Application of UTAUT in assessing determinants of virtual kitchen adoption among licensed restaurants in Kenya

Abstract

Restaurants play a significant role in the diversification of a country’s economy through employment creation and revenue generation and as such, various restaurants have come up in Kenya. Despite the increasing number of restaurants, there’s a continuous demand for dine-out services facilitated by emergence of online food delivery (OFD) platforms such as Glovo, Uber Eats, Jumia Food, etc. This puts pressure on restaurant capacity to meet the needs of both dine in and dine out customers. With increasing demand for dine-out consumption including OFD, there’s a need to adopt new restaurant business models for restaurants called virtual kitchens (VKs) in Kenya. While various studies have examined adoption of VKs mainly through qualitative methods, no study has been dedicated to understand VKs adoption in Kenya, with a focus on restaurant businesses. Existing studies in other context also provide contradicting results on determinants of VK adoption. This study, therefore, aimed at investigating the adoption of virtual kitchens among licensed restaurants in Kenya. Anchoring on the UTAUT theory, the study specifically set out to (1) determine the effect of performance expectancy on the intention to use virtual kitchens among licensed restaurants in Kenya; (2) identify the effect of effort expectancy on the intention to use virtual kitchens among licensed restaurants in Kenya; (3) determine the effect of facilitating conditions on the intention to use virtual kitchens among licensed restaurants in Kenya; and (4) identify the effect of price value on the intention to use virtual kitchens among licensed restaurants in Kenya. The study adopted a quantitative research approach and correlational research design to survey 149 managers or owners licensed restaurants in Kenya. The multiple regression analysis results indicated that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and price value had significant effect on intention to use virtual kitchens (VKs) (F [4, 144] = 20.662, p < .01, R2 = .604), implying that the predictors explained for 60.4% of the variance in intention to use VKs. The results indicates that restaurateurs would consider ability of VKs to enhance their performance, VKs user friendliness in carrying out intended business operations, availability of relevant facilitating conditions and cost benefit analysis of VKs before deciding their adoptions. The study findings therefore not only contribute to industry practice by providing informative insights on VK adoption in Kenya but also add to the existing body of knowledge debate on VK adoption.