From click to plate: Exploring service characteristics that shape satisfaction in online food ordering

The rapid growth of online food delivery (OFD) services has intensified scholarly interest in understanding how service design shapes customer satisfaction in digitally mediated food services. Despite the expanding empirical literature, existing research remains conceptually fragmented, largely because service attributes are examined through aggregated service quality constructs. At the same time, customer satisfaction is often treated as a secondary or mediating variable rather than as a focal evaluative mechanism. Consequently, there is limited theoretical clarity regarding how different service attributes function in the formation of satisfaction within platform-based food services. To address this gap, this study conducts a systematic literature review following the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, synthesising evidence from peer-reviewed journal articles retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus. Adopting a theory-driven and customer-centric perspective, the review examines how service attributes have been conceptualised and empirically linked to customer satisfaction in online food delivery services. The findings show that service attributes operate through role-differentiated mechanisms rather than uniform or additive effects. Core service attributes establish baseline evaluative security by ensuring functional reliability, whereas differentiating service attributes generates variation in satisfaction through experiential and relational mechanisms. In addition, technology-enabled and sustainability-related attributes emerge as reconfiguring conditions that reshape how customers interpret and prioritise service attributes, rather than acting as independent drivers of satisfaction. Building on these insights, the study develops an integrative framework that reconceptualises customer satisfaction as a central evaluative mechanism embedded in digitally mediated platform service systems. The framework advances theoretical understanding of satisfaction formation and offers guidance for future research and service design in online food delivery contexts.