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Weather affects consumer decision-making. However, academic research on how weather factors affect specific takeaway foods is limited. This paper aims to fill in the gap and therefore to contribute to online marketing and operation.

Web crawler techniques were first exploited to collect takeaway food ordering data from Meituan, the world’s largest GMV platform. Then statistics models and a time series regression model were selected to study the weather impact on online orders.

The findings highlight that certain weather factors, such as temperature, air quality and rainfall have clear effects on most category takeaway orders.

Quantitative analysis of weather impacts on the takeaway ordering business will help to guide the online service platforms for marketing promotion and the settled businesses to make reasonable arrangements for inventory and marketing tactics.

Recently emerged Packaging-as-a-Service (PaaS) systems adopt aspects of access-based services and triadic frameworks, which have typically been treated as conceptually separate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of blending the two in what we call “access-based triadic systems,” by empirically evaluating intentions to adopt PaaS systems for takeaway food among restaurants and consumers.

We derived relevant attributes of PaaS systems from a qualitative pre-study with restaurants and consumers. Next, we conducted two factorial survey experiments with restaurants (N = 176) and consumers (N = 245) in Germany to quantitatively test the effects of those system attributes on their adoption intentions.

This paper highlights that the role of access-based triadic system providers as both the owners of shared assets and the operators of a triadic system is associated with a novel set of challenges and opportunities: System providers need to attract a critical mass of business and end customers while balancing asset protection and system complexity. At the same time, asset ownership introduces opportunities for improved quality control and differentiation from competition.

Conceptually, this paper extends research on access-based services and triadic frameworks by describing an unexplored hybrid form of non-ownership consumption we call “access-based triadic systems.” Empirically, this paper addresses the need to account for the demands of two distinct target groups in triadic systems and demonstrates how factorial survey experiments can be leveraged in this field.

The purpose of this study is to test the impact of time and price sensitivity on consumer satisfaction and purchase intention on online-to-offline (O2O) takeout platforms and explore the moderating effect of purchase preference on time sensitivity and satisfaction, as well as price sensitivity and satisfaction, in order to guide market pricing.

A structural equation model (SEM) of customer purchase intention was constructed, and the relationships between the variables (time sensitivity, price sensitivity, satisfaction and purchase intention) were examined. The completed questionnaires of 349 respondents were collected from the Questionnaire Star platform in China. The research model and hypotheses were then tested. Analytic hierarchy procedure was used to determine the moderating effect of purchase preference. Finally, the study proposes a pricing strategy for customer-active selective services.

Satisfaction positively influences purchase intention, and price sensitivity significantly increases satisfaction and further increases purchase intention; however, time sensitivity negatively affects satisfaction. Specifically, purchase preference has strongly moderated the relationship between time, price sensitivity and satisfaction. In addition, the findings show that when purchase preference is high, the effect of price sensitivity on satisfaction is stronger, suggesting the importance of purchase preference in strengthening purchase intentions. The research work recommends a pricing strategy involving value-added pricing primarily for time-sensitive customers, which can help build a high-end brand image and reduce price competition. Reduced pricing is mainly for price-sensitive customers, which is conducive to stimulating consumption within a specific time. This pricing strategy is important for adjusting market sensitivity and flexibility.

This research provides new ideas for related disciplines and guidance for the differentiated pricing and promotion of takeout platforms, as well as a theoretical basis for the diversified development of takeout platforms, improvement of personalized service quality and enhancement of customer stickiness. This study fills gaps in the existing literature on the moderating effect of purchase preference on time sensitivity and satisfaction and price sensitivity and satisfaction.

During the COVID-19 pandemic micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses were hit hard. This was specially so in the restaurant business where physical lockdown and social distancing norms were challenging. Thus, small business performance was a concern (Akpan, Udoh, & Adebisi, 2020). This case study addressed this theoretical aspect. Zhang, Gerlowski, & Acs (2021) had highlighted the challenges of business continuance and enterprise sustenance, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study provided insights regarding how these aspects of business continuance and enterprise sustenance were addressed by “Café Tato”. Bhattacharyya and Thakre (2021) had deliberated regarding how firms through strategic initiatives and tactical responses were required to manage COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown. Café Tato case study was in line with these recommendations for firms. Barbieri et al. (2020) and Reardon et al. (2021) had outlined steps regarding maintaining business operations reliance given a business crisis situation like during the COVID-19 pandemic. Café Tato case study described this. Café Tato case study accommodated perspectives regarding business crisis situation, business continuance, enterprise sustenance, operations reliance, organizational strategic versus tactical initiatives and finally small business performance.

The teaching case study was written based upon primary data collected from the owners of Café Tato. Furthermore, secondary data was used for building the case.

Café Tato was the most popular and the oldest tea cafés in Goa, India. It had a presence in Panjim and Margaon in Goa. On 24 March 2020 India went into an economic and physical lockdown because of COVID-19 pandemic related crisis. One week down the line on 31 March 2020, Mr Pranav Dhuri (hereby referred as Pranav), one of the owners of Café Tato, was contemplating how to ensure business continuance once there was semi-normalcy restored. What would the initiatives that need to be undertaken was critical for success of Tato the legendary café in Goa was playing in the mind of Pranav.

This teaching case study could be used in the class for strategy planning and implementation in the course of strategic management. This case study could apply for teaching both bachelor’s and master’s students of business management. The case could also be taught to management students for helping them understand how small business firms, while confronting challenges of COVID-19, planned and implemented strategies in the course of strategic management. This study helped strategic management students understand the importance of organization culture in any business as it directly influenced the profitability and sustenance of business. The Dhuri family had all along laid stress on keeping the culture alive by taking various steps at critical times in improvising and maintaining the standards. The study also helped to understand the importance of good leadership and its direct impact on the employees in a crisis situation (COVID-19) work environment and ensure business sustenance.

Services marketing.

This case can be taught effectively to MBA/MS students. The case provides students with an opportunity to closely examine various marketing activities and to understand how problems associated with intangible services can be dealt with by using effective integrated marketing communications.

On March 1, 2011, JustEat, the world's largest and premium online food ordering and table reservation portal, acquired a 60 per cent stake in India's premium online food ordering and table reservation portal – Hungryzone. Following this, Hungryzone was rebranded as www.justeat.in. Ritesh Kumar Dwivedy Founder and CEO of Hungryzone and now the CEO of www.justeat.in, soon faced some challenges that cropped up as a result of this new development. Rebranding and the scalability of operations with the existing resources were the major causes of concern. To overcome these problems, www.justeat.in undertook several marketing initiatives and in the process implemented innovative ideas like JustConnect Terminal; introduction of the global JustEast mascots Belly and Brain to replace the existing mascot Aloo Patel of Hungryzone; and various innovative promotional activities to promote www.justeat.in. The case highlights the issues and challenges faced by the management. Finally some significant challenges yet to be resolved are posed. What should be done to deal with the problem of poaching of customers by partnering restaurants? How should www.justeat.in ensure that the partnering restaurants do not perceive it as their competitor in spite of the fact that registering with www.justeat.in helps increase their revenues by 10-15 perx cent? How should www.justeat.in convince popular restaurant chains to register with it keeping in mind the fact that they are already facing excess demand situations?

The case is designed to enable students to understand: the concepts associated with delivering services through electronic channels; communications and the services marketing triangle; key serxvice communication challenges; the integrated services marketing communication mix; strategies to match service promises with delivery; and the services branding model.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.

Online food delivery has been prevalent in recent years worldwide, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and people's consumption behaviors have changed significantly. This study aims to investigate the consumption behavior of young adults using online food delivery platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic and focuses on the dominant factors influencing their decision to use online food delivery platforms.

Semi-structured interviews including 14 young adults aged 18–25 living in Hong Kong were conducted to collect data about their perspectives on online food delivery platforms in five areas. This research adopted the stimulus-organism-response model (S-O-R model) to analyze how the factors influence young adult users' loyalty and satisfaction with online food delivery platforms.

Thematic analyses revealed that young adults were attracted to online food delivery platforms for their numerous benefits. They had a high frequency of usage and significant spending. Usability, usefulness, satisfaction and loyalty influenced young adults' behaviors on online food delivery platforms. Participants were overall satisfied with their experiences, but platforms still had room for improvement.

Few prior studies investigated the factors affecting the consumer experience and behavioral intention of online food delivery for young adults in Asia. This study contributes to understanding young adults' experiences and problems with online food delivery platforms. It provides practical insights for system engineers and designers to improve the current services and for the governments to enhance the existing regulatory loopholes.

The school fringe environment (peripheral 400 m buffer) offers an important opportunity for young people to obtain food and drink. There is international evidence to suggest socio-economic influence on food outlet availability and healthfulness within these environments; however the situation in the UK is unclear. The purpose of this paper is to describe food outlet provision (frequency and type) within primary school fringes across the spectrum of deprivation.

Ten primary schools in Newcastle upon Tyne were purposefully selected from a comprehensive list of all schools within the region. Two schools were chosen at random from each quintile of deprivation. A total of 400-metre buffer zones around schools were audited. School fringe food environments were classified using a Food Outlet Classification System. Access (i.e. frequency), and type of food outlets were compared to area level deprivation, obesity prevalence rates and area type.

Food outlet frequency was highest in the most deprived school fringe area. Convenience stores and takeaways represented the greatest proportion of total food outlets across all school fringe environments. More total food outlets were observed in fringes with above national average obesity prevalence rates for children.

UK case study approach limits widespread and international applicability.

Informs school, health and urban planning disciplines regarding current picture of UK school fringes.

Provides evidence in UK context that area deprivation and Census 2001 Supergroup class show significant correlations with school fringe food environment.

The case study should enable the student:1. to assess the complexities of the Indian quick service restaurants (QSRs) market and its competitive dynamics;2. to infer the factors which have contributed to the growth of Domino’s Pizza in India;3. to apply different tools and techniques to assess and refine strategy;4. to evaluate Domino’s Pizza India in the context of the value chain analysis; and5. to examine the strategic options available to Domino’s India for achieving its future growth in India.

The case details the growth story of American pizza chain Domino’s in India. Jubilant Food Works Limited (JFL), a part of the Jubilant Bhartia Group, operates the Domino’s Pizza chain in India. The first restaurant was opened in India in 1996 and, in the initial years, the focus was on promoting and popularising “pizza” as an interesting meal replacement option. Over the years, through memorable advertising, operational efficiency and product innovation, Domino’s emerged as the market leader in the organised pizza market in India. The growth in competition both from domestic and international brands and the challenge posed by the growth of food aggregators posed challenges to its prospect of maintaining market leadership. The nationwide lockdown because of the pandemic severely impacted the foodservice industry. Significant changes were seen in the operations of the QSR and rapid growth was witnessed in online food ordering especially through food delivery apps. The management at JFL believed that the demand for QSR would increase rapidly in the country given the possibility of closure of 30%–35% of conventional restaurants. This company had raised the store addition target for FY22 to 150–175 from earlier 135 as it believed that there would be a greater demand for trusted brands. The management believed that the domestic market had the capacity to absorb 3,000 Domino’s outlets compared with the earlier estimate of 1,800–2,000 outlets. In the first quarter of FY22, it added 20 new Domino’s stores. Was the management correct in anchoring its future success on new physical retail outlets? Was there a need to revisit the strategy?

The case has been written with the objective of enabling the students to understand the dynamics of a rapidly changing emerging market. It is structured for use at a Master’s level course and an MBA audience in the subject of Business Strategy/Retail Strategy.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore four general design features of King Digital Entertainment’s game “Candy Crush Saga” – structural, social, cognitive, and emotional – that reflect the principles of Universal Design for Learning and discusses how these features can be applied to course design in order to motivate learner persistence and increase student success.

Both authors are casual Candy Crush game players intrigued by how the game motivates users to continue. The methodology began with participant observation and expanded to “deconstruction” of game features and application of research findings in multiple disciplines to build the argument that game design strategies can be applied to course design to enhance learning outcomes.

Many factors influence game play, but it is crucial for each level to provide increasing challenges that motivate increased mastery but do not frustrate a player to the point of quitting. Similarly, course design that provides the opportunity for learners to achieve a sense of “flow” through the opportunity to identify goals, meet challenges, and receive feedback may encourage them to persist even when they are working autonomously as in some online environments.

This paper is based on an analysis of the design of a single game and has not been formally tested on course design. Some suggestions may be easier to implement in courses than others.

The paper offers 14 structural, three social, four cognitive, and six social design strategies that can be implemented in course design as a way to potentially enhance learner engagement and learning outcomes.

No published research exists that connects game design and course design in this fashion.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to examine how different technological and cognitive cues related to mobile food ordering applications (MFOAs) impact diners' intentions to use MFOAs continuously. The moderating role of national household demographics was also assessed in the online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery services (FDS) context.

Drawing insights from the uses and gratification (U&G) theory, an online sample survey of 968 valid respondents who had ordered or purchased food through delivery apps during the COVID-19 outbreak in China was used for the analysis. The proposed model was empirically tested using structural equation modeling.

The results revealed that cues in MFOAs (i.e. ease of use, convenience, price saving orientation, the listing of various food choices, exploring restaurant patterns, and compatibility) directly influenced diners' e-satisfaction and that intention to use continuously is triggered by e-satisfaction during the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, this study found that collectivist household diners emphasized ease of use, convenience, and compatibility. Comparatively, individualistic household diners placed more importance upon price saving orientation and listing of various food choices during the pandemic.

The authors offer a new insight into customers' dining choices by extending the scope of O2O services in the food industry. The findings contribute to understanding diners' purchase decision-making processes regarding MFOAs' O2O-FDS during the COVID-19 crisis. The multi-group comparison via national household demographics also provides a new perspective regarding different dining preferences toward O2O-FDS.