How app aesthetics shape emotions and recommendation behaviour: SOBC theory approach
(A2022-106982)

AUTHORS

Sushant Kumar, Indian Institute of Management Raipur

ABSTRACT

Food Delivery apps (FDA) have become a very popular option for ordering food online and have altered our food consumption patterns and habits. In this study, we aim to investigate the impact of app aesthetics on emotion which influences continued usage and recommendation of FDA. For this, we utilized SOBC (stimulus-organism-behaviour-consequence) theory and PAD (Pleasure arousal dominance) theory as the theoretical foundation. We utilized aesthetics as stimulus, pleasure, arousal, and dominance as organism, continued usage as behaviour and recommendation as consequence. A structured questionnaire is used to collect the data from FDA users. Findings indicated that aesthetics evokes the set of emotions namely pleasure, arousal, and dominance which influence the continued usage of FDA. Further, continued usage is positively associated with recommendations. We also examined the moderating effect of family income. Results indicated that family income moderates the association between pleasure, dominance, and continued usage of FDA. The study contributes to the theory of PAD, SOBC by extending the applicability to FDA context.