The construction of the strategy selection behavior of online food delivery platform based on the tripartite evolutionary game model

Abstract

The developments of digital technology have strengthened the diversified interaction and coordination among industries, consumers, and suppliers. These have boosted the rapid rise of online food delivery platforms, thus creating an ecosystem connecting restaurants and consumers. The rise of online food delivery platforms not only gives consumers more options but also enables restaurants to discover more potential consumers through platform resources. While the rise of delivery platforms is a trend, it has numerous challenges. To explore these problems, this study collects relevant parameters, a tripartite evolutionary game model among platforms, restaurants, and consumers based on the participants’ bounded rationality is established. Meanwhile, the dynamic changes of the strategy evolution within the three groups are described and the equilibrium point through the replicator dynamics equation is solved. This study adopts the Jacobian matrix to analyze the stability of the equilibrium point of the evolutionary game to determine the main factors of the best strategy. In addition, the numerical simulation analysis is used to analyze the evolution path and equilibrium state among these three groups. The results show that if the additional expected benefits of using high-efficiency platforms are improved, consumers will be willing to choose delivery platforms. In order to increase the expected benefits of consumers using the delivery platform, it can provide a variety of meal choices, or allow consumers to choose a variety of different payment methods. This study analyzes the strategy selection behavior of the three groups and proposes managerial implications so that strategic advices can be provided.