Modeling consumers’ trust in mobile food delivery apps: perspectives of technology acceptance model, mobile service quality and personalization-privacy theory

ABSTRACT Considering the importance of customer trust in the m-commerce domain, this study aims to examine the role of technology acceptance model (TAM) factors, mobile service quality (M-SERQUAL) factors, and personalization and privacy in promoting customers’ trust and in turn their loyalty towards mobile food delivery apps (MFDAs). Four hundred ninety-four valid responses were collected from the online Facebook groups of MFDA review and analyzed through Partial Least Squares-based SEM approach. Our findings demonstrated that TAM factors (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness), M-SERQUAL factors (interface quality, interaction quality, and information quality), and personalization were positively associated with customer trust in MFDAs, which was in turn positively related to customer loyalty towards MFDAs. Customer trust was observed as a mediator for the effects of TAM factors, M-SERQUAL factors, and personalization on customer loyalty. Nonetheless, privacy was not significantly associated with customer trust, which did not mediate the association between privacy and customer loyalty.