Drone food delivery services adoption and consumer well-being: A dual-method approach

Drone food delivery (DFD) services are expected to become widely available in the not-too-distant future, potentially increasing unhealthy food accessibility and consumption. This study aimed to explore likely uptake rates and identify population segments that are most likely to use these services. An online survey was completed by 1078 Australian adults in January 2023. Respondents viewed a scenario describing a world in which DFD services are readily available and asked whether they anticipated using them. A health composite score was calculated based on whether participants met recommended levels for vegetable and fruit consumption and physical activity. Descriptive analyses were conducted, and a binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with intentions to use DFD services. Thirteen percent of participants reported intending to use these services, with greater intentions found among younger respondents, those with lower health composite scores, and those who currently use (vs. do not use) fast food delivery services. Policy preparedness is vital before DFD services become commonplace and potentially unhealthy habits are formed. Timely regulatory measures are likely to be necessary to mitigate any potential negative public health consequences.

Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, this study offers a comprehensive framework for examining the relationships between organic food supply chain traceability, consumer wellbeing, and food safety trust based in organic food sector. The study also explores how consumer awareness of organic food influences the relationship between consumer wellbeing and food safety. We also look at a mediated moderation mechanism in the relationships stated earlier. Using a survey as the primary data collecting method, a total of 221 usable responses were collected. To test the hypothesized relationships between all variables, SPSS PROCESS Macro 3.3 is utilized. The findings show that the organic food traceability OFSC affect food safety trust and food safety and consumer wellbeing are positively associated, while consumer awareness of organic food acts as a moderator on the relationship between food safety trust and consumer wellbeing. Also consumer awareness conditionally influences the strength of the indirect relationship between OFST and consumer wellbeing via food safety, thereby indicates a mediated moderation mechanism among the study variables. This study clarifies how consumer food safety trust and organic food traceability can enhance their wellbeing. It contributes to the theory of dynamic capabilities as well as organic traceable product marketing strategies.

Consumer well-being (CWB) refers to the extent to which a particular consumer good or service creates an overall perception of the quality-of-life impact of that product. We developed a model that posits that CWB related to a specific product is heavily influenced by self-image congruence and brand-community belongingness. Self-image congruence is also hypothesized to influence CWB moderated by brand loyalty. Similarly, brand-community belongingness is hypothesized to influence CWB moderated by consumption recency. Our survey data of 275 undergraduate students reporting on their coffee consumption showed the following: (1) CWB was significantly predicted by brand loyalty and brand-community belongingness; (2) the effect of brand loyalty on CWB was moderated by self-image congruence, and (3) the effect of brand-community belongingness was moderated by consumption recency.

There is a lack of research on service consumption practices of Base of the Pyramid consumers. This study contributes to the Transformative Service Research agenda by understanding stigmatized service consumption practices and their effect on the well-being of these consumers; this has not been fully addressed until now. Additionally, it is shown that understanding the relations among consumers, communities, and informal service offerings results in the design of services with unintentional positive effects on well-being at individual, collective, and relational levels. Findings show that informal service offerings are non-discriminatory, hassle-free, jargon-free, and reputation-based. These findings pave the way to further explore such complex contexts to better understand the impact of service design on the well-being of such consumers. Positive practices can be adopted by any service industry that intends to serve that segment through the intentional redesign of offerings that are engaging, inclusive, and simple and acknowledge social standing.

Artificial intelligence (AI) service robots represent a relatively new service paradigm with the potential to raise consumer well-being and service quality. Most previous studies ignored the significance of AI-human exchange relationships in favor of exploring the effects of AI service robots on consumers from the perspective of artificial intelligence technology stimuli. This study investigated how the empathy ability of AI service robots affects consumer well-being in AI-human exchange relationships. It did this by developing a chain mediation model based on mind perception theory and social exchange theory. The results indicate that the empathy ability of AI service robots has a significant impact on consumer well-being. The empathy ability of AI service robots improves consumer well-being through consumer self-congruence and consumer warmth perception. Furthermore, consumer privacy concerns negatively moderate the chain mediation effect. This study provides suggestions on how to improve consumer well-being for marketers and developers of AI service robots.

Changes in food consumption patterns have resulted in the high demand and patronage of online food ordering and delivery services in Ghana. The attention of every individual involved in the food chain is needed to ensure food safety. Since a food delivery service and person are introduced in online food ordering and delivery services, new and unique food safety challenges and concerns are created. This paper hence investigates the food safety concerns and challenges posed by online food ordering and delivery services and further provide solutions to tackle and improve food safety in the service. Additional concerns raised by food ordering and delivery services include an absence of food transport or delivery regulation in Ghana, a lack of food safety education and training for food delivery persons as well as food fraud actions like mislabeling and substitution. To boost food safety in online food ordering and delivery services, the service should be regulated by the Ghana FDA with policies and manuals that address these food safety concerns. Food meant for delivery should be packaged well to prevent contact with insects and other contaminants. Timely delivery should be a priority to make sure delivered foods are still in the right and safe temperatures for consumption.

The current Industrial Revolution era seems to enforce new ways of implementing online food delivery services, one of which is the use of drone delivery. One of the problems is that the existing food delivery services use human riders which are prone to accidents, for example about 1600 death cases were reported in 2020 involving p-hailing (food and parcel) riders. Also, the use of drones is needed to help victims of natural disasters such as floods, typhoons, and landslides. Malaysia has commenced the trial use of drone food delivery to tackle these problems. Particularly, consumers’ behavioral intentions to use drone food delivery services have been laid low with complex aviation rules and regulations. Hence, the main objective of this study is to examine the predictors of adoption intention in drone food delivery among food delivery providers and consumers in Malaysia. The research methods used are qualitative and quantitative research designs. The quantitative data will be collected using an online survey and will be analyzed using structural equation modeling (SMART PLS). For qualitative technique, the telephone interviews with 15 food delivery service providers and drone collaborators will be conducted and analyzed using verbatim analysis. The expected output is a new adoption intention model of drone food delivery services, one Master student (by research), two publications, and one IP. The result will be significant to the nation in terms of increasing the adoption of delivery drones hence increasing automation in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0). This research also improves the economy and societal benefit through efficient supply chain and transportation of services in urban and affected areas such as the spread of diseases or natural disasters, i.e., floods and landslides.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the idea of eating for pleasure and its effect on consumer well-being. It begins by introducing the concept of food well-being (FWB) under the transformative consumer research (TCR) agenda. Subsequently, it provides detailed discussions on the concept of pleasure, under which food practices involving epicurean pleasure and hedonic and eudaimonic consumption will be discussed.Design/methodology/approachThis paper takes a different approach to the usual qualitative methodologies by using the introspective analysis of the filmEat, Pray, Lovewhere the consumption of food for pleasure was heavily practiced.FindingsThis paper presents the introspective voice of the lead author’s food consumption. It reveals a food consumption practice which followed an initial loss of taste, to alternative food consumption (AFC) and finally slow food ingestion. The journey of her epicurean ingestion revealed pleasurable experiences that reflected a positive subjective well-being (SWB). This attitude of ingesting food and living for the moment propelled the idea that food well-being is more about consumer happiness.Originality/valueThis paper is novel in its approach to use film introspection to probe the concept of FWB within TCR. Additionally, it reveals the transitioning moment of AFC that leads to pleasurable experience. It also reveals that a personal investment in cooking for self restores taste and improves SWB. Overall, it showcases how the appreciation of the sensations of food from its taste, as it was ingested gradually, leads to the total experiential feeling embedded in food consumption.

Online-to-offline food delivery (O2OFD) services have become popular worldwide, and consumers' O2OFD usage and sedentary behavior have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, whether consumers will continue to use O2OFD in the post-pandemic era is uncertain, and the relationship between sedentary lifestyle and O2OFD usage is poorly understood to date. Therefore, this study aims to investigate consumers' continued intention to use O2OFD in the post-pandemic era and their subsequent use behavior, as well as to explore the roles of sedentary lifestyle. A research model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2), integrating network externalities and including sedentary lifestyle, was proposed. A two-stage online survey was conducted in China, with 409 eligible responses used in the data analysis. The results indicate that habit, perceived network size, and perceived complementarity were the main predictors of continued intention, whereas habit and continued intention were the primary determinants of use behavior. Sedentary lifestyle was positively related to O2OFD use behavior and moderated the effects of habit and continued intention on use behavior. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this study has implications for public policies, marketing strategies, and consumer well-being.

Recently, the food service delivery industry started using drones for delivering food. The drone food delivery services are not only beneficial for marketers but also provide several benefits to the consumers. Despite several advantages for different stakeholders, the adoption of drone-based delivery is not encouraging. Thus, it is crucial to know why consumers show resistance behavior toward drone-based food delivery services. Toward that end, this study examines the effects of different functional and psychological barriers on consumers’ resistance to drone-based food delivery services through the lens of innovation resistance theory. A moderated-mediation framework has been proposed using anticipated negative emotions as a mediator and consumers’ innovativeness as a moderator. The hypotheses are examined by analyzing the 355 samples collected from online food delivery service users. The results suggest that usage, risk, image, and experience barriers are significantly associated with resistance. The study's findings enrich emerging drone-based delivery services and online food delivery literature. The study's findings furthermore offer practical knowledge to help online food delivery service providers implement strategies to reduce consumers' resistance to the drone food delivery system.

Due to rising environmental concerns and the shift towards sustainable lifestyles, consumers’ preference is shifting towards organic food products. Simultaneously, social media influencers have emerged as powerful marketing media, capable of influencing consumer behaviours. This study conceptualizes influencer authenticity through four key dimensions-expertise, sincerity, trustworthiness, and uniqueness and investigates how perceived authenticity of social media influencers shapes consumer well-being, purchase intention and actual consumption behaviour in the organic food sector. In order to achieve this, a well-structured questionnaire was administered to 253 urban and educated respondents belonging to Delhi-NCR region. The data was analysed using SPSS and SmartPLS-4. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to test the validity of proposed model. The results show that all four authenticity dimensions significantly impact consumer well-being, which in turn has a positive impact on purchase intention. In addition to this, purchase intention emerged as a strong predictor variable of actual consumption behaviour in case of organic food consumption. These findings contribute to existing literature by establishing a strong linkage between influencer authenticity, consumer well-being and consumption behaviour. Practical implications for marketers and policymakers include designing trust-based social media influencer campaigns in the organic food sector.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how Internet services can improve the well-being of elderly consumers. Drawing on transformative service research (TSR) and technology adoption literature, it examines the main challenges for the elderly when adopting Internet services and how they and their family members can co-create value to improve the elderly service inclusion and well-being.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative methodology is used to identify challenges, value co-creation behaviors and well-being outcomes of elderly individuals and their family members when using Internet services. The data collection method involved 24 in-depth interviews with consumers over 75 years of age and their family members.FindingsThis research first recognizes specific challenges for the elderly in adopting Internet services related to resistance to technology adoption and health impairments. Second, the findings identify value co-creation behaviors held by elderly consumers of Internet services: learning and formal training, complying with indications and seeking help when they encounter problems with technology. Family members also contribute to elderly well-being through two value co-creation behaviors: helping and supporting elderly relatives with technology and being patient and tolerant when they need support. Finally, these behaviors are found to influence five dimensions of elderly consumers’ well-being: enjoyment, personal growth, mastery, autonomy and social connectedness.Originality/valueThis study addresses a gap in the literature by exploring the value co-creation behaviors of elderly consumers of Internet services and their family members for improving well-being outcomes. Understanding value co-creation and well-being for elderly consumers of Internet services is an emerging and under-researched area in TSR and service inclusion literature.

Environmental impacts characterization of packaging waste generated by urban food delivery services. A big-data analysis in Jing-Jin-Ji region (China)

PurposeIn modern societies, consumer well-being is dependent on choices regarding complex services, such as investments, health care, insurance and lending. However, evaluating costs of such services is often difficult for consumers due to a combination of limited cognitive resources and complexity of the service. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine to what extent three specific consequences of complexity influence consumer tendencies to make mistakes when evaluating the costs (or price) of complex services.Design/methodology/approachThree studies were conducted (survey: n = 153, experiment: n = 332 and conjoint analysis: n = 225), all focusing on how consumers evaluate costs in the complex mutual fund setting.FindingsThe authors find that consumers struggle with estimating and using cost information in decision-making in the complex services setting. Consumers of complex services frequently underestimate the costs over the long-term, may see costs as a signal of service quality and are susceptible to influence from presentation formats when evaluating costs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study investigates mutual funds, which is one example of a complex service. In order to get a full picture of how consumers deal with costs in complex setting, future research needs to expand this focus to other types of complex services.Practical implicationsThe results have implications for both marketers of complex services and policymakers. For marketers, this paper highlights that competing with a low-cost strategy may be difficult in the complex services setting as consumers may lack the ability to actually evaluate what they pay over the long term. For policymakers, increased simplification of prices may be an attractive option. However, it is important that this simplification is done in a way that increases the possibility to compare prices.Originality/valueAs complexity influences several aspects of decision-making, an understanding of how consumers evaluate costs in complex settings is dependent on taking a multidimensional research approach. This paper makes a novel contribution to the literature on pricing by showing that consumers struggle with multiple aspects when evaluating costs in complex contexts. Understanding these effects is important to policy, as well as to research on the cognitive value of simplicity that is currently gaining traction in marketing research.

This study develops a macro measure of consumer well-being based on the notion that consumer well-being is determined by satisfaction with the acquisition, possession, consumption, maintenance, and disposition of consumer goods and services. In a survey of 298 university students, the proposed measure was found to have predictive (nomological) validity in relation to life satisfaction for three out of its five dimensions—acquisition, possession, and consumption. In sum, satisfaction in the consumer life domain was demonstrated to be an important component of life satisfaction.