Fear from Eating Outside? Assessing The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Consumer’s Willingness to Utilize Catering Services in China

Since the onset of economic reforms, the catering industry has been playing a crucial role in China’s economic development. However, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government has implemented strict pandemic prevention policies such as (home quarantine and suspending work and production facilities) leading to losses for a variety of industries, especially catering industry. As the main driving force on the demand side, residents’ willingness to pay for catering can play an important role in the post-pandemic economic recovery. In this study, we employ primary data of 1,072 respondents from an online survey to investigate the impact of influential factors on residents’ demand for catering services. A carefully designed structural equation model with 5 latent variables and 14 observed variables has been employed for data analysis purposes. The empirical results indicate that emotional value and policy norm have significant positive impacts on the residents’ willingness to utilize catering services, while personal perceived risk, catering industry status and economic cost have negative impacts. Based on empirical findings, essential and useful policy recommendations have been suggested in this study.