Discomfort and proactiveness of New Zealand OFD consumers during the coronavirus pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2020, during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand’s online food delivery (OFD) services saw a marked increase in popularity. New Zealand had received worldwide praise for their approach to fight Covid-19, and online businesses were important contributors, allowing the food service industry to remain viable in the face of severe restrictions. OFD research has found that the determinants of customer loyalty, such as consumer satisfaction, trust, and value are well established and largely depend on food quality, e-service quality, and OFD-service providers not being associated with COVID-19 transmission. The present study aims to fill a research gap and investigate new predictors such as OFD discomfort and proactive COVID-19 strategies, in addition to confirming well-established ones such as sociodemographic factors, perceived infection risk, perceived value, satisfaction, and trust. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis reveals that age is the only significant sociodemographic factor influencing pro-active COVID-19 strategies. While trust and perceived value are positively affected by consumers committed to proactively counteract Covid-19; satisfaction and ultimately loyalty, are positively affected by trust only. Best practice recommendations for marketing managers and OFD service providers are presented.