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Top1. Introduction
The emergence of a relatively economical and user-friendly digital infrastructure over the past few decades has led to the development of several trends in technology. The lifestyle of individuals and the working culture of organizations have been transformed by new digital infrastructure (Fichman, Santos & Zheng, 2014). The coupling of mobile communication and the Internet induced a plethora of potential opportunities in wireless data communication and significantly changed the way that human beings communicate and work (Scornavacca, Barnes & Huff, 2006; Balasubramanian, Peterson & Jarvenpaa, 2002).
Over the years, businesses have used mobile services as a key medium for interacting with their customers and are briskly strategizing their business goals by incorporating the technology of mobile services. Businesses can benefit from an online environment as it provides a platform for personalized and interactive marketing channel (Burke, 2002). Customers can bolster their purchase decisions by collecting inputs from friends and other e-customers through social networking channels (Herring et al., 2005) and compare a company’s products with those of its competitors in order to meet their expectations and desires (Singh, 2002).
Like many other countries, Qatar is also experiencing a rapid increase in online shopping; a paradigm shift created due to availability of mobile services. Consumers in the country are eagerly embracing the online culture that includes an increasing preference of e-services, simply because it is easier and faster. An example is the food and beverages industry in Qatar that has seen a tremendous rise in m-commerce activities, which is the focus of this research paper.
Online food ordering satisfies the needs of individuals living in urban areas who are busy and require their meals to be delivered to their respective location. This has been possible by the Internet, which acts as an impetuous channel for everyday shopping activities. Moreover, the ability of consumers to conveniently search and compare prices of food online, through either websites or apps of restaurants or service providers, has been greatly boosted by the evolution in Internet technology (Kitsikoglou et al., 2014).
In the online food ordering business, restaurant quality and service provider quality are two significant factors that influence the purchase decision of a customer. The restaurant is defined as an entity that prepares/makes the food as per the online order, while the service provider is defined as the entity that provides a platform for placing an online order and in some cases delivers the order to the customer’s location.
Qatar has experienced a boom in online food ordering over the past year. Although this is already widely practiced in other parts of the world, a slow start to the Qatar market has turned into rapid growth for such services. Through online ordering, people get to choose their food items from a plethora of options and do not have to worry about traveling to a restaurant or preparing food themselves. This rapid growth has led to new entrants in the market and the level of competition is ever increasing. It is critical for a service provider to ensure satisfaction of all of its customers, else in this kind of industry it is very easy to lose a customer to a competitor. Being frequent users of online food ordering services themselves, the authors believe this research will shed some light on key factors that influence a customer’s satisfaction and loyalty towards a particular service provider.
The literature review identified a research gap in the context of mobile food ordering services in Qatar, where no research investigated the relationship between customer satisfaction and the combination of both restaurant quality as well as service-provider quality. Therefore, this study posits that restaurant quality together with service-provider quality are critical for satisfying customers and increase their loyalty towards the online ordering operator. By understanding these factors, service providers can work on their respective strengths and weaknesses and devise strategies to improve their businesses and sustain a competitive advantage. Moreover, policy makers can understand the perceptions of customers and bring in new regulations to control the food delivery sector.