The impact of food biosafety, hedonic consumption, and brand image on e-consumer loyalty and continuance intention in online food delivery

Consumer loyalty in online food delivery (OFD) services is shaped by a complex interplay of safety perceptions, experiential motivations, and brand cognitions. Yet, existing Expectation Confirmation Theory/Model (ECT/ECM)-based models have addressed these dimensions in isolation rather than as an integrated architecture. This study develops and tests a three-layer theoretical model—grounded in Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT), the ECM, Hedonic Consumption Theory, and Keller’s Consumer-Based Brand Equity model—to simultaneously examine the cognitive, perceptual, and affective pathways through which food biosafety, e-service quality, and hedonic consumption shape brand image, e-consumer satisfaction, e-loyalty, and continuance intention. Using PLS-SEM with bootstrapping (5000 resamples) on data from 308 users of major Turkish OFD platforms — including Yemeksepeti, Getir, and Trendyol Go — the study yields three principal findings. First, food biosafety does not directly generate satisfaction (β = .066, p = .409). Still, it significantly strengthens brand image (β = .239, p < .001), establishing it as a reputational rather than transactional signal—a finding that resolves inconsistent direct-effect results in prior OFD research. Second, hedonic consumption is the dominant driver of both e-consumer satisfaction (β = .494) and e-loyalty (β = .224), operating through distinct affective and dispositional pathways that extend to continuance intention via sequential loyalty mediation. Third, e-consumer satisfaction fully mediates the brand image–loyalty relationship, confirming that brand perceptions translate into behavioral commitment only when supported by actual service experience. The sample skews toward young, highly educated users, limiting generalizability and warranting particular caution when extending findings to older or infrequent OFD consumers. Platform managers are advised to position biosafety as a brand-building tool, design hedonic ordering experiences, and operationalize brand promises to sustain long-term user retention.