Understanding restaurant users’ attitudes towards self-service ordering via kiosks during the COVID-19 pandemic: An application of the theory of anxiety

Abstract

This study aims to prepare a comprehensive self-service technology model that incorporates the hygiene and health issues throughout the restaurant industry amid pandemics. To this end, this study explores psychological responses to the environmental threat caused by COVID-19, which impacts attitudes toward self-service kiosks in the restaurant industry in terms of the theory of anxiety. This study utilizes a mixed-method sequential exploratory design. The qualitative phase found four psychological attributes associated with respondents’ attitudes towards kiosks: anxiety towards COVID-19, timidity, perceived control, and intolerance for tardy service. Among the psychological attribute factors, anxiety towards COVID-19 was identified as the strongest predictor of customers’ attitudes towards kiosks in the quantitative phase. This study attests that the anxiety mechanism works in explaining restaurant customers’ attitudes towards kiosks in the restaurant industry. The comprehensive research model explains in a timely manner the value of kiosk service in rapid social and market changes.