Neutrosophic Soft Set with Application in Decision Making: A Case Study on Online Food Delivery

Abstract

The global online food delivery (OFD) market has experienced significant growth, particularly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This surge is largely attributed to the convenience of ordering meals online and having them delivered directly to consumers’ homes. Additional services offered by OFD platforms have proven essential in supporting social distancing efforts, expanding service accessibility, and minimising the gap between purchase and consumption. In Malaysia, the OFD sector has grown rapidly, presenting vast opportunities for various platforms while simultaneously intensifying market competition. To sustain this growth and adapt to evolving consumer demands, OFD providers must consider multiple strategic dimensions. This study aims to identify the most preferred OFD service among students at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Kelantan Branch and to determine the most influential factors affecting their purchasing decisions. The neutrosophic soft set method is employed to analyse expert linguistic evaluations across six key parameters: delivery cost, delivery speed, convenience of payment, web design, marketing techniques, and order fulfillment. The findings reveal that Grab Food is the preferred OFD platform, outperforming Food Panda. Moreover, “convenience of payment” emerged as the most influential parameter driving students’ decisions to use OFD services.