Unpacking the interplay of online food delivery services through barriers, trust, post-usage usefulness, and moral obligation

Abstract

Online food delivery (OFD) has gained popularity because of rapid urbanization and busy lifestyles of individuals in the last decade. Nevertheless, despite the surging fame and significance of OFD, certain gaps in research demand attention. Thus, this study aims to examine comprehensive barriers (economic, efficiency, experience), trust, post-usage usefulness, loyalty, and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WoM) within OFD services. It also considers the moderating effect of moral obligation on the relationship between these concepts. PLS-SEM was employed for data analysis (n=650). The findings of the study indicate that barriers related to economic, efficiency, and user experience have a significant and detrimental impact on trust, the utility of the service after usage, electronic word-of-mouth (e-WoM), and loyalty in the context of adopting online food delivery (OFD) services. The findings contribute to a better understanding of consumers’ perception of OFD. Several theoretical and practical implications were offered.