A Study on Consumer Attitude, Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use to the Intention to Use Mobile Food Apps during COVID-19 Pandemic in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Abstract

The market size of food industry across Southeast Asia has recorded a tremendous and robust surge especially in the food delivery sector during 2020 due the global pandemic. As far back as previous years reports show that the dynamic use of the current innovative mobile technologies in the Food and Service industries has orchestrated a vast array of innovative entrepreneurial opportunities and start-up business ventures for app developers and accrued tremendous growth for the restaurant and food businesses such as Zomato, Uber Eats and Food Panda Statista (2018) Food delivery applications (FDAs are mobile application that account for food delivery platform that account for daily used by an estimated 15 million deliveries solely in China and over a million in India. (Jindal, 2018). Online Food Delivery (OFD) platforms and Online-to-Offline (O2O) in collaboration are the two means by which mobile food apps curate the ecommerce of food business especially those in the restaurant-to-consumer markets through their platforms through online orderings which transcend into offline deliveries (Statista, 2019). However, regardless of how online mobile applications have curated a compelling yet significant paradigm shift in online shopping and ecommerce as well as the food and hospitality, it leaves much to understand how consumers attribute, relate and perceive these innovative services. Scholarly research and existing literature aimed at ensuring the apprehension across the various aspects of these mobile applications and platform is imperative. So as to give insight on how consumer behavior is appreciated with regards to the use of these Food Delivery Application (FDAs) and Online Food Deliveries (OFDs). Nevertheless, there is a crucial need to apprehend the ever evolving nature of these technologies and the dynamic nature of consumer behavior related to FDAs and OFDs that elicit a continuous scholarly overview into ascertaining an enriched accumulation of research jeered at facilitating a better and enriched understanding of the ever-changing area of food commerce. Since extensive similar research predominantly in the global markets spanning across Americas, Middle East, and Europe have been propounded to highlight the remarkably impetus the said food market through FDAs and OFDs have for significant investment (Hirschberg et al., 2016). In the wake of the global manner of how business is now conducted through online-to-offline all contained around deliveries, notably the food commerce of offering food and services (Roh and Park, 2019). This study seeks to stray from the convention of merely studying the consumer’s attribute and behavior towards these food delivery applications and the impact e-service, customer loyalty and food quality thereof (Suhartanto et al., 2019), but rather culminate a better insight of the acceptance of these food ordering and delivery platforms with the inherent awareness of the current global Corona Virus pandemic raging across the world and south-east Asia with emphasis to the country Malaysia. Inherent to the above research study one theory led is the consumer attitude and the end result aimed at leveling the intricacies of understanding the behavioral intention to use OFD services so as to investigate the notion of information system theory of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), serving as a framework to highlight the average consumers apprehension and acceptance and continuous use of these FDAs and OFDs. (Yeo et al., 2017). Alagoz and Hekimoglu (2012) also significantly explored the technology acceptance model ascertain the decision making processes entailed prior and during the online ordering of food through OFDS & FDAs while highlighting the consumers insight in this process as well as the role the theoretical model plays (Kang and Namkung, 2019a). Also , notable proposed study which hallmarks the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) has been implored to comprehend the psychological factors that be and their impact to the use of mobile diet apps for ordering food online (Okumus et al., 2018). Consequentially, this study seeks to merged the prior knowledge of consumer attitudes and behavior with insight of the cited Technology Acceptance Model so as to delve into an in-depth comprehension of how these two propound a better understanding of why consumers ought to use or will use FDAs or OFDs during this health safety and conscious era of the global Corona Pandemic.