Title: Factors responsible for failure of food tech start-ups in India

Authors: Tahir Sufi; Satinder Pal Singh

Addresses: Amity School of Hospitality, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Sector – 125, Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, 201303, India ' University School of Business (USB), Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Punjab, 140413, India

Abstract: Information technology brought radical innovation to the catering industry. The internet has led to the growth of the online food delivery start-up. The use of smartphones and the internet transformed how food is ordered and consumed. The mobile applications enabled customers to order food from restaurants located at distant locations. However, a large number of the start-ups failed, although most of such start-ups received funding from investors. This paper identifies the factors that led to the failure of such companies. Such factors were identified through a review of literature, company reports and business news portals. The study used a questionnaire method to gather the data and used descriptive statistics to list the top failure factors. An independent sample t-test was used to compare the strategies of the failed and successful start-ups.

Keywords: food tech start-ups; food aggregators; failure factors; online food delivery services; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2022.126724

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2022 Vol.47 No.2/3, pp.323 - 335

Received: 05 Nov 2020
Accepted: 30 Dec 2021
Published online: 03 Nov 2022 *

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