“Does Your Restaurant Deliver?” The Change in Consumer Behavior Due to COVID-19 Pandemic in Restaurant Delivery Market: Study of Restaurants in Rome, Italy

Abstract.

The advancement in technologies, e-commerce, and social media put the restaurant delivery market on the constant rise during the last decade. While in some countries consumers were more open to this service, in other countries restaurant delivery was conquering consumers more slowly but steadily. The recent Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of this trend, drastically changing consumer behavior. This is especially true in countries with the long-lasting tradition of out-of-home dining such as Italy where many restaurants did not have a delivery service pre-pandemic. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they had to adapt quickly and introduce delivery or go out of business. However, as the restriction related to the pandemic eased in, restaurants saw a swing back to the previous pre-pandemic dining habits among Italians. This research aims at studying the long-term changes in restaurant consumer behavior accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper is building upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the technology acceptance model (TAM), the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to identify the factors that influence consumers to use restaurant delivery services during the pandemic and the long-term change in consumer behavior. The original model is extended to include the perceived security, sustainability, and altruism as a part of pandemic-related factors. The pilot study to validate the model is done on a sample of 189 consumers from Rome, Italy. The results identify the motivational factors that have a long-term effect on the consumer behavior in the market of online food delivery from restaurants.