Service Quality of Social Media-Based Self-Service Technology in the Food Service Context

Abstract

Social media connects individual users and corporate bodies on a self-service technology (SST) platform. The food and beverage industry has increasingly adopted the social media-based SST over other online and kiosk types of technologies for their service delivery. The present study sheds light on the dimensionality of service quality on the social media-based SST in the food service delivery context and went further to investigate the impact of the SST service quality on functional value, user satisfaction, and intention to reuse. The analytic results of 410 valid survey data found five salient dimensions (i.e., Functionality, Enjoyment, Assurance, Convenience, and Customization) constituting the service quality. The results also revealed that the perceived quality of social media-based food service is directly and positively associated with consumer’s satisfaction and perceived functional value and is indirectly associated with intention to reuse. The results provide practical suggestions regarding how to take advantage of using social media platforms for food and beverage professionals.