Cultivating initial trust in ghost kitchens: A mixed-methods investigation of antecedents and consequences

This study examines the antecedents and consequences of customer initial trust in ghost kitchens. A sequential mixed-methods approach, consisting of a quantitative survey followed by a qualitative inquiry, was employed to gain an in-depth understanding of the inter-relationships between constructs in the conceptual framework. Through the quantitative study, we found that food safety, economic value, personalization, food authenticity, and multisensory experience each positively influence customers’ initial trust in the ghost kitchen, which in turn, has a positive impact on advocacy and repurchase intentions. Risk attitude moderates the relationship between initial trust and repurchase intention, such that the higher the tendency to take risks, the stronger the relationship between initial trust and repurchase intention. Meta-inferences were then delineated based on the qualitative study to explore plausible reasons behind the results that contradicted the research hypotheses. The study findings offer novel insights into the customer trust-building process in ghost kitchens.