Stephanie Chuah Hui-Wen, Ng Pooi Yee, Tan Xue Wen, Lau Yun Tao, Yang Hanqi, and Tan Xin Jie

Abstract: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionised the use of self-service technologies (SSTs) in restaurants to decrease physical contact and enforce social distancing, very few studies have sufficiently investigated the concept of health risk reduction and if customers are willing to pay for it. As such, this present study used the expectation-confirmation model (ECM), in the context of the information technology (IT) model, as well as additional factors that affect customer satisfaction and health risk reduction to better understand their willingness to pay (WTP) for SSTs. The moderating effect of health risk reduction on the correlation between customer satisfaction and WTP was also examined. An online questionnaire was used to collect the required data, which were then analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that, with the exception of perceived convenience, all the factors had a significant impact on customer satisfaction. The study also reveals that health risk reduction had a stronger impact on customers’ WTP for SSTs than customer satisfaction. However, health risk reduction did not moderate the correlation between customer satisfaction and WTP. This present study also discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of its findings.

Keywords: Self-service technologies, willingness to pay, COVID-19 pandemic, customer satisfaction, ECM-IT, health risk reductionurism, econom