A model of online food delivery service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: a combination of PLS-SEM and NCA approaches

Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of this study is to explore how online food delivery (OFD) service quality influences customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 307 useable data collected from existing users of OFD services in Malaysia are used to verify the proposed hypotheses through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Necessary condition analysis (NCA) is also conducted to identify the necessary conditions for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Findings

The PLS results show that five dimensions of OFD service quality, including assurance, maintenance of meal quality and hygiene, reliability, security and system operation, are significant to customer satisfaction. Traceability is found to have no significant influence on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is a significant predictor of customer loyalty. The NCA results show that all dimensions of OFD service quality are necessary conditions for customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction is a necessary condition for customer loyalty.

Originality/value

Past studies have mainly utilised the sufficiency logic to understand customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the context of the OFD. This study is the first to perform NCA that relies on necessity logic to identify necessary conditions for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Citation

Koay, K.Y., Cheah, C.W. and Chang, Y.X. (2022), "A model of online food delivery service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: a combination of PLS-SEM and NCA approaches", British Food Journal, Vol. 124 No. 12, pp. 4516-4532. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-10-2021-1169