Customers acceptance and usage, purchase behaviour and post purchase behaviour of self- ordering kiosk technology in quick-service restaurants: moderating roles of perceived safety risk and age generation / Noradzhar Baba

The self-service technologies (SST) were one of the technologies used in quick-service
restaurant to supplement the usual face-to-face interaction while ordering food. Even
though the self-service technology had been in the market for quite some time, the
adoption of the technology had yet to receive attention from the foodservice industry
player in Malaysia. On one hand, the millennial or younger generation was seen as the
perfect target candidate that would accept the self-service technology in the quick
service restaurant, on the other hand, the older generation still prefer the conventional
ordering methods as they did not trust the usage of electronic payment. Furthermore,
the current situation was exacerbated due to the sudden emergence of Covid-19
pandemic. Due to its high infectivity potential, there was a serious concern when the
customers wanted to utilize the touchscreen-based self-service technology. Therefore,
it was crucial to explore how Covid-19 pandemic affects customers’ purchase
behaviour via the self-ordering kiosk. This study empirically discovers customer
acceptance and usage of a self-ordering kiosk, purchase behaviour, and post-purchase
behaviour in a quick-service restaurant. The present study adopted the use of Unified
Theory of Adoption and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) as the study framework. This
study adopted a quantitative research methodology using a survey questionnaire as the
main data collection method with cross-sectional time horizon. 430 questionnaires were
able to be obtained from the data collection process. Data collected were analyzed to
yield descriptive statistics and PLS-SEM was used to test the hypotheses of the study
and evaluate a model. Additionally, multivariate analysis was used to identify
technology use between age groups. The result indicated that customers’ trust was the
most significant predictor in the acceptance and use of a self -ordering kiosk.
Multivariate analysis revealed that younger generation was inclined toward utilitarian
factors (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating condition) while the
hedonic motivation was found to be stronger in the older generation. The result from
the present study verified that the UTAUT2 model could be integrated into the research
of self-ordering kiosk technology acceptance and use especially in a Malaysian context.
The inclusion of safety risk also enhances the use of UTAUT2 in a pandemic situation.
Given the positive outlook from the respondents, quick-service restaurant industry
should continuously improve its self-ordering kiosk efficiency. Given differences in
age generation, the different interfaces should be designed to serve different age groups.