Digital Impact of Food Delivery Companies on Restaurants: A Review

This literature review explores the impact of online food delivery platforms on restaurants, focusing on the rise of "ghost" food businesses. It examines how companies like Deliveroo and UberEats provide restaurants with high-tech delivery services, enabling them to meet consumer expectations for convenient, high-quality meals at home. The review also investigates how these platforms offer disruptive solutions like Deliveroo editions, which create pop-up kitchens to expand restaurant delivery services. Furthermore, the analysis delves into the emergence of ghost restaurants as a fusion of food delivery platforms and traditional restaurants. The research methodology includes a realism philosophy, an inductive research approach, and an exploratory research design, utilizing both primary (interviews with CEOs, managers, and consumers) and secondary data (literature review). Data analysis involves thematic and graphical analysis to identify key trends and impacts on the restaurant industry.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
The digital impact of food delivery companies on restaurants: the rise of “Ghost” food
businesses
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1BUSINESS RESEARCH
Table of Content
Research methodology...............................................................................................................4
Research Philosophy..............................................................................................................4
Research Approach................................................................................................................5
Research Design.....................................................................................................................6
Data Collection.......................................................................................................................6
Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................7
Sample size and sampling strategy........................................................................................8
Research strategy...................................................................................................................8
Ethical consideration..............................................................................................................9
Data Presentation and analysis:................................................................................................10
Key word presentation.........................................................................................................10
Graphical presentation:........................................................................................................14
Discussion and analysis............................................................................................................17
Changes in consumer behaviour:.........................................................................................17
Changes in business operations:...........................................................................................18
Changes in product:..............................................................................................................18
Market analysis of restaurant and food delivery industry:...................................................19
Conclusion................................................................................................................................20
Recommendation......................................................................................................................21
Reference:................................................................................................................................24

2BUSINESS RESEARCH
Research methodology
The method by which the research will be conducted will be a major determinant of
the result obtained from the research. Hence it is highly crucial for the researcher to select
exact tools for the research in so that the most accurate result can be obtained. Hence the
purpose of this chapter is to analyze and select the research philosophy research strategy and
other research instrument ideal for the research topic that is whether the huge growth of
online food delivery platforms is beneficial for the resurgent or not.
Research Philosophy
The term research philosophy can be described as a belief about a certain method in
which the data needs to be gathered, analyzed and used s that the most accurate result can be
obtained. The philosophical approaches help the researcher to decide which approach should
be used in order to answer the research question (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). The
research philosophy can be segregated into ontology, epistemology, positivism, realism,
interpretivism and Axiology. Considering the fact that for the research, Qualitative research
analysis method has been followed, the research philosophy that has been chosen here is
realism methodology. The realism philosophy is a philosophical branch of epistemology
which is associated with the scientific enquiry. The core feature of realism is to disclose the
truth of reality as well as the existence of the objects that prevails independently in the human
mind. The realism philosophy again can be classified into direct realism and critical realism.
While direct realism explains what can be experienced by the senses, critical realism
expresses what is experienced by the sensations that are image of the real world, not the
reality. For this research, the direct realism philosophy has been followed.

3BUSINESS RESEARCH
Research Approach
The research approach of a research paper can be segregated into three types, namely,
deductive research approach, inductive research approach can abductive research approach.
The relevance of hypothesis to a research paper is the chief distinctive point between the
deductive and the inductive approach. While deductive approach tests the validity of the
theories, inductive approach contributes to the emergence of new theories and generalization.
Abductive research approach, on the other hand, initiates with surprising facts and the
research process is devoted their explanation. Considering the fact that in this study no
presumptions exist, in order to conduct the research, the inductive approach has been used.
The inductive research approach, unlike the other two approaches discussed, does not involve
formulation off hypothesis. As per the requirement of this research, the researcher needs to
generate untested conclusions. Besides that, considering the unlike the researchers conducted
with the help of Deductive research approach, in this research, data has been collected in
order to explore the phenomenon, identify the themes an patterns along with creation of a
conceptual framework. It initiates with research questions as well as aim and objectives that
reqires to be achieved during the process of the research.
Figure 1: Inductive Research Approach
Source: (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2017)

4BUSINESS RESEARCH
Research Design
When it comes to research design, exploratory research design has been chosen.
Research design can be defined as the set of methods as well as procedures that are used to
collect and analyze the variables in a specific research problems. A research design is an
arrangement of conditions and collections and can be segregated into three parts namely
Exploratory research design, descriptive research design and explanatory research design.
The descriptive research resign is followed in researches where a particular event or incident
is described by the researchers. When it comes to explanatory research design, the research
design access the viability and authenticity of a proposed method and explains its benefits
and demerits. Exploratory research, as the name implies intends merely to explore the
research questions and does not intend to offer final as well as conclusive solutions to the
existing issues. These types of research are conducted to study an issue that has not been
clearly defined yet. Considering the fact that in this research, a research topic has been
chosen which needs to explored, in this paper the exploratory research design has been
followed.
Data Collection
In order to conduct the research, both primary as well as secondary data has been
collected. Primary data can be defined as information that are directly collected by the
researcher himself and are analyzed in order to obtain a specific result. Primary data can be
defined as real time data and the major sources of primary data include survey, observations,
questionnaire, personal interview and experiments. Considering the fact that in this research
qualitative data analysis has been conducted, for primary data collection a set of descriptive
questionnaires has been developed. When it comes to secondary data, it can be defined as the
data that has been previously collected by other researchers who are not directly related t the

5BUSINESS RESEARCH
current research study. The data was collected for some other purpose at different time in the
past. Secondary data are chiefly available in both written, typed or in electronic forms.
Secondary data helps the researcher to gain the insight into the research problem. Even
secondary data can be classified into internal secondary data and external secondary data. A
variety of resources were available to researchers gathering data on the food delivering
organizations and their relationship with the restaurants. For this literature, literature review
of relevant literature that has been written about the topics like main food delivery companies
that are disrupting the food market, online food delivery trends and how food delivery
services affects the way restaurants operates.
Data Analysis
For analyzing data, the qualitative data analysis has been performed. Qualitative data
is defined as the data that are descriptive an non numerical in nature and that captures the
concepts ad opinions of a particular research paper. Qualitative data analysis is simply the
process of examining qualitative data to derive an explanation for a specific phenomenon.
Qualitative data analysis provides the researchers with the understanding of the research
objective by revealing patterns as well as themes in the data. Considering the fact that both
primary and secondary data has been collected, both thematic and graphical analysis has been
conducted in the data analysis section. Thematic analysis is defined as one of the most
common forms of analysis in qualitative research. It emphasizes pinpointing, recording and
examining patterns within a data. Themes are pattern across data sets that are crucial to the
description of a phenomenon and are associated to a specific research question. When it
comes to graphical data analysis, this data analysis has been performed in order to analyze the
answers given by the samples. The collected data from the interviews have been presented
through prioritising the responses, which have consequently helped to develop the mostly

6BUSINESS RESEARCH
repeated responses in the interview session. From this key words the major regulators and
outcomes of the restaurant market has been developed and presented in graphical
representation.
Sample size and sampling strategy
Sampling can be defined as the process used in statistical analysis in which a
predetermined number of observation are taken from a larger population. Sampling can be
classified into two types, namely, probability sampling and non-probability sampling.
Probability sampling can be defined as a sampling technique where samples from a specific
population obtain an equal opportunity to get selected as a representative sample (Mackey &
Gass, 2015). On the other hand, non-probability sampling is defined as a method of sampling
where al the individual I n a population are not provided with equal chance of being selected.
Both probability and non probability sampling has been chosen for primary data collection.
Ion the other hand, for secondary data collection probability sampling has been chosen. In-
depth interview of the CEOs of DELIVEROO and FOODORA has been performed. Along
with that, two managers from the 2 popular Restaurant located at Brisbane has also being
conducted. Along with that, in depth interview o 4 consumers who are pretty regular with
both ordering food online as well as visiting a restaurants has also been conducted. Finally,
interview has been conducted with the manager of FOORBAN, a popular Italian digital
restaurant has been conducted. When it comes to literature review, review of 15 literatures
that are relevant to the research topic has been conducted in order to obtain secondary data.

7BUSINESS RESEARCH
Research strategy
The term research strategy emphasizes the strategic execution of research tools
aligned with the research design and approach. The strategic selection of research tools is
also a major part of research strategy. For this research, the strategic selection of data
collection approach is essential to specifically explore the impact of ‘Ghost’ distributers and
the utilization of digital technologies and the consumers while aiming to measure the impacts
on the conventional restaurants. In order to examines all the regulators, influencers from
multidimensional perspective different sets of interview questions have been developed for
different participants. For this reason the sample size or the respondents have been divided
into two categories namely the business operators and consumers. The consumers have been
asked about their experience and opinion about digitalised food delivery system. Apart from
that, they have been also asked about interest and usage frequency of this facility.
The respondents from restaurant are the essential source of measuring the
economical and managerial impact of the ‘ghost’ on their companies. Impact on production
system and delivery system have been asked to measure the physical impacts. Apart from
that, the perspective of these respondents regarding the potential market control and
profitability has been also asked. The respondents of online delivery or ghost companies have
been asked for their opinion about the further expectation from digitalised business process.
Along with that, the questions of competitiveness and primary and secondary motivators have
been also asked to these respondents in order to examine the potential outcomes of any
changes in this business environment. Even the information regarding the challenges faced by
the companies has been collected from these interviews. In this situation the new trends of
process food and restaurant industry is digital restaurant. Hence, the respondents from
FOORBAN are asked for their business influence, future strategy and expectations.

8BUSINESS RESEARCH
Ethical consideration
Considering the fact that ethical consideration in research are highly critical, the
research has made sure that the research has been conducted ethically (Quinlan et al., 2018).
The primary goal of the research is to promote the pursuit of knowledge and truth. Firstly, the
researcher has assured that there is no fabrication or falsification of data. While conducting
the interview, the researcher has stated ad demonstrated the reason behind conducting the
research and only after the permission provided by the interview, the interview had been
conducted. No forceful act during the interview or manipulation of data while analyzing the
research has been conducted in order to maintain the authenticity of the research. Respect
from the dignity of the research participants has been prioritized. The protection of
confidentiality of the research participants has been ensured. The willingness of all
participants was the essential concern. All respondents were free to skip any question or to
quit the interview session anytime they wanted. For these ethical issues the research has not
presented the official name of the respondents while representing them as respondents 1,
respondents 2 and so on.
Data Presentation and analysis:
In this section, the collected data from the interviews have been presented through
prioritising the responses that has consequently helped to develop the mostly repeated
responses in the interview session. From this key words the major regulators and outcomes of
the restaurant market has been developed and presented in graphical representation.
Key word presentation
Data from DELIVEROO and FOODORA

9BUSINESS RESEARCH
Expectation on growth trends
Respondents 1 (DELIVEROO): Increase in product variety with diversify the options to
choose
Respondents 2 (FOODORA): Expand the market expansion with increasing range of
coverage area for delivery service
Data generation for Partnership with restaurants and gaining advantages
Respondents 1 (DELIVEROO) Locating the most popular restaurants in the operational area
and targeting those restaurants as resource
Respondents 2 (FOODORA) Locating the most popular restaurants in the operational area
and targeting those restaurants as resource
Benefits of DELIVEROO Edition
Respondents 1 (DELIVEROO): Improving the consumer loyalty by meeting their demands
more than satisfactory level while making the restaurant owners happy by enhancing their
profit share
Respond from FOODORA to the need covering areas
Respondents 2 (FOODORA) Planning to implement advanced data gathering system that will
allow to collect consumer interest from the restaurants while increasing the profit share of the
restaurants.
Data from restaurants
Impact of food delivery platform on revenue and management

10BUSINESS RESEARCH
Respondents 3 (Resturant1): Digital platform for delivery system is reducing the profit from
operation including delivery and consumer satisfaction and consequently reducing the
ultimate selling price through value sharing with third party distributors.
Respondents 4 (Resturant2): Consumer loyalty and profit margin are reducing because lack
of face to face interaction with consumers.
Percentage of allocated meals to deliveries
Respondents 3 (Resturant1): Average 30 % on daily basis
Respondents 4 (Resturant2): Average 35% on daily basis
Process of partnership with delivery companies and gaining advantages
Respondents 3 (Resturant1): Increasing the selling units by expanding the coverage area
Respondents 4 (Resturant2): Increasing the consumer loyalty by improving the Varity
Risk of losing control
Respondents 3 (Resturant1): Moderate level risk
Respondents 4 (Resturant2): Low Level of risk
Benefits of DELIVEROO Edition
Respondents 3: Increasing the profit margin by focusing more on collaborative approach
Respondents 4: Increasing market share and range of coverage through partnership
Data from consumers
Frequency of using delivery platforms

11BUSINESS RESEARCH
Consumer1: every day
Consumer2: twice in a week
Consumer3: every day
Consumer4: ones in a week
Changes in dining-out behaviour
Consumer1: Tendency for dining-out in normal days is reduced
Consumer2: Burden of lengthy purchasing procedure is reduced
Consumer3: Tendency for dining-out in normal days is reduced
Consumer4: frequency of dining-out is reduced
Significance of Food delivery platforms
Consumer1: Digital food delivery platform has high significance
Consumer2: Digital Food delivery platform has moderate significance
Consumer3: Digital food delivery platform has high significance
Consumer4: Restaurant has still their significant place
Preference between food delivery and restaurant
Consumer1: Depends on situation
Consumer2: Ghost delivery
Consumer3: Ghost Delivery
Consumer4: Restaurant