Seounmi Youn

• Emerson College

What factors drive consumers to use artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots? The current study examined the associations among AI-powered chatbots’ anthropomorphism (human-likeness, animacy, and intelligence), social presence, imagery processing, psychological ownership, and continuance intention in the context of Human-AI-Interaction. Result...

Drawing from social learning theory and the mobile advertising literature on key performance indicators (KPIs), two experiments examined the influence of peer users' conversion in mobile social commerce. Experiment 1 (N = 211, between-subjects [high vs. low number of “sold items”]) tested the effects of peer users' conversion, operationalized as th...

Drawing from evolutionary psychology of anthropomorphism and social phobia, two between-subjects experiments examined the effects of different types of customer service chatbots. Experiment 1 supports the interaction effects between chatbots’ anthropomorphism and consumers’ social phobia on continuance use intention and willingness to recommend the...

Integrating the theories of nostalgia, brand personality, and consumer‐brand relationships, this research examined the power of nostalgia in explaining brand personality dimensions and five relational constructs. Online survey data across two separate studies (n = 374 for both studies) with two different sets of nostalgic and non‐nostalgic brands w...

Despite the hype surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI), the potential of AI in customer relationship management (CRM) remains underexplored in academia. A between-subjects experiment examined the effects of the type of relationship (virtual assistantship versus virtual friendship) consumers build with AI-enabled chatbots on brand personality per...

In the context of the fast fashion industry, this study examined the efficacy of sustainable collections in achieving corporate legitimacy. We examine the ethical branding and organizational legitimacy relationship in the context of the fast fashion industry. We conducted an online experiment with the use of Amazon MTurk in the Unites States. The d...

Integrating the theories of nostalgia and consumer‐brand relationships, this study developed and tested a theoretical model for understanding ad‐evoked nostalgia within the context of Facebook. Online survey data (n = 395) were collected using Amazon MTurk to disentangle the relationships between antecedents, ad‐evoked nostalgia, and outcomes. An a...

This study investigated the conditions under which temporal framing is more effective in explaining consumers’ responses to ads. Two experiments were conducted with a 2 (temporal framing: near-future vs. distant-future benefits) × 2 (perceived risk: high vs. low) × 2 (construal level: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design. In Experiment 1...

This study explores how young millennials understand and respond to newsfeed native advertising on Facebook, rooting our focus on its covert nature of the ad format. Drawing insight from two persuasion-related theories, we conducted focus group interviews and in-depth interviews with Facebook users aged 19–29. The study revealed three major themes...

Applying construal level (CL) theory as a theoretical framework, this study examined the conditions under which temporally framed messages are effective. A 2(temporal framing: near‐future vs. distant‐future rewards) × 2(CL: high vs. low) × 2(need for cognition: high vs. low) between‐subjects design was employed. Data from two online experiments sho...

Applying advertising contextual theory, we examined the conditions under which native advertising embedded in a news website was more effective. With the use of college students (n = 189), a 2 (type of ad: native vs. banner) × 2 (type of ad placement: solo vs. duo) × 2 (persuasion knowledge: high vs. low) online experimental design was employed. In...

Nostalgia marketing practices in social media help brands link consumers with happier times from the past. A randomized 2 (evoked nostalgia: high vs. low) × 2 (social influence: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design experiment was conducted to examine the effects of nostalgia and social influence on consumers' judgments in the brand manag...

Drawing insights from the theory of planned behaviour, this study examined the determinants of consumer support for cause-related marketing (CRM) across companies with either positive or negative corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputations. With the use of online experimental data (n = 311 college students), similarities and differences in th...

Applying the self-construal (SC) temporal match effect to a cause marketing context, this study investigated the conditions under which cause-related marketing campaigns generate stronger altruistic attributions of sponsor motives and subsequently purchase intention. As major factors, temporal duration (long-term vs. short-term), SC (independent vs...

This study examined the mediating effect of brand experience on the linkage between perceived interactivity of a website and relationship quality with the brand in the online marketplace. The proposed mediation model was tested with online survey data collected from 265 college students. With the use of a mediation test, this study found that activ...

By applying motivational values of luxury consumption, this study examined the impact of cultural differences on young consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions toward luxury brands. With the use of survey data (N = 331 for South Koreans and N = 409 for Americans), the study provided support for the hypothesized moderating effect of three percei...

This study examined how different body sizes of a female model—thin, average, and large—influenced advertising effectiveness after controlling for social comparison, body mass index, and facial attractiveness. Findings from a 3 × 2 experimental study with college students (N = 201) indicated that the use of a thin model in advertising was not more...

By applying the functional matching effect to the domain of cause-related marketing (CRM), this study examined the conditions under which the CRM message matching to attitude bases would elicit greater persuasion. In this study, a matched (or mismatched) CRM message is represented by the ad message featuring an argument that matches (or mismatches)...

By analyzing the 294 advergames integrated in the Web sites of the top 100 leading national advertisers ranked by total advertising expenditures, the current study provides a descriptive study of the actual use of advergames on the leading advertisers' Web sites. Although there were still many advertisers that had not yet adopted advergames, those...

With Rogers' protection motivation theory as the theoretical framework, this study identified determinants of young adolescents' level of privacy concerns, which, in turn, affects their resultant coping behaviors to protect privacy. Survey data from 144 middle school students revealed that perceived risks of information disclosure increased privacy...

This study explores whether and how different online platforms to which electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication is posted influence consumers’ judgements of reviewed products. Additionally, this study examines the moderating role of the valence of eWOM on the platforms–consumer product judgement relationship. Our findings indicated that, othe...

Drawing from the perspective of consumers' risk perception, this study examines the determinants and consequences of online security concerns and assessed the interrelationships among these constructs with a path analysis. Using the secondary survey data from a representative sample of the US adult population, this study finds that consumer charact...

The article examines how electronic word of mouth communication influences consumers' judgment of reviewed products. The valence of online word-of-mouth advertising and the relationship between electronic platforms and consumer product judgment are discussed. The authors' conclusion is that product reviews posted on an independent website or on the...

Survey data from 395 high school students revealed that girls perceive more privacy risks and have a higher level of privacy concerns than boys. Regarding privacy protection behaviors, boys tended to read unsolicited e-mail and register for Web sites while directly sending complaints in response to unsolicited e-mail. This study found girls to prov...

This study examines the impact of parental influence on teens’ attitude toward privacy protection. Survey data show that teens high in concept-oriented family communication tend to engage in discussion mediation, which, in turn, affects their level of privacy concern. In contrast, teens high in socio-oriented communication tend to have more family...

Using a nationally representative sample, this study demonstrated the importance of psychographics in profiling cause-related marketing advocates. For specific social causes relating to minorities, public self-consciousness and a sense of personal and social responsibility appeared to be important predictors. For charitable causes, along with the t...

This study developed an integrated model to explore the antecedents and consequences of online word-of-mouth in the context of music-related communication. Based on survey data from college students, online word-of-mouth was measured with two components: online opinion leadership and online opinion seeking. The results identified innovativeness, In...

Applying Rogers's (1975, 1983) protection motivation theory to the online privacy context, this study determined that risk and benefit appraisals explain teenagers' willingness to provide information to a Web site, which, in turn, affected their risk-lowering behaviors. Survey data from 326 high school students revealed that a higher level of risk...

With online gaming becoming a major entertainment form, there are growing concerns that websites promoting gambling and violent games have undesirable effects. Such concerns have led to numerous calls to regulate controversial gaming sites. However, little research has been done to explain why people support restrictions on gaming sites. One theory...

This study compares people who play games on the Internet, people who use the Internet but not for gaming, and people who do not use the Internet. In terms of demography, there is no gender difference among the three groups. On-line gamers are the youngest group and have above-average education and income, but non-gaming Internet users enjoy the hi...

This paper shows that product category is an important moderator of the relationship between commercial liking and memory. In this multi-year survey of responses to commercials shown on the Super Bowl, products advertised were classified as "approach," "avoidance," or "utilitarian." Positive and significant relationships between liking and memory h...

This paper explores self-reported happiness across afourfold personality framework that synthesizespsychoanalytic and psychometric approaches topersonality structure. Using survey data from arepresentative sample of the U.S. adult population, weidentified four personality types rooted in two basicdimensions – Extraversion/Introversion andTendermind...

Along with the rapid growth experienced by the gaming industry in the United States has come increasing calls to restrict or ban gambling advertising. To date, little is known about what motivates people to support such restrictions on advertising. However, one recent theory, the third-person effect, offers a possible explanation. The third-person...

Along with the rapid growth experienced by the gaming industry in the United States has come increasing calls to restrict or ban gambling advertising. To date, little is known about what motivates people to support such restrictions on advertising. However, one recent theory, the third-person effect, offers a possible explanation. The third-person...

This paper explores the profile of healthy and unhealthy eating consumers in terms of attitudinal variables and personality traits. Data from 3,462 respondents to the 1997 DDB Needham Life Style Study were analyzed. The results show the healthy eaters to be environmentally conscious, socially conservative, and financially healthy. They are usually...

The authors posit that 2 distinct perceptual dimensions underlie the third-person effect hypothesis: judgments of susceptibility to communications (a cognitive process) and severity of communications (an affective process). To explore this, 194 adults were asked (a) to estimate their own and others' susceptibility to various types of advertising co...