Dual cognitive-affective mechanisms of reuse intention in food delivery applications: the boundary role of user familiarity

Purpose This study examines the dual cognitive-affective pathways driving customer retention on mobile food delivery applications (FDAs). Grounded in the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, the model investigates how personal innovativeness and customer experience (stimuli) influence reuse intention (response) through parallel mediation of perceived ease of use and customer satisfaction (organismic states). Furthermore, the boundary role of user familiarity is examined as a moderator of the organism-response relationships. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via an online survey using a non-probability sampling design from 412 FDA users under 30 years old in Vietnam. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and a formal conditional indirect effects analysis were employed for empirical validation. Findings Personal innovativeness and task-based customer experience positively influence customer satisfaction and perceived ease of use, which in turn significantly mediate the relationship between the stimuli and reuse intention. Crucially, user familiarity exhibits contrasting moderating dynamics: it dampens the customer satisfaction-reuse link due to cognitive habituation, while it amplifies the perceived ease of use-reuse link as advanced procedural knowledge makes usability the dominant retention driver over time. Practical implications Platform managers should prioritize structural interface usability over emotional marketing. Furthermore, retention strategies must be tailored by lifecycle stage, deploying emotionally reassuring guarantees for novice users and highly automated transactional shortcuts for experienced users. Originality/value This study advances theory by establishing a competitive, parallel cognitive-affective mediating structure in a bifurcated service ecosystem and de-circularizing the relationship between customer experience and satisfaction. Repositioning familiarity as a dynamic boundary condition explains how repeated interactions shift the psychological drivers of user loyalty.