Why Do People Resist Drone Food Delivery Services? An Innovation Resistance Theory Perspective

Recently, the food service delivery industry started using drones for delivering food. The drone food delivery services are not only beneficial for marketers but also provide several benefits to the consumers. Despite several advantages for different stakeholders, the adoption of drone-based delivery is not encouraging. Thus, it is crucial to know why consumers show resistance behavior toward drone-based food delivery services. Toward that end, this study examines the effects of different functional and psychological barriers on consumers’ resistance to drone-based food delivery services through the lens of innovation resistance theory. A moderated-mediation framework has been proposed using anticipated negative emotions as a mediator and consumers’ innovativeness as a moderator. The hypotheses are examined by analyzing the 355 samples collected from online food delivery service users. The results suggest that usage, risk, image, and experience barriers are significantly associated with resistance. The study's findings enrich emerging drone-based delivery services and online food delivery literature. The study's findings furthermore offer practical knowledge to help online food delivery service providers implement strategies to reduce consumers' resistance to the drone food delivery system.