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This study aims to assess green food packages’ role in sustaining a restaurant’s curbside pickup service on three stages of consumer experiences: choosing a restaurant, evaluating their experiences of a recent purchase and weighing their post-consumption behavioral intentions after the recent purchase.

The service encounters framework and relevant literature guided the development of the questionnaire. A Qualtrics panel data of 314 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed with choice experience, ordinary least squares regression and PROCESS modeling.

First, word-of-mouth (WOM) and function encounters significantly influence consumers’ first-time curbside pickup purchasing decisions. Then, service results encounter (besides distributor encounter) most significantly affects consumers’ overall curbside pickup experience. Finally, green food packages increase consumers’ shares of future purchases through their positive WOM intentions and extra efforts of revisiting the restaurant. Consumers’ perceived importance of green restaurant practices strengthens green food packages’ positive impact on extra efforts.

This study provides operational and marketing insights for restaurants to use food packages and sustain their curbside pickup service.

Besides assessing consumers’ evaluations and behavioral intentions for an off-premises restaurant service expected to stay beyond the pandemic, this research uniquely focuses on green food packages, a sustainability issue lacking research attention. The findings add new empirical insights to studies about sustainability and restaurant/food–retail operations.

The proliferation of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has threatened the service industry, especially the restaurant sector, requiring innovative ways to help restaurants overcome this challenge. Thus, based on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model, the purpose of this study is to examine the role of customers' perception of a restaurant's innovativeness (CPRI) in brand evangelism by mediating customer engagement (CE). Additionally, this study examines the moderating role of customer openness to experience.

A Web-based survey collected the primary data from 483 Egyptian customers. The data were analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling method based on WarpPLS.7 software.

According to the findings, CPRI, which acts as a stimulus in the SOR model, positively affects CE (organism) and brand evangelism (response). CE positively affects restaurant evangelism. Additionally, CE mediates the relationship between CPRI and evangelism. Openness to experience moderates the relationship between CPRI, engagement and brand evangelism.

This study addresses the gaps in understanding CE and brand evangelism within the context of restaurant innovation. This study assesses restaurant innovativeness scales of developing economies in multiple dimensions. Egyptian restaurant marketing managers should innovate products, services, experiences, and promotions to increase consumer engagement and feedback through technology.

This study investigates how Egyptian restaurants engage with and evangelise customers through innovation. This is one of the few studies that examine brand evangelism in a restaurant setting from the perspective of the SOR theory. Additionally, this study analyses CE as a mediator and openness to experience as a moderator.

This study aims to examine the factors influencing consumers’ intentions to use QR code menus in the post-COVID-19 pandemic using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and rational choice theory as the theoretical foundations.

Using a survey method, 200 data are collected from consumers who had used QR code menus in the past. Partial least squares structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data.

Our findings show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, habit and perceived privacy protection have a significant positive influence on intentions. However, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and perceived privacy risk do not have a significant influence on intentions.

This study further extends the work of previous studies by using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model, with additional two new predictors, namely perceived privacy protection and perceived privacy risk, to understand consumers’ intentions to use QR code menus.

This study aims to investigate the impact of service quality (SQ), perceived value (PV) and consumer satisfaction on Thai street food, with customer satisfaction (CS) as a mediator for customer loyalty and repurchase intention (RI). It also explores how consumer trust (CT) in Thai street food safety moderates these relationships.

Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilised to analyse the complex interrelationships between various constructs. Multi-group analyses were conducted to investigate the moderating effects of CT on the structural model, considering two distinct groups based on trust levels: low and high.

The findings revealed that SQ and PV significantly influenced CS and behavioural intention, while the perceived quality of Thai street food had no significant impact on post-COVID-19 consumer satisfaction. The study highlighted the critical role of CT in moderating the relationships between SQ, PV and CS, with distinct effects observed in groups with varying trust levels.

The research emphasises the importance of enhancing SQ and delivering value to customers in the context of Thai street food, which can contribute to increased CS, RI and positive word-of-mouth. Furthermore, the study underscores the critical role of building CT in fostering enduring customer relationships and promoting consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

This research offers valuable insights into consumer behaviour and decision-making processes, particularly within the realm of Thai street food. It underscores the significance of understanding and nurturing CT, especially in the post-COVID-19 landscape, emphasising the need for effective business strategies and consumer engagement.

Virtual kitchens are a new business phenomenon, and how customers react to the new business model is still a largely unexplored topic. The purpose of this study is to examine the underlying mechanisms of consumers’ different responses to their reasoning of the new and disruptive business model of the virtual kitchen.

Based on the attribution theory and situated focus theory of power, this study conducts three online experiments to test the proposed framework. A total of 487 US residents who had prior experience with restaurant food delivery participated in the studies.

The results indicate that external attribution (vs internal attribution) and ethnic cuisine (vs mainstream cuisine) are more likely to elicit customers’ empathy and justice, leading to higher purchase intentions with virtual kitchens. A mainstream virtual kitchen is better off attributing itself to external factors. The significant effects of causal attribution and cuisine type on purchase intention only exist with powerful customers and those with high moral identity.

The results of this study provide valuable insight to virtual kitchen businesses to better position and market themselves to gain customers’ support. The findings also suggest that ethnic and mainstream restaurants should strategize their marketing communications about virtual kitchens differently.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to provide in-depth insight into the growing phenomenon of virtual kitchens. It also contributes to the extant literature on attribution theory and situated focus theory of power.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the distinction between human-delivered service and technology-based, automated customer assistance.

This is a conceptual paper. There is no methodology.

The concept of service is primarily delivered when a human helps another. When technology is infused into the process and becomes the major component of delivering the aid that is requested, the process is automated customer assistance. Thus, “self-service” is not service. It is automated customer assistance.

The definition of service is refined to describe the process of a human helping another person. When technology is used to provide the needed aid, it is no longer a service. Instead, it is automated customer assistance. The implication is that researchers should closely examine how users assess and perceive the two separate approaches to providing the needed aid.

The definition of service is refined to describe the process of a human helping another person. When technology is used to provide the needed aid, it is no longer a service. Instead, it is automated customer assistance. Researchers should closely examine how users assess and perceive the two separate approaches. Industry professionals should be mindful of the distinction between the delivery of service, which requires staff, and the provisioning of technology to provide assistance, which requires little to no staff. Intentionality should drive when customers are better helped by a human or by technology.

The value provided helps both providers create and users express when human-based service is needed versus assistance provided by technology.

Purpose: This study examines the effect of uncertainties on the hospitality industry from different perspectives across the globe. The hospitality industry faces several contemporary issues and challenges that have the potential to impact its growth and development. This study aims to analyse the current problems and uncertainties in the hospitality sector.

Need for the Study: The hospitality industry plays a significant role in the global economy with various services, including accommodation, food and beverage, events, and tourism. However, the sector faces several contemporary issues and challenges that have the potential to impact its growth and development. This study provides an overview of the most significant problems and challenges facing the hospitality industry today.

Methodology: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify and synthesise relevant studies on the effect of uncertainties issues on the hospitality industry. A systematic search of the Web of Science and Scopus databases was conducted to determine relevant studies published between 2010 and 2021. Studies were screened and selected based on pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. A thematic analysis was performed to categorise the uncertainties and issues in the hospitality industry.

Findings: The study identified several uncertainties and issues facing the hospitality industry, including the pandemic uncertainties, financial crisis, whether positive and negative impacts, terrorism attacks on hotels and tourist places, uncertainties in government policies, situational risks like uncertainties, ambiguity, cultural differences, changes in tourist preferences and changing habits of the tourist.

This research delineates the interdependencies between e-service quality (e-SQ), product quality (PQ) and food biosafety measures (FBM) in shaping consumer satisfaction and loyalty within the online food delivery services (OFDS) landscape. Anchored by the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the study integrates these frameworks to examine how perceived service efficiency, reliability, product appeal and biosafety protocols contribute to overall consumer trust and repurchase intentions.

Surveys were conducted on several 100 online food delivery app users, ages 20 to 64, in major cities in Colombia, which provided data for structural equation modeling analysis.

The analysis revealed that reliable, responsive service and appealing food presentation significantly influence consumer perceptions of behind-the-scenes safety protocols during delivery. Strict standards around mitigating contamination risks and verifiable handling at each point further engender trust in the platform and intentions to repurchase among users. The data cement proper food security as pivotal for customer retention.

Quantitatively confirming biosafety’s rising centrality provides an impetus for platforms to integrate and promote integrity, safety and traceability protection as a competitive differentiator.

The study’s originality lies in its comprehensive exploration of the OFDS quality attributes and their direct impact on consumer loyalty. Besides, it offers valuable insights for both academic and practical implications in enhancing service delivery and marketing strategies.

This study aims to explore the challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry following the COVID-19 pandemic and to propose effective strategies for recovery and resilience of this sector.

The study analysed the challenges encountered by the tourism and hospitality industry post-pandemic and identified key strategies for overcoming these challenges. The study utilised the modified Delphi method to finalise the challenges and employed the Best-Worst Method (BWM) to rank these challenges. Additionally, solution strategies are ranked using the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method.

The study identified significant challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry, highlighting the lack of health and hygiene facilities as the foremost concern, followed by increased operational costs. Moreover, it revealed that attracting millennial travellers emerged as the top priority strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on this industry.

This research contributes to understanding the challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers valuable insights into practical strategies for recovery. The findings provide beneficial recommendations for policymakers aiming to revive and support these industries.

Customers increasingly use food delivery applications (FDAs) to place orders. Despite the popularity of FDAs, limited research has investigated the drivers of the continuance intention to use FDAs. This study aims to uncover the drivers of the continuance intention to use FDAs by integrating the “technology continuance theory” (TCT) with perceived task-technology fit, perceived value and perceived food safety.

Data were collected from 398 individuals in Thailand and evaluated using “partial least squares” (PLS) and “fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis” (fsQCA).

The PLS results supported the significance of all direct relationships, except the effects of perceived ease of use on attitude and perceived usefulness on continuance intention. Accordingly, perceived food safety positively moderated the impact of perceived ease of use on attitudes. The fsQCA uncovered seven solutions with various combinations of factors that predicted high continuance intention.

This study enables food delivery apps to develop effective strategies for retaining users and sustaining financial performance.

This research contributes to the literature by investigating the factors underlying the continuous use of FDAs with a new PLS-fsQCA technique and applying TCT in a new technological context, FDAs and enriching it by adding three variables: perceived task-technology fit, perceived value and perceived food safety.