Date of Award

2023-05-01

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Business Administration

Advisor(s)

Fernando R. Jiménez

Abstract

During the COVID-19, many restaurants were forced to adopt online food delivery platforms such as Door Dash, Uber Eats to serve their clientele. In this dissertation, I examine the following research question: what challenges and benefits did restaurant managers consider to adopt online food delivery platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, I present three essays. In the first essay, I reviewed the existing academic and practitioner literature on the research context, identified the major players in the food delivery industry, and summarized the challenges that restaurants faced during the pandemic. In the second essay, I identified what restaurant managers consider to be the major drivers of adoption of food delivery platforms. To this end, I employed a theories-in-use approach. Specifically, I conducted 15 qualitative interviews with restaurant managers in El Paso, Texas. An iterative analysis of the data revealed that the main drivers of adoption and use of food delivery platforms fall within four groups: complementarities, uncertainties, relationship quality, and customer interaction. In the third essay, I hypothesized and tested the impact of complementarities, uncertainties, level of customer interaction, and perceived relationship quality on the restaurantâ??s intention to continue the use of food delivery platforms. I also proposed that perceived value mediates such effects. I collected survey data from 278 restaurant managers to test the model. The findings showed that complementarities and level of customer interaction positively influence perceived value while uncertainties do not directly influence perceived value. At different values of relationship quality, however, uncertainties can influence perceived value. In turn, perceived value negatively influences managersâ?? intention to discontinue use of an online food delivery platform. The present research will hopefully provide points of focus for both online platforms and sellers in working together and creating value. I find that online platforms may benefit from focusing on providing value beyond delivery and establishing relationships with sellers. Sellers may focus on evaluating common factors contributing to added value for the business and on identifying biasing factors in their decision making. Research limitations, implications, and future research are discussed.

Language

en

Provenance

Recieved from ProQuest

File Size

p.

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Jessica Felix Martinez

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