Sustainability and Online Food Delivery Services in Norway: Does sustainability play a role in influencing the behavioural intention for the Platform-to- Consumer Online Food Delivery Services in Norway for young generations?

Abstract

In recent years, the over OFDs industry is overwhelming and at the same time, it has caused quite a lot of environmental and societal challenges. Based on studies, Millennials and Generation Z are the most motivated to sustainability and they are also one of the important customer segments in OFDs. In Norway, Foodora and Wolt are the two major players in the OFD market. We observed that, as late comer to this specific market, Wolt has tried to differentiate themselves from competition by having a “sustainable” positioning with different environmental and social sustainability policies. Given Norway is also a country which valued sustainability on the top in comparison with other countries, it will be interesting to see whether the sustainability initiatives of OFDs companies have an influence on the purchase intentions of Norway's younger generations. This research model is based on the cognitive hierarchy model proposed by Homer and Kahle (1988), as well as Ajzen and Fishbein's (1975, 1980) theory of reasoned action (TRA) and its extension which called the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991). The main objective of this research is to examine if the sustainability factor influences the purchasing intention of younger generations in Norway who use online food delivery services to purchase food. Five hypotheses were created after performing a theoretical review on the influence of utilitarian, hedonic, and symbolic values, as well as TPB variables such as attitude, subjective norm and the perceived behavioural control, on the intention to purchase food through OFDs. To test the hypotheses, this study employed a quantitative survey of Millennials and Gen Z in Norway, with 124 valid responses being analysed using confirmatory factor analysis by SPSS and structural equation modelling by SmartPLS. According to the findings, symbolic value had an important role in influencing the purchase intention through directional support. Besides, utilitarian, and hedonic value were also important factors in affecting the purchase intentions of young customers. However, all of these values can only influence the purchase intention with the presence of “attitude”. Our study also discovered that Norwegian customers value sustainability more than non- Norwegian customers. Furthermore, when comparing Wolt and Foodora’s customers, Wolt’s customers favoured symbolic value higher. The findings show that the sustainability component of the OFDs in Norway does really matter to younger generations.