Winners and losers: understanding a mutually beneficial third-party food delivery business model for restaurants and customers

Rebecca Gordon holds an MSc in Tourism and Hospitality Management from the University of Guelph. Much of her research focuses on the sustainability of the restaurant industry by exploring topics such as job quality, environmental impacts and profitability. Before completing her MSc, Rebecca spent several years managing restaurants. She has had the honor of cooking at the prestigious James Beard House in New York and representing Canada at Slow Food’s Terra Madre in Italy.

Kimberly Thomas-Francois is a PhD in Management from the University of Guelph and specializes in Service Management. Her research program includes a service-oriented approach to linking the agriculture and tourism sectors, consumer engagement, service leadership, value and supply chain development. She successfully completed her post-doctoral research work in smart and virtual and digital food retailing and is currently pursuing a research program in Information Communication Technologies at Hotels. She is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Adventure, Culinary Arts and Tourism at Thompson Rivers University.

Simon Somogyi is a Professor and Dr Kerry Litzenberg Endowed Chair in Sales and Economicsat the Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University. He is a former Arrell Chair in the Business of Food and Director of Longo’s Food Retail Laboratory in the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph, Canada. He is also an Honorary Senior Fellow in Agribusiness in the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia. He has a PhD in Agribusiness Marketing from the University of Adelaide, Australia and is a teacher and researcher in the area of agri-food value chains, food business sustainability and international market development. Over the past decade he has led and contributed to research and development value chain projects in countries such as China, Japan, Australia, Pakistan, The Philippines, Indonesia, Kenya and Canada. Most of these projects involve creating and delivering consumer driven food supply chains, linking members of the chain from input supply and primary production to retail, particularly in the beverage, seafood and horticulture sectors. These projects have led to more efficient food supply chains that create and deliver more food with less waste and with more profitability and economic sustainability for all members of the chain.