When Platforms Fail, Restaurants Pay: Supply Chain Bottlenecks, Attribution-Consequence Decoupling, and Reorder Intention in Bangladesh’s Online Food Delivery Industry

Abstract

Bangladesh’s online food delivery (OFD) sector poses a structural question: when a delivery fails, whose loyalty is damaged — the platform’s or the restaurant’s? Using attribution theory, this study surveys 362 Bangladeshi OFD consumers and applies PLS-SEM to test how five supply chain bottlenecks shape Perceived Service Quality (PSQ) and its downstream effects on Restaurant Reorder Intention (RRI) and Platform Switching Intention

(PSI). Results reveal “attribution-consequence decoupling”: delivery-reliability failures — the platform’s responsibility — hurt restaurant reorder intention nearly twice as much as platform-switching intention. The five bottlenecks operate through distinct psychological pathways, and geographic location moderates these effects more strongly than platform type or order frequency. Findings extend attribution theory to multi-party gig-economy service chains and inform restaurant, platform, and regulatory practice.