Mobile Apps Use and WOM in the Food Delivery Sector: The Role of Planned Behavior, Perceived Security and Customer Lifestyle Compatibility

COVID-19 Paradox: The Role of Privacy Concerns and Ad Intrusiveness on Consumer's Attitude Toward App Usage Behavior

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed lives in an unprecedented way. The most notable and urgent requirement to combat the epidemic was to transform the way human interacts with each other. The adherence to maintaining social distance has given an upsurge to the increased usage of mobile app users. This change in human interaction for fulling their basic to social to work needs through the intervention of app usage has led to privacy concerns by users. By keeping in view the changing dynamics of the way society works, this study is an endeavor to investigate gender differences of ad intrusive and privacy concerns on app usage behavior. Employing a quantitative research design, 371 respondents were surveyed using through an online structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed by using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results suggest that advertising intrusiveness and privacy concerns are significant in determining the consumer's attitude toward App usage, and a positive attitude toward App usage results in App usage behavior. However, gender's moderating role in attitude toward app usage and app usage behavior is insignificant for this study. The study provides a more comprehensive understanding and complements prior insights on ads intrusiveness and privacy concerns toward app usage.

The Impact of Hotel Customer Engagement and Service Evaluation on Customer Behavior Intention: The Mediating Effect of Brand Trust

Because of the COVID-19, the tourism industry has been greatly affected, especially the occupancy rate of hotel companies. This study analyzes the effects of customer engagement and service evaluation on brand trust and customer behavioral intention based on 437 valid questionnaires from Chinese economy hotel companies using SPSS and AMOS. The components of customer engagement are subdivided into five dimensions: identification, enthusiasm, attention, absorption and interaction, and the impact of these five dimensions on brand trust in the COVID- 19 is investigated. Finally, it verifies the influence of trust on customers' word-of-mouth (WOM) intention and customers' reuse intention. The results of this study not only enrich the research on customer engagement and service evaluation in marketing circles but also give some advice to hotel companies in the COVID-19 customer engagement and service evaluation that can enhance the trust of enterprises and promote the behavior intention of customers, which has certain practical reference value.

Impacts of Delivery Charge on the Possibility of Consumers Using Online Food Delivery

With the maturity of the online food delivery (OFD) industry in China, the growth of the market in recent years is mainly driven by the increase of the usage frequency of existing users rather than the number of new users. The usage frequency of users is affected by various factors, with the delivery charge as one of the most significant ones. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of delivery charge and other factors on the probability of consumers choosing to use OFD service. In this study, 391 questionnaire records from China were collected, based on which a logistic regression model was established. The results of the model show that age, occupation, monthly income, city tier of residence, location and time period of usage, and delivery charges all play a role on the probability of consumers using the service, and the delivery charge has the greatest impact. For every one yuan increase in the delivery charge, consumers will be less likely to choose “certainly” of using OFD (OR: 0.435; 95% CI: 0.415, 0.455). Sensitivity analysis shows that when the delivery charge changes between 2~5 yuan, it has the greatest impact on the probability of consumers using the service. The analysis further shows that delivery charge has different impacts under different scenarios composed of three key factors, i.e., the city tier of residence, locations of usage, and time period of usage. From a management perspective, these findings help to understand the behavior of OFD consumers and provide insights for the OFD operators to establish best pricing strategies for long-term economic sustainability.

Supply Chain Sustainability during COVID-19: Last Mile Food Delivery in China

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a strict 100-day lockdown period in Spring of 2020 in China. One of the consequences of the lockdown was the disruption of the food supply chain for the millions of people confined to their homes. The well-established online food delivery service (OFDS) in China were disrupted by pressure to scale up rapidly to resolve the last mile of food delivery. The importance of the OFDS during periods of crises became apparent, as did the realization that uninterrupted food distribution was only possible due to the presence and scalability of the existing delivery network. Focusing on the importance of an established OFDS as a foundation for food distribution, this paper seeks to explore factors that affect consumers’ perception and acceptance of the retail food delivery system in urban China. By applying the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB), mean value calculation, univariate linear regression, and multiple linear regression have been adopted to test the hypotheses. Data obtained online from 260 participants demonstrate that the software’s characteristics concerning hedonic motivation (HM), convenience motivation (CM), perceived ease of use (PEOU), navigational design (ND), information quality (IQ), privacy and security (PS), restaurant credibility (RC), and perceived severity (Psev) have positive and significant impacts on customers’ intention to use (ITU), and thus, affects the actual use (AU) of the application in a positive way. The findings of this research contribute to the existing literature by consolidating, validating, and extending the TPB model, especially under the large-scale public health crisis circumstances. Customized practical insights are provided to emphasize developing HM, CM, Psev, and RC factors with maximal marginal effects that promote consumer acceptance; this is a prerequisite to the development of a robust OFDS. which can be repurposed during periods of crises to provide sustainable last-mile food delivery networks.

E-Commerce and Consumer Protection in India: The Emerging Trend

Given the rapid growth and emerging trend of e-commerce have changed consumer preferences to buy online, this study analyzes the current Indian legal framework that protects online consumers' interests. A thorough analysis of the two newly enacted laws, i.e., the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 and literature review support analysis of 290 online consumers answering the research questions and achieving research objectives. The significant findings are that a secure and reliable system is essential for e-business firms to work successfully; cash on delivery is the priority option for online shopping; website information and effective customer care services build a customer's trust. The new regulations are arguably strong enough to protect and safeguard online consumers' rights and boost India's e-commerce growth. Besides factors such as security, privacy, warranty, customer service, and website information, laws governing consumer rights protection in e-commerce influence customers' trust. Growing e-commerce looks promising with a robust legal framework and consumer protection measures. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge on e-commerce and consumer rights protection by elucidating the key factors that affect customer trust and loyalty and offering an informative perspective on e-consumer protection in the Indian context with broader implications.

An Empirical Investigation of the Continued Usage Intention of Digital Wallets: The Moderating Role of Perceived Technological Innovativeness

The paper examines the constructs that instigate the users to adopt digital wallets and continued usage behavior in a developing country perspective, Bangladesh. The researcher used a cross-sectional design to collect the primary data using a self-administered questionnaire. The population consisted of the youth, precisely 18–35, who are tech-savvy and knowledgeable about new technology. The study followed the nonprobability purposive sampling technique, and 330 responses were collected through a structured questionnaire survey. In direct path analysis, the findings revealed that perceived usefulness, ease of use, compatibility, insecurity, and behavioral intention to adopt digital wallets found significant relationships among the constructs that supported the proposed hypotheses. Moreover, indirect path analysis of perceived compatibility, perceived personal innovativeness and perceived social influence found no significant relationships that did not justify the proposed hypotheses. Users' behavioral intention partially mediates among perceived usefulness, ease of use, personal innovativeness, and perceived social influence, except perceived compatibility. The findings suggested that perceived technological innovativeness did not support the proposed hypothesis. The incorporated constructs of this study have hardly been found in the existing literature, and the researchers shed light on the unexplored research area. The study results, implications, and limitations have been discussed.

Evaluating Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Delay Compensation Services in Intra-City Delivery—A Value Optimization Study Using Choice

Intra-city delivery has developed rapidly along with the expansion of the logistics industry. Timely delivery is one of the main requirements of consumers and has become a major challenge to delivery service providers. To compensate for the adverse effects of delivery delays, platforms have launched delay compensation services for consumers who order. This study quantitatively evaluated consumer perception of the delay compensation service in intra-city deliveries using a choice experiment. We explored how different attributes of the delay compensation service plan affect consumer preference and their willingness to pay for the services. These service attributes are “delay probability display”, “compensation amount”, “compensation method”, “penalty method for riders”, and “one-time order price”. Using a multinomial logit model to analyze the questionnaire results, the respondents showed a positive preference for on-time delivery probability display, progressive compensation amount, and cash compensation. The results also show that the respondents opposed the penalty scheme where the riders would bear the compensation costs. Positive preference attributes are conducive to enhancing consumers’ willingness to order and pay for the program. Based on our findings and research conclusions, we proposed several recommendations to improve the delay compensation service program.

Cashless Transactions: A Study on Intention and Adoption of e-Wallets

This study explored the effect of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, facilitating condition, lifestyle compatibility, and perceived trust on both the intention to use an e-wallet and the adoption of an e-wallet among adults by using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). This quantitative study adopted a cross-sectional research design to gather data from 501 respondents using a Google Form. The collected data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). As a result, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, lifestyle compatibility, and perceived trust displayed a significant positive effect on both intentions to use an e-wallet and adoption of an e-wallet. This study evidenced the mediating effect of the intention to use an e-wallet on the correlations between the predictors and adoption of an e-wallet. Both the age and gender of the respondents moderated the effect of lifestyle compatibility on intention to use an e-wallet. The study outcomes serve to inform managers and policy makers to devise effective strategies that capture consumers’ intention to use and experience of using an e-wallet in the midst of a turbulent market. Ultimately, such carefully sculpted policies may promote the digital platform and web-based application, apart from encouraging higher rates of e-wallet adoption in developing countries.

The role of customers in the gig economy: how perceptions of working conditions and service quality influence the use and recommendation of food delivery services

This research examines how customers’ perceptions about controversial labor practices of food delivery platforms may affect their intentions to use and recommend these services. Three studies reveal that customers’ behavioral intentions depend on their perceptions of the working conditions for the delivery workers, as well as service quality. This influence is higher among customers with a high level of social conscious consumption. Our research also explores the costs that customers would be willing to assume to be served by a food delivery service that offers better working conditions. These insights reveal several relevant managerial implications for gig economy firms.

Mobile Data Science and Intelligent Apps: Concepts, AI-Based Modeling and Research Directions

Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have grown rapidly in recent years in the context of computing with smart mobile phones that typically allows the devices to function in an intelligent manner. Popular AI techniques include machine learning and deep learning methods, natural language processing, as well as knowledge representation and expert systems, can be used to make the target mobile applications intelligent and more effective. In this paper, we present a comprehensive view on “mobile data science and intelligent apps” in terms of concepts and AI-based modeling that can be used to design and develop intelligent mobile applications for the betterment of human life in their diverse day-to-day situation. This study also includes the concepts and insights of various AI-powered intelligent apps in several application domains, ranging from personalized recommendation to healthcare services, including COVID-19 pandemic management in recent days. Finally, we highlight several research issues and future directions relevant to our analysis in the area of mobile data science and intelligent apps. Overall, this paper aims to serve as a reference point and guidelines for the mobile application developers as well as the researchers in this domain, particularly from the technical point of view.

Sustainability of Public Transportation: An Examination of User Behavior to Real-Time GPS Tracking Application

Public transportation is an effective method of mobility that promotes cost-saving and is environmentally friendly. Poor public transport ridership in Malaysia is due to the unsatisfactory attitude of public transport users and inaccurate information on departure and arrivals. Sarawak, a state of Malaysia, is especially poor in ridership of public transport. A real-time Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking application (app) was found to be an effective tool to increase the ridership of public transport. Hence, a mobile app named UniBus was developed to enhance the ridership of public transport in Sarawak. The determinants that affect satisfaction and customer loyalty such as accessibility, reliability, comfort, safety, and security were all examined before and after the use of real-time GPS tracking app. The data was collected in Kuching, and targeted public transport users who used the UniBus app. The result indicated that all the mentioned variables were improved after using a real-time GPS tracking app. It is suggested that future studies can consider other factors such as service quality, availability, and perceived value as well as cover other states of Malaysia.