Track: Information Systems and Information Technology

Abstract

The increase in mobile phones and the increase in access to the Internet has led to the emergence of new channels of interaction between companies and their customers, such as applications. One of the sectors that most adhered to the use of applications was food. According to a survey conducted by the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants -ABRASEL, the food delivery market moved to R $ 11 billion in Brazil in 2018. According to a survey by Mobills, in 2020, spending on the main delivery applications for food (Rappi, Ifood, and Eats Uber) grew 103% in the first half of 2020. One of the factors that propitiated this growth was the SARs-Cov2 pandemic that, due to most countries' social isolation measures, caused the search for digital media as one of the few safe options for continuing this business relationship, ensuring business survival and convenience and protection of users. Thus, because of the increase in the number of consumers and the entry of new competitors in the sector over the years, it is essential to analyze the variables that affect the success of food delivery applications in Brazil in times of pandemic so that companies optimize their efforts and improve the customer experience. This study's general objective was to investigate the factors that influence the intention to use food delivery applications in Brazil and suggest improvement initiatives according to the study's most impacting variables. An exploratory quantitative study using structural equations was carried out. The study was an adaptation of the model by Venkatesh et al. (2012), previously employed in accepting the mobile Internet. The structural model presented in the survey obtained 245 responses and was validated with a rho_A = 0.815 and Fc = 0.875, explaining the intention to use food delivery applications in 48.1%. The results revealed that the most impacting factors in the intention to use are the expectation of performance (14.90%), confidence (10.27%), hedonic motivation (7.78%), and price (6.09%). Thus, it is suggested that the companies adopt measures and actions to expand the user experience, ensuring a better expectation of performance and hedonic motivation and the adoption of actions to validate user requests in two or more security systems, ensuring trust. Thus, it is possible to create strategies via gamification, increasing the hedonic motivation, presenting possibilities of progressive discounts with each evolution of the user. In comparison with previous studies before the pandemic, it can be observed that factors such as habit, the expectation of attempt, and hedonic motivation appeared with a greater level of influence. In the context of the pandemic, factors such as performance expectations, confidence, hedonic motivation, and price have become more influential, with a change in the user's profile. In this way, it is noticed that the new user is more concerned with better performance for him, in the confidence of the application, as well as in the financial relationships that occur through the implementation and the price. The hedonic motivation is repeating itself.