Examining the billboard effect of online meal delivery platforms
Amanda Belarmino, Yunmei Bai, Carola RaabPurpose
While hospitality scholars have long acknowledged the marketing benefits of online travel agencies for hotels, the literature has yet to investigate if there is a similar benefit to restaurants from online meal delivery platforms (OMDPs). This study investigated the potential billboard effect of these apps for restaurants by analyzing the antecedents of repurchase intention on the apps and dine-in intention by using the lens of E-SERVQUAL.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 407 US consumers was conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis on SPSS. Then, AMOS was used to conduct structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results indicate that assurance, maintenance of meal quality and hygiene had a significant impact on satisfaction. Altruism and satisfaction had a significant impact on repurchase intention, which had a positive significant impact on dine-in intentions. Satisfaction had a negative significant impact on dine-in intentions; consumers dissatisfied with OMDPs are more likely to dine-in restaurants than order online.
Originality/value
This study fills a gap in the research as to the potential billboard effect of OMDPs for restaurants. The results of this study indicate that when there is a service failure on an OMDP, it increases the likelihood that consumers will dine-in at the restaurant. These results imply a complex relationship between consumer satisfaction, OMDPs and restaurants.