The Flavour of Trust: How eWOM, Authenticity Drive Street Food Success in Egypt

Online reviews give those expectations a public voice, letting customers describe the details that make a food stall feel worth returning to.

A plate of koshari can carry more than a satisfying lunch. For someone choosing where to eat in Cairo, it might promise a familiar recipe, a connection to the neighbourhood, or the pleasure of finding a vendor who takes pride in every serving. Online reviews give those expectations a public voice, letting customers describe the details that make a food stall feel worth returning to.

The study "The Authenticity Effect: How Digital Word-of-Mouth and Management Response Shape Customer Loyalty in Street Food," published in the Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, explores how those digital conversations relate to loyalty.

Drawing on responses from 437 street food consumers in Cairo and Giza, the researchers found that online reviews, customers' sense of authenticity, and the way vendors respond to feedback are closely connected to people's willingness to recommend a business and buy from it again.

What 437 Street Food Customers Revealed

The researchers collected survey responses between August and December 2025 from people who had eaten street food in Cairo or Giza during the previous three months and had read online reviews before their meal. Recruitment included food and community groups on social media, local forums, and QR codes distributed in busy food areas and at food truck events.

Of 612 responses, 437 passed the study's screening checks. Around 83% of participants were aged 18–31, and 61.2% ate street food at least once a week, giving the research a strong focus on younger, digitally active customers with regular experience of these businesses. Participants rated online review information, vendors' authenticity, responses to customer feedback, and their own loyalty on five-point scales. Loyalty covered commitment, positive recommendations, choosing a vendor first, and intentions to continue buying.

The researchers used a statistical model to examine how these factors fit together. Their approach combined four established explanations of consumer behaviour: people use reviews as clues about quality, assess whether information is credible and useful, form personal judgments about a business, and interpret the vendor's replies as further evidence of sincerity. This brings attention to businesses that often receive less research coverage than hotels and established restaurants, despite their importance to employment, affordable meals, and local food culture.

A Review Can Tell Readers Whether a Place Feels Genuine

Electronic word-of-mouth, or eWOM, includes the reviews, comments, and recommendations customers share online. For a small vendor with limited advertising resources, these accounts can help people judge an unfamiliar business before spending money there.

The study found that favourable online review information was associated with stronger loyalty and an even stronger sense that a vendor was authentic. Customers who saw a vendor as authentic also reported greater loyalty.

Authenticity covered several qualities: respect for history and tradition, consistency, honesty, skilled preparation, and a visible commitment to the food. A review describing traditional cooking methods or a memorable interaction can give readers something more useful than a rating alone.

The analysis suggested that authenticity explained part of the connection between reviews and loyalty. Reviews retained a separate relationship with loyalty, meaning that a sense of genuineness did not account for the whole picture.

The model explained 69.1% of the variation in authenticity ratings and 66.3% of the variation in loyalty ratings within the sample. These figures describe how well the model accounted for differences in survey answers; they do not mean that reviews increased repeat purchases by those percentages.

A separate analysis comparing the factors' importance placed eWOM first and authenticity second. Their performance scores were broadly similar, giving the researchers no basis for presenting authenticity as the strongest-performing factor.

The Person Behind the Reply Matters

A vendor's response becomes part of the story future customers read. A clear explanation of a problem, a useful solution to a complaint, or a personal acknowledgement of praise can help readers judge whether the business behaves as sincerely as its reputation suggests.

The study found stronger connections between reviews and authenticity when customers rated vendors' responses more favourably. Better responses also strengthened the relationship between authenticity and loyalty, with a smaller effect on this second connection.

The authors interpret these findings as support for timely, personal replies that fit the cultural character of the business. Their recommendations include acknowledging specific feedback, communicating transparently, and treating customers respectfully.

Imagine a customer praising a traditional recipe and receiving a reply explaining its family background. That exchange could make the vendor's connection to the dish easier to understand. It is an illustration of the authors' reasoning, rather than an interaction tested separately in the research.

Management responses ranked close to zero in the study's separate importance analysis. Their main contribution in the tested model was to change the strength of the other relationships, which helps explain why reply quality still deserves attention.

What Vendors Can Use and What the Study Cannot Prove

For vendors, the practical advice is manageable: monitor customer feedback, encourage detailed and honest reviews, and respond consistently to both praise and complaints. Descriptions of recipes, preparation methods, and culinary history should reflect what customers actually experience when they visit.

Municipal authorities could provide training in digital marketing and reputation management. Platforms could make replying easier and offer prompts that encourage meaningful exchanges. Hospitality and tourism courses could teach online customer engagement alongside the preservation of food traditions.

The authors connect these practices with the lasting viability of street food businesses and the protection of culinary heritage. The research did not directly measure changes in revenue, business survival, or cultural preservation. A one-time survey cannot establish whether better reviews cause loyalty, and reported intentions cannot confirm actual repeat visits. Participants were deliberately selected rather than randomly sampled, with younger consumers heavily represented, so the results cannot automatically describe every street food customer in Egypt or elsewhere.

Future research could follow customers over time, examine actual reviews and replies, track return visits, and include vendors' perspectives. Trust, satisfaction, value, cultural identity, and differences between businesses could help explain more of the picture. For a food seller reading the study, there is a useful connection to consider: the care customers recognise at the stall may need to be just as visible in the conversations they find online.