Fear of COVID-19 and consumers' food consumption attitudes: a focus on online food delivery services

The study analyses the influence of fear of COVID-19 and perceived risk of eating out during COVID-19 on the consumers’ attitude toward adopting online food delivery services (OFDS) brands. In addition, the paper investigates the impact of this attitude on the establishment of positive emotions (i.e., brand love) up to addictive ones (i.e., brand addiction and continuance intention after COVID-19) toward OFDS brands. To achieve these objectives, a web-based self-completion survey and a subsequent structural equation modelling have been adopted based on a sample of 398 participants. Findings show that fear of COVID-19 positively impacts on perceived risk of eating out, which in turn positively influences the consumers’ attitude toward adopting OFDS brands. Results also underline how these relationships can trigger a virtuous cycle leading to the emergence of consumers’ positive and addictive emotions towards OFDS brands. The paper offers interesting theoretical and managerial implications. Theoretically, it represents one of the first attempts to examine the brand love and brand addiction constructs in the OFDS context. Moreover, it enriches the scarcity of studies focused on the OFDS industry in the COVID-19 period, particularly by investigating the fear of COVID-19’s impact on consumers’ food consumption habits and attitudes. From a managerial perspective, the paper focuses on analysing one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic by also identifying possible OFDS strategies restaurants can adopt in order to provide customers additional value in the COVID-19 scenario.