The Adoption of Restaurant-Based E-Service

Abstract

Restaurant services are currently available through conventional Internet access through PCs, Macs and laptops. However, there is ongoing change at the customer end where the use of Web-ready mobile devices such as cell phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) is steadily increasing. This study evaluated the customer acceptance of restaurant e-services across two types of computing devices: (a) conventional lap/desk devices (PCs, laptops, Macs) and (b) mobile handhelds (Blackberries and Palm Pilots). Findings indicate that perceived ease of use with mobile handhelds is comparably more important toward the adoption of restaurant-based e-services as opposed to conventional lap/desk devices, where perceived usefulness was marginally more important. Findings are discussed within the context of the emerging mobile Internet and how restaurateurs need to better leverage this medium.

KEYWORDS:

• restaurant marketing
• Internet
• e-service
• mobile commerce
• technology adoption

Notes

¹Beta (β) is the average amount the dependent increases when the independent increases one standard deviation and other independent variables are held constant. If an independent variable has a beta weight of .5, this means that when other independents are held constant, the dependent variable will increase by half a standard deviation (.5 also).