Technological Disruptions in Restaurant Services: Impact of Innovations and Delivery Services

Abstract

This qualitative exploratory study assesses the technological disruptions in restaurant services caused by innovations in food delivery. A systematic review of the restaurant classification for the past two decades showed that the use of the term “restaurant delivery service” increased significantly since 2014 and is now used as often as “fast food service.” An improved typology of services as affected by technology is presented. A hypothetical model was developed to show the hierarchical progression of restaurant services as affected by technological innovations. Technological disruptions were categorized at different stages. The theory of disruptive innovation was assessed, and a hypothesis is presented to relate the impact on delivery services. Major disruptions identified are in the restaurant terminology/classification, widening of the distance between the service provider and customer contact points, and the potential collateral disruption to the service quality. Opportunities and challenges related to disruptions are identified.

Factors influencing customers' continuance usage intention of food delivery apps during COVID-19 quarantine in Mexico

“…Clients were restricted in their public outings and also the community engagement and socializing spaces were limited. The restaurants suffered from lack of sales, forcing them to look for alternatives to generate income (Khan, 2020).…”

Investigating the emergence of third-party online food delivery in the U.S. restaurant industry: A grounded theory approach

“…For example, some TPOFD aggregators such as GrubHub partner with restaurant companies by connecting their technology system with the restaurant's POS system so that when consumers order from their website, the order is also visible in the restaurant's POS system. While both models generate revenue for TPOFD aggregators through delivery fees applied to consumers, and high commission fees applied to restaurants (PYMNTS, 2019), there is a shortage of empirical research on restaurant adoption of TPOFD in the hospitality literature (Khan, 2020;Tyagi and Bolia, 2021). Particularly, how the emergence of TPOFD aggregators have impacted the US restaurant value chain from a restaurant operator perspective has not yet been explored.…”

Ghost production: applying the Servuction model to establish a typology and propose a research agenda for on-demand restaurant food delivery

“…Secondly, it maps the entire ecosystem of ghost production, which identifies new stakeholders and business and operational model choices, that have not been considered in the literature to date. This, coupled with the cost benefit analysis, allows for the development of future understanding of the current paradigm shift in food service production and delivery, whereby an increasing number of service interactions are being conducted in new ways and the production and consumption of service is decoupled in novel ways (Khan, 2020). It also facilitates a greater exploration of how the theoretical definition of a restaurant is evolving, both from a business and operational perspective, along with their place in the social and cultural understanding of food service (Tuomi & Tussyadiah, 2020).…”

“…In practice, ghost production offers a new operational trend for food service businesses (Kelso & Beckett, 2021). Previous hospitality management literature has analysed operational production trends in food service by applying theories such as systems theory, sociomateriality theory (Tuomi & Tussyadiah, 2020) and disruptive innovation (Khan, 2020). This paper reviews the existing literature on operational trends in the food service sector, which use the Servuction model as their base, from a different perspective: ghost production, and identifies, defines and proposes a typology for this novel phenomenon.…”