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The health care industry has been influenced by changes in the market structure and new technological developments during the recent decades. With the new technological developments in medicine, some less complex care moved out of the hospitals that led to decrease in demand for inpatient services. This recent change in hospital care created excess capacity in hospital markets, and therefore hospitals started to explore potential financial gains through horizontal consolidations. This has resulted in a wave of mergers in 1990s, which transformed the US, Canadian and European hospital markets. This, in turn, created concerns among policy makers and researchers in terms of its welfare implications.

Ila Semenick Alam is an associate professor. She received her Ph.D. in 1995 from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Her primary fields of specialization are applied econometrics and productivity in various sectors including the airlines, healthcare, and financial institutions. She has published in: Journal of Productivity Analysis, International Economic Review, World Bank Economic Review, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Singapore Economic Review, and Productivity and Economic Performance in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Reservation of travel and leisure services through the digital environment has gained a growing role in society, influencing the revolution of the sector. It needs to be noted that there is a considerable lack of formal approaches to the identification of factors for the positive reception and use of these digital tools. For this reason, it is necessary to establish the main factors influencing the adoption and use of digital travel and restaurant platforms (TRPs), adding to the theoretical model two new factors: trust and word-of-mouth (WOM). This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned ideas.

A theoretical model has been proposed, based on the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2). Data collection was conducted through an online survey, in which 331 responses were compiled. Data obtained were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) with AMOS v27 software.

The results show that performance expectancy and WOM have a significant impact on the adoption of TRPs. However, it was found that effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, trust and price/value are not significant variables.

This research confirms that WOM communication positively influences the use of TRPs, facilitating various aspects for restaurant customers, including reducing wait times, streamlining the ordering process for allergic and intolerant customers, enhancing loyalty programs, order management and the opportunity to provide a personalised experience.

This study is the first to incorporate WOM variable into the extended UTAUT2 model applied to TRPs. Through a literature review, it has paved the way for significant future research directions that have not been adequately addressed by the scientific community, including the adoption and usage of food delivery platforms and online review platforms, as well as the behaviour of disabled customers towards these platforms.