Online Food Delivery: An Overview and Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Academic works on online food delivery so far have focused on the economic and social aspects of OFD. The economic interest and evolution of this activity sector contrasts with a scarce and fragmented approach from the academic perspective. This work intends to account for the existing literature on online food delivery through a descriptive and bibliometric mapping analysis. A bibliometric analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer, a platform for analysing bibliometric networks. The results show an increasing interest on the topic, that start booming in 2019. Sources that gather online food delivery articles usually belong to one of two kinds: 1) customer-related variables in tourism and hospitality and 2) business/management publications. Since it is an emerging research area, not many authors hold a distinguished position in terms of articles published, with leading authors holding no more than 4 articles. Analysing keyword co-occurrence we find differentiated thematic approaches: technological support and features of online food delivery, health issues related to food delivery, logistic chain of food delivery and a particular field of interest relating it to COVID-19. This work contributes to literature by outlining the different theoretical basis considered in OFD research, and providing practical implications for a variety of agents (suppliers, restaurants, retailers, etc.). Guidelines for future research are offered in this emerging and relevant field of interest.