Research in the International Journal of Services and Operations Management has investigated what influences the use of online food delivery services in India and the impact that is having on public health. The online food delivery sector in India has annual revenues of well over $7 billion. A significant proportion of this sector, about 85 percent, is restaurant-to-consumer services and the remainder, is services by direct providers.
The suspicion is that increasing reliance on food other than home-cooked food could be affecting lifestyle and health by side-stepping the traditional activities involved in preparing and eating a meal with family, friends, or even alone. Additionally, there are issues surrounding the quality of food delivered to one’s door in terms of calorific content, how much of the food is considerably processed, and the presence of additives. Conversely, some food from suppliers may well be more nutritious and the time freed up from the drudge of cooking and clearing up may well allow people to be involved in other quality activities with those family and friends.
Arghya Rayof the International Management Institute Kolkata, Pradip Kumar Bala of the Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, India, and Rashmi Jain of the Feliciano School of Business in Montclair, New Jersey, USA, explain that the advent of online food delivery services has had a significant effect on the food industry and our lifestyles in recent years. The team used a mixed-method approach, starting with preliminary qualitative interviews of online food delivery service users and followed by a quantitative survey of almost 300 Generation Y users in India. Generation Y is commonly defined as people born between around 1981 to 1996.
The team found that emotional values, conditional values, monetary values, and health consciousness all had a significant impact on consumers’ intention to use online food delivery services. Moreover, continued use leads to ongoing changes in food consumption patterns. The researchers point out that their work may not necessarily extrapolate to other countries, especially those with very different food standards.
The team suggests that suppliers should improve standards given the ever-increasing use of online food delivery services if there is not to be a long-term and potentially detrimental impact on consumers. The findings also point to differences based on gender, age, and location, such data might allow those same providers to better tailor what they offer consumers to particular demographics.
Ray, A., Bala, P.K. and Jain, R. (2023) ‘Assessing the factors influencing continued use of online-food-delivery services and the impact on health: a multi-group analysis’, Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp.1–36.