Customer adoption of online restaurant services: A multi-channel approach.

摘要

As customers increasingly interact with restaurants through the Internet, this paper proposes an analytical framework that can be used to assess in what ways online restaurant services have the potential to offer added value for restaurant customers. Services are currently available through conventional Internet delivery options for personal computers (PCs), Macs and laptops; however, there is ongoing change at the customer end, wherein the use of web-ready mobile devices (PDAs, Cell phones) is steadily increasing. This study evaluated the customer acceptance of restaurant e-services across these two types of computing devices and investigates the potential of multi-channel adoption of restaurant e-service applications in the light of the traditional technology acceptance model (TAM). TAM is leveraged as a framework for researching the status of customers' perception of the online restaurant e-services environment.; The results show that the time is ripe for restaurants to take the mobile Internet seriously and; subsequently, restaurants need to provide e-services for these two types of devices based on this distinctive dichotomy of technology acceptance. Multi-channel options for online opportunities have untapped potential as increasingly, today's customers are looking for and willing to pay for convenience. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding the effects of this technology adoption and behavioral intention are discussed.; Keywords. restaurant, Internet, e-service, mobile commerce, technology adoption