Intention to Use Online Food Delivery Service among University Students in Dungun, Terengganu

This research was conducted to understand students’ behavior related to the use of online food delivery services when purchasing food via an online platform at a local university in Dungun, Terengganu. The chosen university is situated in a rural district in Terengganu. The motives behind the usage of online food delivery services among university students from rural areas are still unclear so far. Hence, this study worked to fill this gap by examining the factors that determine the intention to use online food delivery services. Using the convenience sampling approach, 360 students were contacted through social media platforms and the link to the google form was distributed to them upon their approved consent. Data were subjected to obtain descriptive statistics data and inferential statistical analysis such as correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis was carried out. The findings concluded that flexible payment becomes the strongest predictor influencing intention to use online food delivery followed by convenience motivation, price saving, and time saving factors. These findings may be beneficial to the food service provider to improve their online food delivery service to offer better service to customers, especially university students.


Introduction
There is a massive food delivery industry in South East Asia (Lau and Ng, 2019). Similarly, there is an ongoing big era of online food delivery (OFD) services in the food and beverage industry in Malaysia. Not only limited to taking away and dining out, but online delivery ordering is also a new way of eating out. In Malaysia, there is a range of food delivery companies providing online food delivery services. Among the firms is FoodPanda, the first delivery firm to have launched activities in Malaysia. Meanwhile, Ray et al (2019) stated that the rapid growth in the region of online delivery services has also brought improvements to lifestyle and culture in general. Online food delivery services (OFD) are currently on the rising in the era of electronic commerce. This study aims to promote and pursue a concise overview of what customers typically look for in a favorite restaurant, select from available goods, and include their delivery address (Pigatto et al., 2017). Lau and Ng (2019) stated that the growth of online food delivery systems may be part of an emerging existence of the urban population. These people use food delivery services for several purposes however, the most popular explanation appears to be the desire for fast and nutritious meals during or after a busy working day. The numerous food delivery systems that are easily accessible take the effort away from customers to care about and organize their meals, instead of cooking the food themselves, going to the restaurant and eating in, or ordering the food to be taken back.
In recent years, even more, consumers are moving to food delivery considering the current speed of life, since it makes them provide new and nutritious food in their workplaces or homes while they can continue working. This can be a benefit because, after a hard day at work, they are opting to head home and rest rather than wasting a couple more hours driving to and from only to find something to eat. It would seem that OFD services offer consumers comfort and time savings since they can buy food without leaving their homes or office (Moriarty, 2016).
The rise of online food delivery services may be related to the increasing number of urban residents, (Chai & Yat, 2019). There are several reasons why these customers use meal delivery services, but the need for quick, wholesome meals during or after a long day at work seems to be the most prevalent one. Numerous easily accessible food delivery services eliminate the need for consumers to consider and plan their meals because they eliminate the need for them to cook, go to a restaurant, or order takeout to their place of employment or home (Dsouza & Sharma, 2020) The behaviour of consumers has been significantly impacted by food delivery services, with the use of online food delivery services (OFD) becoming common and expected, especially among city inhabitants (Chen & Hsieh, 2017).
In recent years, more consumers have shifted to delivery services due to today's fast-paced lifestyle and the opportunity to offer more restaurants through meal delivery. For the busiest city dwellers, OFD service is a useful alternative during busy workdays (Chai & Yat, 2019). Everyone appreciates this type of meal delivery service since it allows them to continue working while providing fresh, wholesome cuisine at work or home (Chen & Hsieh, 2017). This is beneficial because city dwellers will use OFD's services and choose to unwind at home after a long day at work instead of wasting time waiting for meals or making multiple trips to find food. Because customers can purchase meals without leaving their houses or places of business, OFD services appear to provide them with a handy and time saving service (Chai & Yat, 2019). OFD services are gradually but slowly changing the food and beverage industry thanks to the chance to increase business size, uphold higher employee morale, ensure order uniformity, and create an invaluable consumer database.
In 2016, the Internet was accessible to 17.9 million Malaysians on their cell phones. This number is projected to hit 21.1 million Internet users on cell phones by 2020 (Zhang, 2017). The cellphone's rising penetration rate has made it easier for customers to buy everywhere at any time. The extra accessibility of obtaining OFD services through their smartphones may have encouraged customers to switch to OFD services from conventional offline food purchasing, as customers can now get a wide variety of food options with a single click.
A number of studies have explored deploying an online food delivery service (Hooi et al., 2001;Kitthandeachaorn, 2016;Tarmazi et al., 2021). However, the idea of using online food delivery has not yet been thoroughly investigated. After determining the research gap, little attempts have been made to examine Malaysian university students' intentions to use online food delivery services, hence this study is directed to determine and examine the relationship between the influence of price saving, time saving, perceived ease of use, convenience motivation, and flexible payment on university student's intentions to use online food delivery service and determine the most influencing factor in affecting university students' behavioural intention to use online food delivery service. Hoffman et al (2010) labeled goods as objects, devices, or things and services as actions, efforts, or performances. Since people have less chance to eat out and cook a meal at home, this has created a demand for online food ordering (Chen and Hsieh, 2017). According to Pigatto et al (2017), online food delivery services can be characterized as business platforms that provide order services, payment, and monitoring of the process but are not in charge of the preparation of the food. Companies that seek to offer services and products profitably are using innovative delivery methods as a new basis of differentiation and providing greater value for customers (Chen et al., 2012). Similarly, Gronroos and Gummerus (2014) stated that value creation is a process that includes the action of several actors starting from the service provider to the client and others that ends up creating value for the customer.

Literature Review Online Food Delivery
Retailers providing food delivery services can be categorized into two types. The first is the retailers themselves. This category is mainly covered by fast-food chains McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), and so on. The second category is composed of multiple restaurant intermediaries that provide delivery services for a large range of restaurants such as Food Panda (Yeo et al., 2017). The food-delivery business from restaurants to customers' homes is experiencing significant change as new online platforms race to capture markets and customers across the globe.

Customer Intention
Behavioral intention means the possibility of a person behaving or the tendency of a client to subscribe to the scheme in the future (Brown and Venkatesh, 2005;Dwivedi, 2007;Venkatesh and Brown, 2008). Prediction of customer purchasing behaviour was utilised as a form of buying intention, which is a subset of behavioural intention. As a result, the intention is considered to reflect the motivational elements that impact behaviour; they are indications of how hard individuals are willing to try, of how much effort they plan to expend and participate in a behaviour (Ajzen, 1991;Mafe et al., 2010).
It is also possible to describe behavioral intention as a kind of buying intention that can be used to forecast purchase actions by consumers. This will impact an individual's decision to accept or not embrace OFD in the future. According to Yeo et al. (2017), the attitude of an individual toward the purpose of the person to perform can be highly predictable. There is a connection between behavioural intention and customer experience, according to (Olorunniwo et al., 2006). According to Ghajargar et al (2016), the demand for home delivery services is growing as a result of online shopping since it spans a large geographic area.

Factors Influencing Customer Intention
There are 5 factors have been identified and are explained further in this section.

Price Saving
According to Nagle et al (2010), price is the cash value that must be provided by an individual in exchange for a service or product in a purchase agreement. As stated by Darke et al (1995), consumers are concerned about saving money through price reductions because they are concerned about the money spent where customers may reserve from these discounts. It is a wonderful deal for university students to subscribe to since it allows them to save money for other purposes. Occasionally, various websites or applications will provide a variety of promotions, such as a price reduction on the meal that they bought (Yeo et al., 2017).
By subscribing to the OFD service, university students are expected to make use of additional sales promotions and save money on meals. Likewise, OFD services can reach consumers in several geographical locations based on the restaurants that provide delivery service to that region (Goh et al., 2017). They can order through websites or apps, rather than spending excessive transit costs to travel to the physical store. Besides, the total cost of eating out will be greater, considering the extra costs imposed by the restaurant in addition to the cost of the meal purchased due to additional taxes implemented by the government.

Time Saving
According to Meuter et al (2003), the most important element influencing consumers' incentive to employ technology-based self-service is time savings. When time is insufficient to complete everyday chores such as work and leisure activities, an individual will seek out alternatives to save time (Bashir et al., 2015). People nowadays are living in a fast-moving neighbouring to achieve their ideal life, which is filled with competencies and problems. Users will believe that the more time an app saves or allows them to use it as quickly as possible, the easier it is to use (Prabowo and Nugroho, 2019). It is possible to use the ordinary lifestyle or livelihood of major university students as an example.
Furthermore, eating out is considered time-consuming and luxurious entertainment (Dazmin & Ho, 2019). Hence, they will avoid it because it wastes a lot of time, especially for university students. Using the OFD service is the easiest option for students to choose from other than cooking. This is due to food delivery apps or websites advertising that they will deliver food to consumers on time because they are committed to fast. Customers' orders may be simply observed and recorded by a mobile application or website which makes OFD service more convenient and user-friendly than the previous approach (Maimaiti et al, 2018). By ordering meals through an OFD service, university students may save time looking for something to eat.

Perceived Ease of Use
Perceive ease of use, according to Zeithaml et al (2002), is the degree to which an invention is easy to understand and use. As noted by Kim et al (2004), perceived ease of use is defined as the consumer's view that purchasing via websites would improve the efficiency and efficacy of the buying process, such as searching for information, price comparison, and monitoring online. Perceive ease of use has a major good influence on purchase intentions and will eventually enhance customers' behavioral intentions in an online environment (Cho & Sagynov, 2015).
Furthermore, Suryadev and Mahik (2018) stated that the extent to which a person believes that using a certain technology will need no effort is referred to as perceived ease of use. A lot of individuals utilize this simply due to the ease of access, as they like to have as little bother as possible (Suryadev & Mahik, 2018 ). As a result, it has aroused people's interest in using this OFD service, especially university students. As per Prabowo and Nugroho (2019), youth are keen to check out OFD services because they are eager about how the OFD service works.

Convenience Motivation
Convenience is described in the context of OFD services as the time, value, and effort required to make the OFD system work. According to research, convenience is seen as an ongoing obstacle that will have an impact in the future (Seiders et al., 2005). Motivation is important to influence the attitude and willingness of customers to buy. Customers will be motivated to use this system forever once the convenience level meets their expectations. As stated by Jiang et al (2011), one of the main motivations for consumers to adopt electronic technology is convenience, since consumers must be convinced of their worth once they are ready to utilize this system. Customers would tend to buy food online instead of in a store as they may buy items and get them at any time and from any location.

Flexible Payment
Food ordering mobile applications provide users with a variety of payment choices, allowing them to pay in the way that is most convenient for them. Customers will like the convenience and cashless payments provided by the consolidation of popular payment mediums, which will encourage them to utilize the meal delivery app (Gupta, 2019). Everyone appreciates things that are adaptable with a lot of advantages, and online food ordering is one of them. This is what the customer wants according to their requirements, regardless of where they are or when they want to order (Rathore and Mahik, 2018).
Uninterrupted payment is what customers want most. A large number of people avoid the use of online services because they do not want to get stuck in the maze of payments. The introduction of various payment methods have led to increased public trust and, as a result, increased trade for many businesses (Rathore and Mahik, 2018). As students, some may prefer online payment while some would eager for a cash delivery payment method. Hence, with this flexible payment, it will be easier and encourage them to use this OFD service.
Based on the above discussion, the hypotheses below will be tested H1: There is a significant relationship between price saving and intention to use online food delivery services.

H2:
There is a significant relationship between time saving and intention to use online food delivery services. H3: There is a significant relationship between perceived ease of use and intention to use online food delivery services. H4: There is a significant relationship between convenience motivation and intention to use online food delivery services. H5: There is a significant relationship between flexible payment and the intention to use online food delivery services.
The research framework was drawn in Figure 1 below

Methodology
A quantitative approach was used in this study utilizing an online survey created using Google Forms. It was distributed started from June 2021 until the middle of July 2021 through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, and Instagram. The population of this study is students from a local university in Dungun, Terengganu which is 5,461 students. According to Krejcie and Morgan's table (1970), if the population of the study is 5000 people, then the sample size should be 357 people. This has been increased to 360 respondents as a backup plan in case there is some error in any answer given by respondents. The respondents have been approached using a non-probabilistic convenience sampling method. Consent was obtained from all respondents before the beginning of the survey. All procedures in this study are done following the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.
The online survey questionnaire consists of seven (7) sections. Section A is about the demographic background of the respondent, using a categorical scale. The questionnaire for section B, C, D, E, and F consist of factors influencing the usage of online food delivery service for ordering food using a five-point Likert Scale. The pilot test was conducted in this study among 33 students to identify potential issues and flaws in the research instruments and procedure. All measurement items were confirmed valid and reliable.
Main collected data were subjected to obtain descriptive data and inferential statistical analysis such as correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Multiple regressions

Time saving
Perceived Ease of use

Convenience Motivation
Flexible payment Intention to use online food delivery services among student Price Saving make a number of assumptions about the data to ensure that data are not violated (Pallant, 2002). Basic assumptions for regression models relate to sample size, normality, homoscedasticity, multicollinearity, and outliers (Hair et al., 2006;Tabachnick and Fidell, 2007). The assumption for Multiple Regression Analysis was all met.

Results and Discussion
Demographic profiles Table 1 below shows the demographic of participants in this survey. Most of the participants are female with a percentage of 70.8% and the rest 29.2% are male. The age range of participants is between 17-19 (7.5%), 20-22 (48.8%), and 23-25 (38.6%), and was followed by 26-28 (5.0%). The respondents' academy level consists of pre-diploma (3.6%), diploma (34.4%), degree (61.1%), and master (0.8%). Besides, all respondents came from different faculties which are the Academy of Contemporary Islamic Studies (7.8%), Faculty of Accounting (11.9%), Faculty of Business Management (21.2%), Faculty of Electrical Engineering (9.4%), and Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management (49.7%). In terms of the frequency to use online food delivery (OFD), the majority of respondents use OFD 2-3 times a week which represents 44.2%, then once a week for 41.1%, more than 5 times in a week for 8.1% and 4-5 times per week consists 6.7%.

Descriptive Statistics of Study Variables
This section reports the descriptive statistics of study variables as shown in Table 2.  Table 2 shows that the respondents have a positive intention to use OFD service (Mean=4.1529, S.D.=0.7659). This is in line with the positive ratings rated for factors that influence the use of OFD service. The highest rating was recorded for convenience motivation and flexible payment factors which have a similar mean score (M= 4.3634, S.D.=0.6331). It indicates that respondents are interested in using (OFD) service because of the flexible payment method and convenience offered through using (OFD) service. This result is in line with Ramli et al (2021) who revealed three out of four items measuring 'perceived convenience' was rated more than 4 indicating students have a positive perception of using OFD service because it is comfortable, safe, and convenient. Students also perceived using OFD service as beneficial for saving money because of the reduction of price gained (M= 4.1583, S.D.=0.6260). It seems that students were slightly impacted by their economy surrounding in general when it comes to choosing which delivery service that equivalent to their daily budget. The factor of perceived ease of use and time saving was rated below the mean score of 4 indicating that those factors were not performed well by the OFD service providers. The OFD system could be varied across different companies whereby some could be complicated and some may be simpler. This somehow has affected how the respondents rate their responses. The time saving factor was rated the lowest among all independent variables, showing that orders reached the customers beyond their expected delivery time.

Relationship Between Price Saving, Time-Saving, Perceived Ease of Use, Convenience Motivation, Flexible Payment with Intention to Use Online Food Delivery Service.
The relationship between Price Saving, Time Saving, Perceived Ease of Use, Convenience Motivation, and Flexible Payment and Intention to Use (OFD) Service was discovered using correlation analysis. Results are depicted in Table 3 below.  Table 3 shows all independent variables have a moderate correlation and substantial relationship with the intention to use online food delivery services (Guilford, 1973). Similar to the findings of Saad (2020), the price factor has a significant correlation with the intention to use OFD service. It is possible because most students have restricted budgets thus becoming price-conscious in spending. Not only that, students in this study also relate flexible payment with their intention to use OFD service. It could be because flexible payment method saves time, are secure, and involves touch-free payment. Thus unsurprisingly, students in this study indicate time and convenience factors related to their intention to use OFD service.

The Predictor of Intention to Use Online Food Delivery Service
It is hypothesized that the factor of price saving, time saving, perceived ease of use, convenience motivation, and flexible payment will affect university students' intention to use online food delivery services. The hypotheses below were tested to examine these relationships: H1: There is a significant relationship between price saving and intention to use online food delivery services. H2: There is a significant relationship between time saving and intention to use online food delivery services. H3: There is a significant relationship between perceived ease of use and intention to use online food delivery services. H4: There is a significant relationship between convenience motivation and intention to use online food delivery services. H5: There is a significant relationship between flexible payment and the intention to use online food delivery services.
The findings of multiple regression analysis for H1 to H5 are presented in Table 4. As illustrated in Table 4, the regression result analyzing the relationship between independent variables and intention to use OFD shows that a significant relationship was established (R 2 =0.66, p=0.000). In terms of the effect of individual independent variables on dependent variables in Table 4, four independent variables significantly predict intention to use OFD; flexible payment (β=.328, t=7.913), convenience motivation (β=.289, t=6.806), price saving (β=.281, t=6.045) and time saving (β=.100, t=2.639). These findings indicate that these three factors determine students' intention to use OFD service whereby flexible payment because the strongest predictor of intention to use OFD service followed by convenience motivation, price saving, and time saving factor. Hence, H1, H2, H4 and H5 is accepted while H3 is rejected. These findings are in line with the previous studies. Several studies found that university students perceived flexible payment (Gupta, 2019), time saving (Meuter et al., 2003), and price-saving (Nagle et al., 2010) as the factors influencing intention to use OFD service. The possible explanation is that university students have limited time to prepare their food at rental homes or hostels, thus ordering food online may save time to cope with their hectic student lives (Rae et al., 2021). Besides, uninterrupted payment is what students want the most because they are reluctant to get stuck in the maze of payments. Hence, the introduction of various and flexible payment methods has led to increased consumer trust and increased trade for many businesses (Rathore & Mahik, 2018). Occasionally, various websites or applications provide a variety of promotions, such as price reductions on the meal that they bought (Yeo et al., 2017). Therefore, students will gladly use these OFD applications since it allows them to save more money for other purposes.

Conclusion
The study discovered that motivation for convenience and flexible payment are two key elements that affect intention toward an online meal delivery service. Thus, every element has an impact on how often people use online food delivery services to place their food orders. According to See-Kwong et al (2017), people have shifted from traditional ordering methods to online ordering in the modern world because it is easy, error-free, quick, and transparent, particularly during pandemics when people are not permitted to dine in establishments to obtain their food as one of the precautions to avoid and reduce the risk of spreading. COVID-19.
Furthermore, the current status of the economy and the emergence of innovation have led to an increase in the use of online meal delivery platforms. Due to the ease and convenience of using online meal delivery services like FoodPanda and GrabFood to purchase any goods or foods without leaving their homes since the government issued the movement control order MCO, they have essentially become a common need for the majority of people in today's society. Moreover, restaurant operators may devise a better method of ordering food online that complies with customer demand. Additionally, businesses may use this as an opportunity to keep track of their devoted clients and possibly draw in more by offering special deals to those who frequently use their delivery service.
In conclusion, the present study contributes to the literature on online food delivery. Six determinant variables, namely time saving, price-saving, perceived ease of use, convenience motivation, and flexible payment, were used in the driven framework. The findings concluded that flexible payment, price-saving, and time saving factors significantly affect the intention to use online food delivery. These findings may be beneficial to the food service provider to improve their online food delivery service to offer better service to customers, especially university students. This research however has more room for improvement. Future research could be expanded to a larger geographical area, a bigger sample size, and incorporate more study variables to better comprehend wider and more segmented consumers' intentions towards online food delivery service.