The proliferation of internet telecommunication services, smartphones, and mobile apps has revolutionized the food delivery industry, especially through online-to-offline models. This study examines the factors influencing customer satisfaction and reuse intentions in India’s rapidly growing FDA market, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. By integrating Expectation Confirmation Theory and e-SELFQUAL model, the research explores the effects of self-service quality, price, food quality, and advocacy on consumer behavior. Using data from 279 respondents and structural equation modeling for analysis, the findings reveal that food quality and online purchasing experiences significantly impact positive consumer behavior toward FDAs. The study uncovers the inverse relationship between price and food quality as critical antecedents to self-service quality and satisfaction. Additionally, it identifies the mediating roles of satisfaction and advocacy. The novelty of this research lies in its integrated theoretical framework, which provides a comprehensive understanding of FDA users’ purchase decisions, promoting FDA reuse and advocacy.

Purpose: The flourishing of smartphone users and widespread internet access has paved the way for food delivery apps (FDAs) to become a prominent food industry segment. This study fills gaps related to the limited understanding of web aesthetics in FDAs by investigating how web aesthetics (focusing on information and visual design) influence consumers’ intentions to reuse FDAs and promote them through word-of-mouth. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a mixed-method approach to test the proposed relationships, highlighting the importance of web aesthetics in shaping context-specific consumption values. Findings: The results demonstrate that web aesthetics significantly influence consumers’ intention to reuse and promote WOM. Furthermore, consumption values mediate the relationships among web aesthetics, WOM, and reuse intentions. Users’ positive experiences with FDAs increase their satisfaction, encourage recommendations and increase the likelihood of repeat purchases. Originality/value: This study explores the FDA sector by combining two theoretical frameworks, the stimulus? organism? response model and the theory of consumption values, which offers a novel and comprehensive framework for understanding consumer decision-making within the context of FDAs.

The food delivery industry has been transforming consumers’ eating habits by enhancing convenience offered through food delivery applications (FDAs), encouraging them to order increasingly. This paper integrates the e-SELFQUAL model and equity theory to understand consumer behavior by evaluating how food quality, self-service quality, and consumer satisfaction influence the advocacy and reuse intention of the FDAs. The findings indicate that food quality and self-service quality have a substantial impact on consumer satisfaction, which drives advocacy and reuse intentions. Furthermore, the analysis reports a mediating effect of self-service quality and advocacy. The study’s originality resides in the integrated framework of the e-SELFQUAL model and equity theory accompanied by necessity logic. The study findings emphasize focusing on control, customer service, and service fulfillment to enhance consumer satisfaction, which benefits the sales of practitioners by driving long-term consumer engagement.

This research delves into the underlying drivers propelling the adoption of Eco-Friendly Smart Home Services (ESHS). In an era of growing environmental concerns, adopting ESHS is motivated by pro-environmental beliefs, concerns, and perceived value, yet requires a comprehensive understanding of these factors. Integrating the Value-Belief-Norm Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study explores how knowledge and facilitating conditions moderate ESHS adoption intentions. The research uses Structural Equation Modeling to analyze the responses from the 230 respondents. Additionally, to identify critical factors influencing consumer intention to purchase ESHS, Importance-Performance Map Analysis was used. The findings demonstrate that environmental beliefs and concerns significantly impact purchase intention for ESHS, moderated by knowledge and facilitating conditions. The research's novelty lies in its comprehensive theoretical framework, offering a deeper insight into ESHS user intentions and advocating for the accelerated adoption of smart home technology.

The exponential growth of e-commerce brings the need for sustainable business models to address the negative environmental impacts of packaging. This study used a bibliometric analysis, the theory of planned behaviour and stakeholder theory to explore the behavioural intentions of consumers in adopting a circular economy model for e-commerce packaging materials. Surveying 362 respondents in the Indian market, our findings revealed e-commerce users were likely to participate in a closed-loop system, with environmental concern and attitude emerging as pivotal factors. The study's novelty lies in examining consumers' willingness to engage in circular economy practices, using an extended model of the theory of planned behaviour. We propose leveraging existing reverse logistics networks for e-commerce packaging that incorporate circular economy principles for packaging sustainability. The study contributes to the theory by emphasising the primacy of environmental concerns over financial incentives in motivating consumer participation in the emerging economies context. We advance the prioritisation of environmental considerations by e-commerce consumers, which necessitates a focus on education and knowledge development on the circular economy. Building upon our findings from the Indian market context, we propose key recommendations for practice and policy, which could be applicable to other emerging markets and contribute to their CE adoption.

Higher education institutions (HEI) and corporate organizations are now beginning to recognize the notion of sustainable development (SD). In higher education, sustainability refers to incorporating sustainable practices, principles, and ideals into various academic institutions. This plays a central role in fostering social responsibility and sustainable behavior. While many institutions have shown interest in themes related to sustainability, they have not fully embraced the unification of sustainability into their academic curricula. This is due to the complexity of Sustainability concepts and the structure of the academic program itself. This study employs content analysis to compare two assessment tools, the Graphical Assessment of Sustainability in Universities (GASU) and the Auditing Instrument for Sustainability in Higher Education (AISHE), to assess the sustainability efforts made by universities in their systems. In our study, we observed that Communication, Network, Expert Groups, and Plans concerning staff development, teacher responsibilities, Student Examination, Specialty and Problem Handling, and Vision and policy of the organization are important parameters in AISHE that are absent in GASU. Budget Allocation and revenues from Grants and Contracts are present in GASU but absent in AISHE.