Does online food delivery improve the equity of food accessibility? A case study of Nanjing, China

Shanqi Zhang, Hui Luan, Feng Zhen, Yu Kong and Guangliang Xi

Journal of Transport Geography, 2023, vol. 107, issue C

Abstract: The increasing popularity of online food delivery (OFD) has led to drastic changes in conventional foodscapes. There is yet a limited understanding regarding if the new form of food ordering and delivering through third-party platforms improve the equity of food accessibility or exacerbate existing, if not generate new, equity issues. In this paper, we attempt to answer this question based on a case study of Nanjing, China. We first adapt the widely used spatial accessibility measure, enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA), to quantify food accessibility that accounts for both onsite and online food services. We then examine if and how OFD changes the spatial and social disparities in food accessibility with different transport modes. The results show that OFD improves the equity of food accessibility in general but exacerbate existing spatial disparities between urban and rural communities. Socially disadvantaged groups remain vulnerable to food procurement opportunities. The empirical findings have important implications on developing hybrid onsite-online strategies for food service provisions.

Keywords: Online food delivery; Food accessibility; Social equity; Bayesian spatial statistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692322002393

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:107:y:2023:i:c:s0966692322002393

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2022.103516

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().