Assigning credit and blame: How delivery services affect restaurant EWOM

Understanding why and how consumers disseminate electronic word of mouth (EWOM) is an essential part of restaurant marketing. However, while much has been discussed in the hospitality literature regarding the importance of EWOM in dine-in contexts, very little research has been conducted about the drivers of EWOM in response to restaurant experiences facilitated by delivery service providers. This research seeks to fill this gap in the literature in response to the contemporary rise of online food delivery (OFD) services. From the perspective of attribution theory, this research seeks to determine how consumers assign credit and blame to the three different entities involved in the OFD process: the app/website through which the food order is placed, the driver/independent contractor that delivers the food, and the restaurant that prepares the food. The results of a quantitative analysis indicate that credit (blame) for positive (negative) OFD experiences is asymmetrically attributed across these entities.