Search results

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers' post–purchase experience when buying fresh food online. It examines the key dimensions of post–purchase online customer experience (post–purchase OCE) that impact customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. It also explores the role of corporate image as a moderator.

An online survey was conducted in China to capture participants' post–purchase OCE, satisfaction, repurchase intention and perceived corporate image. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to analyse data collected from 317 Chinese fresh food online shoppers. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to analyse the moderating effect of corporate image.

Four post–purchase OCE dimensions “product-in-hand”, “customer support”, “benefits” and “packaging” significantly drive customers' repurchase intention by enhancing customer satisfaction. “Delivery” is not influential. Additionally, for firms with a good corporate image, customer repurchase intention is more easily affected by post–purchase OCE than firms with a lower level of corporate image.

The findings inform fresh food e-commerce firms of the critical post–purchase OCE dimensions that mostly drive customer satisfaction and help retain customers. Furthermore, it implies that firms with a good corporate image must provide high-quality post–purchase OCE that matches the image because the consequences associated with a poor post–purchase OCE can be severe.

This research is among the first to investigate fresh food post–purchase OCE. It also introduces the previously underexplored moderating role of corporate image.

With the rapid development of fresh food e-commerce, sustaining customer loyalty is becoming critical for fresh food e-tailers (FFE) to be competitive. This study aims to investigate how to sustain customer loyalty of FFE in China.

A comprehensive literature review leads to the development of a conceptual model using the American customer satisfaction index (ACSI). This model is then tested and validated through structural equation modelling (SEM) of the survey data in China.

The study reveals that trust and perceived product risk significantly affect customer loyalty. It states that trust is significantly influenced by customer satisfaction and perceived product risk. Furthermore, the study shows that perceived risk of online shopping does not significantly influence customer trust and loyalty.

This study is the first in China for exploring how to sustain customer loyalty of FFE. The findings are significant for FFE to develop customer loyalty by formulating appropriate policies and strategies.

This research is to examine the impact of online channels on food stockpile behavior.

In this study, we use bivariate probit models to empirically investigate the impact of online purchasing channels on Chinese urban consumer food hoarding behaviors with random survey samples.

Results show that fresh food e-commerce channels are more likely to be associated with panic stockpile behaviors due to higher likelihood of supply shortages than offline channels with government assistance in logistic management. In contrast, community group buy, another format of e-commerce, appears superior in satisfying the consumer needs and easing the panic buying perception.

It suggests that online channels may have diverse impacts on consumers' panic stockpiling behaviors during the extreme situations. Online channels need to develop efficient supply chains to be more resilient to extreme situations and the government shall recognize the increasing share of the online channels together with traditional offline channels when implementing supporting policies.

With ever increasing share of online channels, it is imperative in terms of policy implications to understand how would online channels affect hoarding behavior.

We are the first study in online shopping's impact on food stockpile during pandemics using a random sample. Although food stockpile behavior at times of emergency have been investigated in many literature, there are no empirical studies on the impact of online channels on stockpile behaviors under extreme situations. Unlike disasters that immediately impact every entity in supply chains covering producers, vendors, distribution centers and retailers, pandemics did not render supply chains affected immediately, but rather increase consumers' willingness to shop online to avoid virus. Thus, Covid-19 provides a natural experiment to investigate the online channels' impact on stockpile behavior.

“Originally as a business providing community life services since its founding in 2017, Dingdong (Cayman) has transformed itself into a fresh e-commerce company. After making adjustments to its business model and operating strategy for three times, Dingdong (Cayman) has completed the strategic transition from grocery surrogate shopping to comprehensive self-operation, and built its own commercial fortress. In 2019, the total revenue of the company was five billion yuan. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, its monthly revenue exceeded 1.2 billion yuan in February 2020, and the year's total revenue was expected to hit 15∼18 billion yuan. To date, Dingdong (Cayman) has formed a supply chain fully based on digital operation and built a commercial fortress in the fresh e-commerce industry. Despite this, its future prospect is not free from challenge. This case mainly deals with the following questions: How about the strategic positioning and core competitiveness of Dingdong (Cayman) in its early days? In the process of rapid expansion, what are the advantages and problems in its business model? How can the digitally operated supply chain support its continuous expansion in the future?”

Online fresh food shopping has become increasingly popular in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. Online fresh food shopping provides consumers with an alternative to shopping in a traditional market, while also enabling procurement of such goods at a reduced risk of infection. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether online fresh food shopping behaviors change during public health emergency periods.

The data were collected through a web-based survey (508 respondents in China). Descriptive analysis, ordinal logistic regression analysis, and the Apriori algorithm were employed to explore what characteristics influence purchase frequency as well as food and delivery time preferences among different customer groups.

Based on the survey data, this study found that purchase frequency grew 71.2% during the COVID-19 crisis. City type and online shopping frequency of respondents are positively correlated with purchase frequency in normal and COVID-19 crisis periods. Number of daily hours worked by respondents only showed a significant impact for the normal period. People perceiving the risk of infection from going out are more willing to purchase fresh food online.

This is the first study to explore and compare online fresh food shopping behaviors during normal and COVID-19 crisis periods with a sample from China. The findings indicate a key role that online fresh food shopping can perform during a crisis and contribute to our understanding of fresh food online shopping behaviors during other possible public health emergency scenarios.

Vegetable e-commerce is of great significance for improving the efficiency of vegetable circulation, and for solving the problems of high circulation cost and poor connection between production and marketing. The purpose of this study is to explore the key factors that influence consumers’ vegetable e-commerce adoption willingness, behavior, and willingness-behavior consistency.

A total of 427 valid questionnaires were collected from 16 districts of Beijing in 2019 via the internet, yielding a response rate of 94.9%. Bivariate probit and binary logistic regression were used for analysis.

The results show that 62.84% of vegetable e-commerce consumers have the same willingness and behavior, and 37.16% of consumers have a deviation of willingness and behavior; the key factors influencing the willingness, behavior, and willingness-behavior consistency of vegetable e-commerce consumers are different. The three variables of usefulness perception, logistics service quality perception, and nearest vegetable market distance have significant effects on and are positively correlated with the adoption willingness, behavior, and willingness-behavior consistency of vegetable e-commerce consumers.

Consumers in Beijing, a first-tier city, were taken as the research object in this study. Second-tier and even third-tier cities can be investigated as comparative studies in a follow-up study. In addition, the key factors that affect the differences in the willingness and behavior of vegetable e-commerce adoption can be studied.

The results obtained in the present study and their implications could aid in vegetable e-commerce optimization, and contribute to the understanding of how to improve consumers’ awareness and participation in vegetable e-commerce. The suggestions of this study could also be used for the improvement of vegetable e-commerce in other cities facing similar issues.

Over the years, the fruit and vegetable supply chain has encountered several challenges. From the harvesting stage until it reaches the consumer, a significant portion of fruits and vegetables gets wasted in the supply chain. As a result, the present study attempts to identify and analyze the growth barriers in the fresh produce supply chain (FPSC) in the Indian context.

An integrated grey theory and DEMATEL based approach is used to analyze growth barriers in the FPSC. The growth barriers were analyzed and sorted based on their influence and importance relations.

The results emphasize that the most critical growth barriers in the FPSC that should be addressed to ensure food waste reduction are as follows: Lack of cold chain facilities (B2), lack of transportation or logistic facilities (B1), lack of collaboration and information sharing between supply chain partners (B3), lack of proper quality and safety protocols (B15), a lack of processing and packaging facilities (B14), and poor productivity and efficiency (B13). Results are also verified by conducting a sensitivity analysis.

The results are highly useful for policymakers to exploit growth barriers within the FPSC that require more attention. The obtained results show that the managers and policymakers need to utilize more funds to develop the cold chain facilities and logistics facilities to develop the FPSC. By improving the cold chain facilities, it is possible to improve the quality of food, make the food safe for human consumption, reduce waste, and increase the efficiency and productivity of the supply chain. Also, this study may encourage policymakers and industrial managers to adopt the most influential SCM practices for food waste reduction.

Many researchers have attempted to analyze the causes of food waste and growth barriers in the FPSC using various decision-making methods. Still, no attempts are made to explore the causal relations among various growth barriers in FPSC through the integrated Grey-DEMATEL technique. Also, we devise policy implications in the light of the new farm bills or the Indian agricultural acts of 2020. Lack of cold chain facilities (B2) was found to be the critical driving barrier in the FPSC, as it influences multiple barriers. Also, there is a dire need for cold chain facilities and transportation systems to enhance productivity and efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to predict or even control the food safety risks during the distribution of perishable foods. Considering the food safety risks, the distribution route of perishable foods is reasonably arranged to further improve the efficiency of cold chain distribution and reduce distribution costs.

This paper uses the microbial growth model to identify a food safety risk coefficient to describe the characteristics of food safety risks that increase over time. On this basis, with the goal of minimizing distribution costs, the authors establish a vehicle routing problem with a food safety Risk coefficient and a Time Window (VRPRTW) for perishable foods. Then, the Weight-Parameter Whale Optimization Algorithm (WPWOA) which introduces inertia weight and dynamic parameter into the native whale optimization algorithm is designed for solving this model. Moreover, benchmark functions and numerical simulation are used to test the performance of the WPWOA.

Based on numerical simulation, the authors obtained the distribution path of perishable foods under the restriction of food safety risks. Moreover, the WPWOA can significantly outperform other algorithms on most of the benchmark functions, and it is faster and more robust than the native WOA and avoids premature convergence.

This study indicates that the established model and the algorithm are effective to control the risk of perishable food in distribution process. Besides, it extends the existing literature and can provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the vehicle routing problem of perishable foods.

The purpose of this paper is to study mobile services for supply chain management (SCM) in the electronic grocery (e-grocery) sector. The authors investigate their diffusion and formulate policies in order to stimulate the adoption.

A System Dynamics model is proposed for a short fresh food supply chain (SC). The model predicts how product traceability, mobile payment, and time-based delivery management functionalities contribute to the adoption of a SCM mobile application.

The three services drive the diffusion of the application. A high level of real time information brings decreased inventory levels and more frequent order placing, leading to an increased number of logistics transactions managed by the mobile application and growth in the associated revenue for the service provider company.

The proposed study fosters research on overcoming the barriers that prevent integration, collaboration, and better visibility in e-grocery SCs.

This work constitutes a roadmap to identify the key enabling factors of e-grocery expansion.

This is one of the few contributions focussing on increasing the efficiency of e-grocery SCs by applying management strategies supported by mobile devices.