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Sensory-enabling Technology in M-commerce: The Effect of Haptic Stimulation on Consumer Purchasing Behavior
... In this setting, integrating interactive elements within these platforms has revolutionized consumer behaviour, offering novel avenues for engagement and transactions (Nandi et al., 2021). The role of sensory experiences, particularly haptics, has emerged as a pivotal determinant shaping user perceptions and interactions within SCAs (Racat & Plotkina, 2023). Haptic imagery, characterized by its tactile and sensory attributes, goes beyond the visual realm, offering users an immersive and tangible experience (Huang & Liao, 2017). ...
... This immersive experience not only allows users to explore products in detail but also increases their confidence in making informed purchase decisions. Another application lies in incorporating haptic feedback to facilitate sensory-enhanced communication (Racat & Plotkina, 2023). Through haptic-enabled messaging features, users can convey emotions and sensations beyond text, fostering richer interpersonal interactions and strengthening bonds. ...
... Yet, the impact of integrating haptics on user behaviour during SCA usage remains largely unexplored (Racat & Plotkina, 2023). While numerous studies delve into purchase behavioural intentions (Tian & Lee, 2022;Vazquez et al., 2023;Wang & Huang, 2023), there remains a scarcity of research conducted specifically within the context of sustained usage within SCAs. ...
By integrating the Theory of Interactive Media Effects (TIME) and flow theory, this research investigates the influence of haptic imagery on users' experiences and behavioural intentions within the context of Social Commerce Applications (SCAs). This research delves into the mediating role of immersion and the intricate serial mediation dynamics involving immersion and social media fatigue, elucidating their role in the link between haptic imagery and users' continuance intention. A purposive sampling technique was employed to gather data from 410 users of SCAs in Malaysia via offline and online data collection methods. The collected data underwent analyses using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that haptic imagery was positively associated with immersion, negatively associated with social media fatigue, and positively associated with continuance intention among users of SCAs. Immersion emerges as a crucial mediator, sequentially linking haptic imagery to social media fatigue and subsequently to continuance intention. The study pioneers research into the influence of haptic imagery in the context of SCAs, contributing to the underexplored research gaps in social commerce continuance literature. The study unravels the intricate relationships between haptic imagery, user experiences, and behavioural intentions, shedding light on the serial mediation mechanisms in shaping users' continuance intention. This pioneering approach facilitates a novel understanding of technology-mediated user behaviour.
... First, while research suggests that more traditional haptic cues (e.g., haptic imagery, vicarious touch through a hand, touchscreen interface) consistently lead to positive downstream consumer responses, such as shopping basket total (e.g., Hampton & Hildebrand, 2020), purchase intention (e.g., Racat & Plotkina, 2023), and choice confidence (Hattula et al., 2023), among others, research focusing on vibrotactile feedback offers mixed findings. In particular, some research suggests vibrotactile feedback increases willingness to pay (e.g., Hampton & Hildebrand, 2020). ...
... Yet, others find the opposite (e.g., Manshad & Brannon, 2021). Still, recent evidence indicates that purchase amounts and intentions can be greater when vibrotactile feedback is present, but this is contingent upon vibration perception and consumers' need for touch (Racat & Plotkina, 2023). As such, does vibrotactile feedback have a positive impact on consumers' decision making, and if so, across what dimensions related to decision making? ...
... Second, extant research has important design limitations that could potentially contribute to inconsistencies in findings. For instance, Racat and Plotkina (2023) find that the perceived (not the physical) vibration increases purchase intention and willingness to pay. However, they indicated that relying on a noncontrolled environment in their main study could have affected their results. ...
Consumers increasingly purchase through m‐channels, including apps. Accordingly, marketers have enhanced immersive, sensorial aspects of m‐channels, such as including vibrations while making in‐app purchases. Given discrepant findings, it remains unclear whether adding such vibrotactile feedback affects consumer decision making. The present research addresses: (1) Whether adding vibrotactile feedback influences consumers' anticipated product satisfaction and purchase confidence, and (2) if so, how? Through an online pilot survey, two online experiments, and one lab experiment, this research finds that adding vibrotactile feedback to m‐channels increases consumers' anticipated product satisfaction, but not purchase confidence. Moreover, perceived ownership mediates this effect, because the vibrations offer a sense of control over the product during the purchase process. This research makes several contributions. First, it documents that control elicited via vibrations offers an alternative means to psychological ownership, as opposed to imagining touch. Second, we offer this haptic route as a means to achieve the stimulation motivation driving perceived ownership, different from prior visual routes. Third, it potentially reconciles literature conflicts regarding the effect of vibrotactile feedback on consumer decision making.
... Online surveys offer the advantage of being less constrained by time and location; however, the sampling process may be limited, which can affect the level of concentration among survey participants [72,73]. The Clickworker platform has been widely used by researchers for data collection [74][75][76], and it can be inferred that the data quality obtained from Clickworker is reliable for statistical inference. This study initially presented short videos to the participants to help them understand the drone delivery service. ...
Drone delivery services have attracted increasing interest in the retail business market. Drone delivery services have both positive and negative aspects considering privacy risk and eco-friendliness. Given these points, this work investigates the relationships between privacy risk, attitudes, and the intention to use. This work also explores the moderating effects of gender and the eco-friendliness of drone delivery services using stakeholder theory as a theoretical underpinning. This research thus used a survey as an instrument. This work recruited survey participants through the Clickworker platform service. The number of observations was 409. To test the research hypotheses, this study used Hayes Process Macro Model 7. The results revealed that privacy risk negatively affects attitudes. Additionally, the results revealed that attitude is positively associated with the intention to use. Plus, this research revealed the significant moderating effects of gender and eco-friendliness on the impact of privacy risk on attitude. This research contributes to the literature by documenting market information for drone delivery services. Additionally, the managerial implications of this work are presented.
... CLT explains how individuals allocate and utilize cognitive resources when solving problems or making decisions, reflecting the costs and burdens imposed on working memory by the focal task (Sweller, 1988). In online shopping situations, cognitive processing plays a crucial role in the purchase process (Racat & Plotkina, 2023). According to the CLT, individuals have limited cognitive resources. ...
... The sense of autonomy consumers generate spontaneously when interacting with relevant haptic cues is a crucial factor driving their purchase decisions (Racat and Plotkina 2023). The emergence of virtual haptics is related to the interaction of individual proprioceptive matching. ...
The emergence of Virtual Reality (VR) technology offers a novel approach to enhancing consumers’ shopping experiences. It not only enables more detailed product presentations but also allows consumers to meet their shopping needs in a highly immersive environment. In this process, consumers’ tactile experiences with products play a crucial role. This article focuses on the virtual touch process of consumers in VR shopping contexts. Drawing upon the body model hypothesis, peri-personal space theory, and embodied cognition theory, and leveraging research methods from psychology, including field experiments, laboratory experiments, and online experiments, the article explores through three investigations how consumers’ virtual touch via a virtual hand in VR impacts their sense of body ownership, haptic imagery, and product evaluation. It is suggested that virtual hand touch in VR scenarios positively impacts consumers’ product evaluation. The sense of body ownership and haptic imagery serve as chain-mediating factors in this process. Furthermore, consumers’ autonomy in virtual hand manipulation emerges as a moderating role, where a heightened sense of autonomy enhances their product evaluation. Virtual touch facilitated by VR technology can not only significantly enrich consumers’ haptic experience, but also provide valuable management insights for retailers to develop innovative VR marketing strategies.
... This study recruited participants via the Clickworker platform (https://www.clickworker. com, accessed on 23 April 2024), which is commonly used by social science researchers for this purpose [46,47]. The data collection period was 24-27 April 2024. ...
This study explores the relationship between psychological risk, price fairness, and brand trust in consumers of bottled water. We also tested the moderating effect of nutritional disclosure on the impacts of psychological risk and eco-friendly packaging on price fairness. We analyzed the data of 308 participants recruited via the Clickworker platform. Hayes’ PROCESS macro model 7 was employed to test the hypotheses. Price fairness was negatively influenced by psychological risk. Moreover, brand trust was significantly impacted by psychological risk and price fairness, with a significant moderating effect of nutritional disclosure on the relationship between eco-friendly packaging and price fairness. This work adds to the literature by identifying the relationship among four factors relevant to bottled water businesses.
... Silva et al. (2021) found that verbal haptic cues influence imagery and consumer behavior more than visual information. Additionally, haptic effects can shape consumer behavior and hold economic value in online shopping (Racat and Plotkina, 2023;Silva et al., 2021). In the fashion retail metaverse, the haptic effect enables users to experience tactile sensations, such as the texture or feel of virtual clothing items, thereby enriching their experience, and possibly leading to better engagement (Yang, 2024). ...
Purpose
The study investigates the relationship between social presence dimensions and customer brand engagement (CBE) as well as the relation between customer brand engagement and purchase intention (PI) in the fashion retail metaverse with self-efficacy moderating between CBE and PI.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were gathered by conducting an online survey ( n = 476) from young adults exposed to fashion retail metaverse platforms. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings discovered that social presence dimensions positively impact CBE, which substantially impacts the PI of young consumers in the fashion retail metaverse. The findings demonstrate that self-efficacy moderates the relationship between CBE and PI.
Research limitations/implications
This study uses cross-sectional data in the fashion retail metaverse for young consumers. Future studies can use longitudinal data in the context of other industries and demographic profiles to assess changing customer behavior.
Practical implications
This study implies that customer experiences can be enriched through social presence dimensions, helping brands adapt their offers to create more engaging and rewarding customer interactions. It offers insights for brand managers aiming to augment the relationship between CBE and PI.
Originality/value
The study uniquely explores the relationship between social presence dimensions and CBE within the fashion retail metaverse. It examines self-efficacy as a moderator between CBE and PI, providing fresh insights into consumer behavior in the fashion retail metaverse.
... The generation of virtual touch is essentially a psychological and perceptual process (Racat & Plotkina, 2023). When consumers watch the video introduction of the e-commerce platform or listen to the anchor's detailed description of a product, they will psychologically simulate a tactile feeling based on their previous tactile experience, such as the hardness of the hand, the temperature of the material, the smoothness of the surface, etc. ...
In the digital age, e-commerce livestreamers have notably impacted consumer purchasing behavior. This study investigates how their professionalism affects consumers' purchase intentions, focusing on the mediating role of perceived value and the moderating role of virtual touch. We collected the data from 559 consumers using a questionnaire survey and analyzed it using structural equation modeling and multiple linear regression. The findings reveal that e-commerce livestreamers’ professionalism significantly enhances consumers' purchase intentions and perceived value. Perceived value, in turn, positively impacts purchase intentions. Moreover, perceived value mediates the relationship between livestreamers' professionalism and purchase intentions, while virtual touch positively moderates the link between professionalism and perceived value. This study demonstrates that livestreamers’ professionalism directly boosts consumers' purchase intentions and indirectly does so by increasing perceived value. Additionally, virtual touch strengthens the positive effect of livestreamers’ professionalism on perceived value, further encouraging consumer purchasing behavior. This research enriches the theoretical foundation of consumer behavior in e-commerce and offers practical insights for e-commerce platforms and livestreamers.
... Multimodal feedback systems involve the integration of auditory, visual, and haptic feedback to enhance shopping experiences by making them more immersive and engaging. For instance, by integrating haptic feedback, it is possible to replicate the tactile sensation of objects, enhancing the virtual shopping experience by making it more realistic and captivating [57]. ...
This article examines the incorporation of the Shopping Assistance Automatic Suggestion (SAAS) model into Virtual Reality (VR) environments in order to improve the online shopping experience. The SAAS model employs sophisticated deep learning methods to offer customized product recommendations, which are conveyed by non-player characters (NPCs) via voice-based interactions. Our goal is to develop an interactive shopping experience that replicates real-life interactions by integrating AI-powered recommendations with immersive VR technology. We gather and standardize data from several open commerce databases, such as Amazon Product and Customer Reviews. The SAAS model, in conjunction with GPT-3, BERT, and T5, undergoes training and testing to evaluate its effectiveness across multiple criteria. The results demonstrate that the SAAS model surpasses other models in delivering contextually aware and pertinent recommendations. The integration process outlines the specific steps involved in capturing, processing, and transforming user interactions in virtual reality (VR) into vocal suggestions provided by non-player characters (NPCs). This strategy improves customization and utilizes the immersive features of virtual reality to effectively engage people. The results of our research establish a higher standard for e-commerce, with the goal of enhancing the user experience of online purchasing by making it more instinctive, engaging, and pleasurable.
... accessed on 30 January 2024) for data collection. Many studies have used Clickworkers for data collection, which enables researchers to guess that data quality is likely to be assured in Clickworker systems [51,52]. The targets of the data collection were native English speakers in the US, and survey participants had to be older than 20 years old. ...
This work focused on the perception of the food healthiness of in-flight meals. This work adopts presentation as the determinant. This work also employs attitude as the consequence of food healthiness. This research also examines the moderating effect of familiarity on the relationship between food presentation and food healthiness. This research used a survey, and survey participants were recruited via a Clickworker platform service. Survey participants were experienced with in-flight meals. The number of observations was 317. Moreover, this research tested the research hypotheses using the Hayes process macro Model 7. The results revealed that food healthiness is positively influenced by presentation and that food healthiness positively affects attitude. Moreover, the results revealed that the type of presentation has a positive influence on attitude. Familiarity was a significant moderating variable for the relationship between food presentation and food healthiness. This work sheds light on the literature by identifying the associations among four attributes of in-flight meals. Additionally, the results of this study could be used as a reference to develop better in-flight meals.
... For data collection, this work adopted a clickworker (https://www.clickworker.com/). Many studies have adopted clickworker data for statistical inference (Garaus & Hudáková, 2022;Kremer et al., 2022;Racat & Plotkina, 2023). Such outcomes are likely to provide evidence for ensuring the quality of clickworker data. ...
The aim of this research is to scrutinize the behavioral characteristics of tourists who engage in drug tourism. This research explores the relationships among packaging, antidrug information, attitudes, and behavioral intentions in the domain of drug tourism. This research employed antidrug information as the moderating variable. This research collected the data using a survey via the clickworker platform. The number of valid observations was 200. To test the research hypotheses, this work implemented the Hayes process macro Model 7. The results showed that packaging positively impacts both attitudes and behavioral intentions. Additionally, antidrug information significantly moderates the association between packaging and attitude. Moreover, attitude exerts a positive effect on behavioral intention. This research sheds light on the literature by presenting the behavioral characteristics of tourists in the case of drug tourism. Additionally, the practical implications of this work are discussed.
In the constantly evolving online shopping world, sensory marketing is crucial for creating engaging experiences for consumers. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of sensory marketing, highlighting its importance in enhancing the online purchasing experience. It focuses on tactile, visual, and aural cues that influence consumer behavior, emotions, perceptions, and product selection. This section emphasizes visual sensory marketing, examining the impact of high-quality product images, videos, and 3D models, as well as the use of color, typeface, and layout in creating visually appealing online stores. It also explores virtual trials, haptic technologies, and product interaction functionalities, addressing challenges and opportunities in providing tactile feedback in digital environments. Furthermore, it delves into how immersive technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality enhance sensory experiences and product exploration, affecting consumer choices and emphasizing the integration of sensory marketing strategies into e-commerce.
This study investigates the intricate relationship between sensory perceptions and financial choices through a neuroscientific perspective, addressing two key research questions: (1) How are sensory perceptions and financial choices related? (2) How is neuro sensory behavior important in investment decision-making? By integrating insights from neuroscience and behavioral finance, we aim to uncover the mechanisms by which sensory inputs influence economic behaviors and decision-making processes. Our conceptual, literature-based exploration reveals those sensory perceptions—encompassing visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and gustatory stimuli—play a critical role in shaping financial decisions. These sensory inputs are processed by neural systems, affecting cognitive functions and emotional responses, which in turn influence risk perception, time preference, and overall financial choices. This study highlights that financial decisions are not solely based on rational calculations but are deeply intertwined with sensory experiences and emotional states.
Consumers with a high autotelic need for touch tend to experience deprivation because they cannot touch products while shopping online. Augmented reality (AR) in retail allows consumers to explore products virtually as if they were present in the physical environment, except the fact that they are not touchable. This research investigates whether AR can compensate for this lack of touch or whether, on the contrary, these consumers are skeptical because they crave even more real haptic input. The results of four studies consistently show that consumers' autotelic need for touch is associated with benefits that positively impact various managerially relevant outcomes such as store and product attitudes or purchase intentions. However, the results also point to differences between expected and experienced hedonic and utilitarian benefits along the customer journey. Hedonic benefits prevail when consumers with a high need for touch actually experience AR, while they instead expect utilitarian benefits. The findings contribute to the AR marketing and online retailing literature by demonstrating that AR features can mimic touchable features of products. They also highlight the practical benefits of AR as a powerful tool in digital marketing.
Retail is rapidly evolving to construct virtual environments for consumers. Online product images, videos, and virtual reality (VR) interfaces enliven consumer experiences and are a source of product information. Since consumers are unable to physically touch products in these digital environments, this research considers vicarious touch, or the observation of a hand in physical contact with a product in a digital environment. Across eight studies, the authors use images, GIFs, and VR to show that vicarious touch affects consumers’ psychological ownership and product valuation due to the active nature of product touch which results in a felt sense of body ownership of the virtual hand. This is termed the vicarious haptic effect. Results demonstrate that it is not simply enough to have a hand in an advertisement, the hand must be touching a product. The vicarious haptic effect is strongest for people who become highly stimulated by an immersive VR experience (i.e., measured via the elevation in heart rate). The vicarious haptic effect is attenuated if the viewed interaction does not represent a diagnostic hand movement. The authors discuss theoretical and managerial implications for digital product presentation in order to encourage feelings of product ownership and valuation.
This paper examines the variables influencing a consumer's satisfaction and continuous use of a multichannel retailer's mobile application. Drawing upon the Expectation Confirmation Model for Information Technologies, post-adoption literature, and consumer behavior literature, we assess pertinent factors on the continuous usage of multichannel retailers' mobile apps. Through a sample of 1009 consumers who retained a retailer's mobile app for more than 6 months and conducting Structural Equation Modelling, the findings illustrate that utilitarian variables (perceived usefulness, ease of use, and personalization), hedonic variables (perceived enjoyment), and a brand-related variable (consumer loyalty intention toward the retailer's brand), play a significant role in influencing continuous usage of multichannel retailers' mobile apps. In contrast to e-commerce research, the study outlines that escapism plays a negative role in both consumer satisfaction and intention to continue to use a multichannel retailer's mobile app. Previous research points to the fact that consumers' retention of retailers' apps is low. This paper contributes to the emerging literature on consumers' continuous use of retailers' mobile apps through enhancing our understanding of technology and non-technology-related variables.
Order increases, supply chain disruptions, changing customer behavior, store closures, and more that have been caused by the coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19) will undoubtedly affect the online commerce forms of business. The coronavirus pandemic has a significant impact on digitalization and customer experience and well-being in mobile commerce. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, online sales and the number of online shoppers using wireless internet-enabled devices have increased tremendously. The article develops, an experimental study that captures COVID-19 and digital commerce’s impact in terms of customers’ experience and well-being during the pandemic period. The study explores the synergy between technology evolution and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on customers’ behavior based on survey data collection and the technology acceptance model (TAM). The results reveal that, for millennials, digital commerce seems to be the typical way of shopping and paying in the pandemic period since the oldest generations adopted in a smaller proportion the use of mobile devices for shopping and payments. Besides, retailers are confronted with great challenges raised by millennials’ expectations. The result confirms four of the six hypotheses based on the technology acceptance model (TAM). As a result, it shows that the easiness of use, trust, mobility, and customer involvement influences the behavioral intention of the customer to use mobile commerce, and that usefulness and customization does not influence the behavioral intention.
This paper describes the design and preliminary test of a virtual reality driving simulator capable of conveying haptic and visual messages to promote eco-sustainable driving behavior. The driving simulator was implemented through the Unity game engine; a large street environment, including high-speed and urban sections, was created to examine different driving behaviors. The hardware setup included a gaming driving seat, equipped with a steering wheel and pedals; the virtual scenarios were displayed through an Oculus Rift headset to guarantee an immersive experience. Haptic stimulation (i.e., vibrations) was delivered to the driver through the accelerator pedal, while visual stimuli (i.e., icons and colors) were shown on a virtual head-up display. The sensory feedbacks were presented both alone and in combination, providing information about excessive acceleration and speed. Four different virtual scenarios, each one including a distracting element (i.e., navigator, rain, call, and traffic), were also created. Ten participants tested the simulator. Fuel consumption was evaluated by calculating a mean power index (MPI) in reference to the sensory feedback presentation; physiological reactions and responses to a usability survey were also collected. The results revealed that the haptic and visuo-haptic feedback were responsible for an MPI reduction, respectively, for 14% and 11% compared with a condition of no feedback presentation; while visual feedback alone resulted in an MPI increase of 11%. The efficacy of haptic feedback was also accompanied by a more relaxing physiological state of the users, compared with the visual stimulation. The system's usability was adequate, although haptic stimuli were rated slightly more intrusive than the visual ones. Overall, these preliminary results highlight how promising the use of the haptic channel can be in communicating and guiding the driver toward a more eco-sustainable behavior.
Online retailers are increasingly using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies to solve mental and physical intangibility issues in a product evaluation. Moreover, the technologies are easily available and accessible to consumers via their smartphones. The authors conducted three experiments to examine consumer responses to technology interfaces (AR/VR and mobile apps) for hedonic and utilitarian products. The results show that AR is easier to use (vs. app), and users find AR more responsive when buying a hedonic (vs. utilitarian) product. Touch interface users are likely to have a more satisfying experience and greater recommendation intentions, as compared with AR, for buying utilitarian products. In contrast, a multisensory environment (AR) results in a better user experience for purchasing a hedonic product. Moreover, multisensory technologies lead to higher visual appeal, emotional appeal, and purchase intentions. The research contributes to the literature on computer‐mediated interactions in a multisensory environment and proposes actionable recommendations to online marketers.
According to the grounded perspective, cognition emerges from the interaction of classic cognitive processes with the modalities, the body, and the environment. Rather than being an autonomous impenetrable module, cognition incorporates these other domains intrinsically into its operation. The Situated Action Cycle offers one way of understanding how the modalities, the body, and the environment become integrated to ground cognition. Seven challenges and opportunities are raised for this perspective: (1) How does cognition emerge from the Situated Action Cycle and in turn support it? (2) How can we move beyond simply equating embodiment with action, additionally establishing how embodiment arises in the autonomic, neuroendocrine, immune, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, and integumentary systems? (3) How can we better understand the mechanisms underlying multimodal simulation, its functions across the Situated Action Cycle, and its integration with other representational systems? (4) How can we develop and assess theoretical accounts of symbolic processing from the grounded perspective (perhaps using the construct of simulators)? (5) How can we move beyond the simplistic distinction between concrete and abstract concepts, instead addressing how concepts about the external and internal worlds pattern to support the Situated Action Cycle? (6) How do individual differences emerge from different populations of situational memories as the Situated Action Cycle manifests itself differently across individuals? (7) How can constructs from grounded cognition provide insight into the replication and generalization crises, perhaps from a quantum perspective on mechanisms (as exemplified by simulators).
Prior research has assumed that touch has a persuasive effect only if it provides attribute or structural information about a product. Under this view, the role of touch as a persuasive tool is limited. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the persuasive influence of touch as an affective tool in the absence of useful product-related information. The authors find that for people who are motivated to touch because it is fun or interesting, a communication that incorporates touch leads to increased affective response and increased persuasion, particularly when the touch provides neutral or positive sensory feedback. People who are not motivated to touch for fun will also be persuaded by a communication that incorporates touch when they are able to make sense of how the touch is related to the message. The authors explore the effectiveness of different types of touch in generating an affective response, and they replicate the effects on attitudes and behavior in a real-world setting. This research suggests that the marketing implications of touch are more substantial than previously believed. The authors present research implications for direct marketing, product packaging, point-of-purchase displays, and print advertising.
We review the current technology underlying surface haptics that converts passive touch surfaces to active ones (machine haptics), our perception of tactile stimuli displayed through touch surfaces (human haptics), their potential applications (human-machine interaction), and finally the challenges ahead of us in making them available through commercial systems. This review primarily covers the tactile interactions of human fingers or hands with surface-haptics displays by focusing on the three most popular actuation methods: vibrotactile, electrostatic, and ultrasonic.
In light of consumers’ growing dependence on their smartphones, this article investigates the nature of the relationship that consumers form with their smartphone and its underlying mechanisms. We propose that in addition to obvious functional benefits, consumers in fact derive emotional benefits from their smartphone—in particular, feelings of psychological comfort and, if needed, actual stress relief. In other words, in a sense, smartphones are not unlike adult pacifiers. This psychological comfort arises from a unique combination of properties that turn smartphones into a reassuring presence for their owners: the portability of the device, its personal nature, the subjective sense of privacy experienced while on the device, and the haptic gratification it affords. Results from one large-scale field study and three laboratory experiments support the proposed underlying mechanisms and document downstream consequences of the psychological comfort that smartphones provide. The findings show, for example, that (a) in moments of stress, consumers exhibit a greater tendency to seek out their smartphone (study 2); and (b) engaging with one’s smartphone provides greater stress relief than engaging in the same activity with a comparable device such as one’s laptop (study 3) or a similar smartphone belonging to someone else (study 4).
A popular trend within the fashion industry is to transform recycled plastic bottles into attire, though little research has examined consumer acceptance of these items. This study integrates evolutionary perspectives on contagion, contamination, and the emotion of disgust to explore consumer perception of such goods. Across three studies, this study shows that consumers view products made from used recycled plastic bottles as contaminated, decreasing purchase intentions. Further, this contamination perception is heightened among those with high disgust sensitivity. This study also shows an important boundary condition to this effect, where consumers express greater intentions to use a product made from recycled plastic bottles when it is not touching the skin (e.g., carrying bag) compared to those that are in contact with skin (e.g., T‐shirt). Finally, this study shows how marketers can harness this effect by exploiting the evolutionary response to attractive others using the plastic bottles, which results in positive contamination and an increase in willingness to pay. In so doing, the current research is the first to show that highlighting the recycled nature of a product can actually serve as a contamination cue, adding to our theoretical understanding of perceived contamination and the resulting emotion of disgust.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effects of purchase environment, product type and need for touch (NFT) on cognitive response, affective response and overall product evaluation in the USA and India.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments were conducted in two different consumer markets. In Study 1, participants evaluated haptic and non-haptic products and gave responses on cognitive response, affective response and overall product evaluation measures in the US market. In Study 2, the authors replicate Study 1 in a culturally different market of India and extend Study 1 by examining the moderating role of instrumental and autotelic dimensions of NFT on the effect of purchase environment on cognitive and affective responses.
Findings
Research findings suggest that cognitive and affective responses are the underlying mechanism between the purchase environment and overall response only for haptic product among Indian consumers. In contrast, affective response is the underlying mechanism explaining this relationship among US consumers. Furthermore, the instrumental dimension of NFT moderates the impact of purchase environment on cognitive but the autotelic NFT moderates the effect of purchase environment on affective response only for the haptic product but not for the non-haptic product.
Research limitations/implications
The study uses a relatively homogenous sample in the Indian market in contrast to the US market.
Practical implications
Results advance the understanding of the importance of haptic information processing in consumer decision-making across different purchase environments, product types and NFT using psychological distance (proximity) as a theoretical underpinning. With non-haptic shopping environments (i.e. online and mobile) growing rapidly, the results have critical implications for development of marketing strategies in Asian and US markets.
Originality/value
Empirical research examining the underlying mechanism by which purchase environment influences overall evaluation for haptic product is scarce. Additionally, understanding of the differential roles of instrumental and autotelic dimensions of NFT on cognitive and affective responses is very limited. This research fills this void and provides an understanding of the specific environment in evaluating haptic and non-haptic products in two distinct markets.
This paper introduces a conceptual framework for understanding new and futuristic in-store technology infusions. First, we develop a 2 × 2 typology of different innovative and futuristic technologies focusing on their level of convenience and social presence for the consumer. Next, we offer a series of propositions based on the idea that convenience and social presence can trigger vividness by enhancing consumer involvement, imagery, and elaboration, which ultimately leads to enhanced sales. Finally, the paper then focuses on four moderating areas—consumer traits, product/service dimensions, mental models and social networks—to understand how they might impact the vividness experienced via the technology.
Consumers can use alternative methods to interact with or access a brand through their mobile devices. They can type a response using a touchscreen keyboard (touch interaction) or use voice response while holding a mobile device (combined voice and touch interaction). In this study, we look at the impact of these different types of interaction on personal engagement and the effect on brand trust as relevant concerns to managers in the digital, mediated context. Using a framework based on sensory marketing and Dual Coding Theory, we conducted 2 one-way between-subjects experiments with a two-level interface interaction considering a hedonic product (Experiment 1) and utilitarian product (Experiment 2). Findings confirm a three-way interaction such that the impact of privacy concern on the relationship between personal engagement and trust depends on the nature of the platform interaction; touch vs. combined touch and voice. We also find that adding voice to the platform interface has the counterintuitive effect of reducing engagement with that platform. All in all, our results provide novel insights into the role of touch and voice in the online context when it comes to consumers' decision-making.
Driving a car is a highly visual task. Despite the trend towards increased driver assistance and autonomous vehicles, drivers still need to interact with the car for both driving and non-driving relevant tasks, at times simultaneously. The often-resulting high cognitive load is a safety issue, which can be addressed by providing the driver with alternative feedback modalities, such as haptics. Recent trends in the automotive industry are moving towards the seamless integration of control elements through touch-sensitive surfaces. Psychological knowledge on optimally utilizing haptic technologies remains limited. The literature on automotive haptic feedback consists mainly of singular findings without putting them into a broader user context with respect to haptic design of interfaces. Moreover, haptic feedback has primarily been limited to the confirmation of control actions rather than the searching or finding of control elements, the latter of which becomes particularly important considering the current trends. This paper presents an integrated framework on haptic processing in automotive user interfaces and provides guidelines for haptic design of user interfaces in car interiors.
People are increasingly purchasing (e.g., food, clothes) and consuming (e.g., movies, courses) online where, traditionally, the sensory interaction has mostly been limited to visual, and to a lesser extent auditory, inputs. However, other sensory interfaces (e.g., including touch screens, together with a range of virtual, and augmented solutions) are increasingly being made available to people to interact online. Moreover, recent progress in the field of human-computer interaction means that online environments will likely engage more of the senses and become more connected with offline environments in the coming years. This expansion will likely coincide with an increasing engagement with the consumer's more emotional senses, namely touch/haptics, and possibly even olfaction. Forward-thinking marketers and researchers will therefore need to appropriate the latest tools/technologies in order to deliver richer online experiences for tomorrow's consumers. This review is designed to help the interested reader better understand what sensory marketing in a digital context can offer, thus hopefully opening the way for further research and development in the area.
The inclination to touch objects that we can see is a surprising behaviour, given that vision often supplies relevant and sufficiently accurate sensory evidence. Here we suggest that this 'fact-checking' phenomenon could be explained if touch provides a higher level of perceptual certainty than vision. Testing this hypothesis, observers explored inverted T-shaped stimuli eliciting the 16 Vertical-horizontal illusion in vision and touch, which included clear-cut and ambiguous cases. In separate blocks, observers judged whether the vertical bar was shorter or longer than the horizontal bar and rated the confidence in their judgments. Decisions reached by vision were objectively more accurate than those reached by touch with higher overall confidence ratings. However, while confidence was higher for vision rather than for touch in clear-cut cases, observers were more confident in touch when the stimuli were ambiguous. This relative bias as a function of ambiguity qualifies the view that confidence tracks objective accuracy and uses a comparable mapping across sensory modalities. Employing a perceptual illusion, our method disentangles objective and subjective accuracy showing how the latter is tracked by confidence and point towards possible origins for 'fact checking' by touch.
Cross-sectional studies of attitude-behavior relationships are vulnerable to the inflation of correlations by common method variance (CMV). Here, a model is presented that allows partial correlation analysis to adjust the observed correlations for CMV contamination and determine if conclusions about the statistical and practical significance of a predictor have been influenced by the presence of CMV. This method also suggests procedures for designing questionnaires to increase the precision of this adjustment.
This article illustrates that haptic touch, the sensation of gaining and sending information through the hand, can improve mobile retailing advertisements’ effectiveness. To date, (haptic) touch has been predominantly thought of as a sensation only possible for physical retail settings, with limited theoretical or empirical evidence of its existence in mobile retailing advertising in the current literature. This study presents a model which includes interactivity, value, involvement, brand attitude and purchase intentions in a singular model for the first time. The model is comparatively examined across haptic touch (n = 303) versus non-haptic touch (n = 359) conditions using structural equation modelling (SEM) multi-group test of invariance. The findings demonstrate haptic touch improves the experience of advertisements and this strengthens purchase intentions, whereas for the non-haptic touch condition, results demonstrate the actual brand being advertised should be leveraged to increase purchase intentions. These findings present a new theoretical perspective that haptic touch is now a sensation which can be engaged in mobile and digital retail settings and provides an important foundation for future research.
Retail shopping research recognizes that other consumers in a store can impact a consumer's experience. However, the effects of accidental interpersonal touch (AIT) are only beginning to emerge in the literature. The current research presents three field experiments to illuminate the process that drives AIT effects. This research is the first to show that AIT effects are driven by arousal; specifically tense arousal rather than energetic arousal. The findings build on prior research to investigate moderators of the AIT effect—trait anxiety and social visibility. The findings show that AIT effects are amplified for anxious female consumers and situations where store bystanders activate feelings of embarrassment. Theoretical and managerial implications are offered.
Research suggests that people around the world spend anywhere from an hour to as much as ten hours daily on their smartphones. However, the vast majority of this research has used self-reported data, which is widely considered unreliable. The present research is among the first to capture actual smartphone use and to examine its relationship with individual and relational well-being. Results reveal that, although smartphone use is generally negatively associated with well-being, this is not always so. Deeper analyses show that certain categories of apps are positively associated with well-being, thus revealing a more nuanced relationship between smartphone use and individual well-being. Research which suggests a negative association between smartphone use and well-being may represent an oversimplified perspective of a complex relationship.
Purpose
A major factor hampering the continuing and explosive rise of e-commerce, particularly for experience goods, is the lack of tactile information that could help to reduce uncertainty in consumer purchase decision making online. The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific touch-related properties worthwhile to enable in online retailing and the type of customer value that can be provided, as well as the drivers and barriers for consumer acceptance toward touch-enabling technologies for online shopping.
Design/methodology/approach
By means of consumer focus groups, the authors address the research questions regarding touch-related properties, their value to consumers, and the drivers and barriers for consumer acceptance by taking into consideration two specific touch-enabling technologies.
Findings
The study reveals that touch-enabling technologies can provide utilitarian and hedonic value to consumers, mainly at the pre-purchase stages in the path-to-purchase. Valuable applications conceived by consumers primarily pertain to offering information on material and geometric product properties. A hurdle for consumer adoption seems to be the necessity of a dedicated output device, such as a glove.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the early development stage of the new technologies under investigation, this study is exploratory in nature. The findings should be validated in the future, once these technologies actually get introduced for online marketing purposes.
Practical implications
This study aims to raise awareness among online retailers about marketing opportunities comprised of touch-enabling technology.
Originality/value
The authors provide a first outlook with regard to future consumer acceptance of touch-enabling technologies in online shopping and how and when such technologies can provide consumer value.
Data collection in consumer research has progressively moved away from traditional samples (e.g., university undergraduates) and toward Internet samples. In the last complete volume of the Journal of Consumer Research (June 2015-April 2016), 43% of behavioral studies were conducted on the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The option to crowdsource empirical investigations has great efficiency benefits for both individual researchers and the field, but it also poses new challenges and questions for how research should be designed, conducted, analyzed, and evaluated. We assess the evidence on the reliability of crowdsourced populations and the conditions under which crowdsourcing is a valid strategy for data collection. Based on this evidence, we propose specific guidelines for researchers to conduct high-quality research via crowdsourcing. We hope this tutorial will strengthen the community's scrutiny on data collection practices and move the field toward better and more valid crowdsourcing of consumer research.
Provides a nontechnical introduction to the partial least squares (PLS) approach. As a logical base for comparison, the PLS approach for structural path estimation is contrasted to the covariance-based approach. In so doing, a set of considerations are then provided with the goal of helping the reader understand the conditions under which it might be reasonable or even more appropriate to employ this technique. This chapter builds up from various simple 2 latent variable models to a more complex one. The formal PLS model is provided along with a discussion of the properties of its estimates. An empirical example is provided as a basis for highlighting the various analytic considerations when using PLS and the set of tests that one can employ is assessing the validity of a PLS-based model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Technology forecasting is a preliminary step in understanding social change. The response to COVID-19 will affect retailers and customers for years to come, forcing changes to interactions between individuals and technology. Innovative technologies that interrelate social and technological factors merit a re-examination, to explain the impact on consumer behavior where ‘physical’ and ‘digital’ are brought together. This paper explores the use of haptic rendering stimulation for pre-purchase decision-making. The objective is to identify how touching an interface can influence product evaluation and purchase intention. Drawing from an exploratory experimental design, the findings show the importance of interface touch for inferring product information or pleasure to interact with the product, confirming the relationship between knowledge and mental representation, body sensory-motor actions and online shopping contexts.
Increasingly interactive touch-enabling technologies are mitigating the lack of haptic information for products
online. This paper explores how consumers’ haptic traits – instrumental and autotelic – indirectly influence their
impulse buying and channel stickiness intentions by the means of utilitarian and hedonic shopping motivations.
A structural equation model investigating three shopping channels (i.e., physical, web, and mobile) reveals that
haptic traits act differently across channels. Consumers with strong haptic traits prefer physical and mobile
channels. The autotelic dimension is key in online channels. Findings support the implementation of effective
multichannel strategies among retailers of high-haptic products, showing the mobile to be a valuable alternative
to in-store shopping.
Firms use mobile applications to engage with customers, provide services, and encourage customer purchase. Conventional wisdom and past research indicate that apps have a positive effect on customer spending. The authors critically examine this premise in a highly competitive institutional context by estimating how customers’ multichannel spending changes after adopting an app of a hotel and identifying the factors contributing to such change. Exploiting the variation in customers’ timing of app adoption and using a difference-in-differences approach, the authors find that the effect of app adoption on customers’ overall spending is significant and negative. Additional analyses suggest the possibility that customers who adopt the focal app also adopt competitor apps, and therefore search more and shop around, leading to decreased share of wallet with the focal hotel chain. While the authors find a group of customers whose spending increases post adoption, they also find that the negative effect on spending is smaller for customers who use the app for mobile check-in service than those who use the app for only searching, highlighting the role of app engagement in mitigating the negative effect.
Although consumers like to touch products while shopping, the authors propose a theory of consumer contamination, positing that consumers evaluate products previously touched by other shoppers less favorably. The authors test the theory by manipulating cues that increase the salience that consumer contact has occurred. Furthermore, the authors investigate the role of disgust as the underlying mechanism of the theory.
Individuals often experience incidental device-delivered haptic feedback (e.g., vibrational alerts accompanying messages on mobile phones and wearables), yet almost no research has examined the psychological and behavioral implications of technology-mediated touch on consumers. Drawing from theories in social psychology and computer science, we explore how device-delivered haptic feedback may have the capability to augment consumer responses to certain consumer-directed communications. Across four studies, we find that haptic alerts accompanying messages can improve consumer performance on related tasks and demonstrate that this effect is driven by an increased sense of social presence in what can otherwise feel like an impersonal technological exchange. These findings provide applied value for mobile marketers and gadget designers, and carry important implications for consumer compliance in health and fitness domains.
The challenge for omnichannel retailers is to offer a seamless experience across all touchpoints. However, there is a lack of research that provides theoretical and empirical evidence about how firms can create such experiences. The aim of the current research is to analyse: (1) the concept of omnichannel seamless interaction experience (OSIE) and (2) its effect on customer satisfaction with the interaction. Based on a systematic literature review and running a content analysis, consistency, freedom in channel selection, and synchronisation across channels were identified as OSIE dimensions. In two studies and using two methods, a survey and a controlled experiment, these OSIE dimensions and downstream effects were tested. The findings confirm the multidimensionality of OSIE – composed of consistency, synchronisation, and freedom in channel selection – and its positive effect on customer satisfaction with the interaction.
Online grocery retailing lags behind other product categories in e-commerce. This article focuses on consumers’ need for touch (NFT) as a psychological explanation for this issue. In two studies, consumers rate their perception of produce offered in an online shop. Specifically, consumers assess quality concerns, affective response, and willingness to pay (WTP) in offline versus online retail contexts. Results demonstrate that high-NFT consumers express higher quality concerns and lower affective response to online offered produce. This negative influence of NFT is stronger if consumers use indirect compared to direct touch interfaces. Further, NFT influences WTP difference between offline and online offered produce. Online retailers therefore need to carefully manage quality concerns and negative perceptions that high-NFT consumers express during online produce shopping. A third study proposes a solution through online videos as visual design features. Displaying haptic evaluations of high-touch diagnostic produce by other consumers successfully negates NFT’s adverse influences.
This book offers an overview of haptic sensation and its influence on consumers’ behaviour, especially in dual and mediated environments where products are accessible through an interface.
After almost three decades, marketers have reached a critical understanding of the importance of consumers’ senses to the processing of brands, products and advertising information. Since the development of the internet, however, there have been questions as to how markets and consumers can reach out to products in different environments. Recent advances in technologies allow sensations to render or stimulate physical sensations similar to the handling of the same product. These emerging possibilities question the way consumers are and will be able to feel a product according to the reality it relies on.
The book begins by defining and discussing haptic consumption, before introducing the challenge of appealing to consumers’ senses in the digital age and examining how marketing managers have overcome this tangible barrier to date. The authors go on to further investigate the role of interfaces in rendering tactile sensations, with a particular focus on technological innovations. Finally, the book presents the authors’ original research in the field and offers a prospective vision of consumption for the coming years.
Margot Racat holds a PhD in Marketing from the University of Lyon and is a researcher at the Magellan Research Center at the IAE Lyon, Jean Moulin University Lyon 3, France. Her research focuses on sensory and digital marketing and particularly on consumption in virtual environments. Her work has been published in various academic and managerial journals (including the French Management Review, the French Marketing Journal, and the Journal of Interactive Marketing).
Sonia Capelli holds a PhD in Marketing from Grenoble University and is a Full Professor at the Magellan Research Center at the IAE Lyon, Jean Moulin University Lyon 3, France. Her research and publications focus on communication political and territorial and on consumer behaviour. Her work has been published in various academic and managerial journals (including the Journal of Advertising Research, the Journal of Product and Brand Management, Psychology and Marketing, the Public Management Review, and Research and Applications in Marketing).
Although scholars describe consumer behaviour as a process of acquisition, consumption, and disposition, limited research is done on disposition decisions, especially in the context of emerging economies. This paper looks into the early work of Jacoby et al. (1977) and the recent seminal work of Cruz-Cardenaz and Arevalo-Chavez (2017) to determine the relationships between external influences and various disposition decisions on smartphones. In particular, it investigates the effect of brand, price, usefulness, compatibility, product attachment and social influence on three types of disposition decisions. A quantitative approach using a self-administered survey was appropriated. The questionnaire was distributed at the universities in Malaysia, and was subsequently collected from those sites with an acceptable response rate. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to perform path modeling analysis. The results show that usefulness, product attachment, and compatibility have positive effects on students' decisions to keep their smartphones. While low product attachment and social influence affect them to dispose their smartphones temporarily, the depreciation of value causes them to discard smartphones permanently. Remarkably, brand and price have no significant impact on disposition decisions, indicating that the function of the smartphone, rather than the device itself, matters more in disposition decisions. The study thus provides more insights into consumer behaviour and its implications on sustainable consumption.
The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive updated review and analysis of mobile retailing adoption. Although research on mobile channel utilization has increased significantly in recent years and many new studies on this topic have been published, research has not yet provided a clear structure regarding how consumers’ expectations have advanced in relation to mobile retailing adoption. Thus, this study synthetizes the mobile retail adoption literature and develops a framework for it. Our systematic literature review analyzed 94 scientific articles that were published between 2010 and 2018 to determine customers’ different expectations and demands during different mobile channel adoption stages. Our findings enhance the understanding of how retailers can serve customers in each stage. In addition, our framework provides opportunities and provokes questions for further research as well as shifts the focus from technology adoption-oriented topics toward customer journeys.
• Highlights
• Customers’ previous mobile shopping experience, their stage of mobile channel use, and the retailing context determine which features are the most valuable.
• In the initial stages of use, when customers are unfamiliar with mobile technologies and thus lack experience on mobile channels, they prefer utilitarian benefits.
• In later stages, when customers are familiar with mobile channels, they value more hedonic aspects.
• A mobile channel is not seen as a purchasing channel but rather as a searching channel. If retailers succeed in turning a mobile channel into a purchasing channel, they can provide deeper and more satisfying customer experiences.
The authors investigate a basic mechanism for shaping attitudes that has largely been ignored by empirical researchers in the marketing discipline. Two experiments are reported in which traditional Pavlovian procedures are merged with a view of conditioning that encourages theorizing about attendant cognitive processes. The data indicate that contingency learning or awareness may be a requirement for successful attitudinal conditioning. Contingency awareness entails conscious recognition of the relational pattern between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli used in a conditioning procedure. In experiment 1, the conditioning procedure affected the evaluative judgments of subjects who were classified (post hoc) as contingency aware. In experiment 2, instructions that promoted contingency learning as part of the procedure again influenced participants’ attitude judgments. Implications are offered for theory development and for constructing advertisements to foster attitudinal conditioning. Specific suggestions for further research on how one might structure television commercials to foster contingency learning also are presented.
Several issues relating to goodness of fit in structural equations are examined. The convergence and differentiation criteria, as applied by Bagozzi, are shown not to stand up under mathematical or statistical analysis. The authors argue that the choice of interpretative statistic must be based on the research objective. They demonstrate that when this is done the Fornell-Larcker testing system is internally consistent and that it conforms to the rules of correspondence for relating data to abstract variables.
This paper defines hedonic consumption as those facets of consumer behavior that relate to the multisensory, fantasy and emotive aspects of product usage experience. After delineating these concepts, their theoretical antecedents are traced, followed by a discussion of differences between the traditional and hedonic views, methodological implications of the latter approach, and behavioral propositions in four substantive areas relevant to hedonic consumption—mental constructs, product classes, product usage and individual differences. Conclusions concern the usefulness of the hedonic perspective in supplementing and extending marketing research on consumer behavior.
Touch has become an inseparable element of mobile platforms. This study examines the use of different touch features and the impact of these touch gestures on consumer engagement with a mobile shopping app. We focus on three informational touch features that are common among shopping apps: touch to zoom in on a page (zoom-page), to view product details (product-view), and to be directed to outside links (open-webpage). We develop a two-level model that captures (1) consumers' decisions to stay with or leave an app and (2) their use of touch features. Our main results empirically demonstrate the strong explanatory power of informational touch gestures, especially their dwell time, in consumer app browsing decisions, whereas navigational touch gestures do not significantly affect app stay likelihood. A longer dwell time and early use of zoom-page within a session encourage the stay. Moreover, we observe strong synergy and antergy (negative synergy) among these touch gestures. The cumulative dwell time and temporal progression of touch gestures affect subsequent touch feature usage. Managerially, our results suggest that an early intervention that encourages the use of zoom-page increases app stay likelihood, and marketers may apply our model to quantify the impact of such interventions on consumer browsing decisions at the individual level. The results also shed light on how marketers can infer the stage of the shopping process based on touch gestures (segmentation) and guide consumers through the purchase funnel by promoting the use of zoom-page and product-view. Lastly, the findings provide insights into how marketers can promote the use of open-webpage, which has the lowest baseline usage rate yet is crucial for transactions, based on the synergy among touch gestures and through improving the non-native browsing experience.
Today's consumers are immersed in a vast and complex array of networks. Each network features an interconnected mesh of people and firms, and now, with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), also objects. Technology (particularly mobile devices) enables such connections, and facilitates many kinds of interactions in these networks—from transactions, to social information sharing, to people interfacing with connected devices (e.g., wearable technology).
We introduce the POP-framework, discuss how People, Objects and the Physical world inter-connect with each other and how it results in an increasing amount of connected data, and briefly summarize existing knowledge on these inter-connections. We also provide an agenda for future research focused on examining potential impact of IoT and smart products on consumer behavior and firm strategies.
As offline retailers struggle to compete with online ones, the importance of a consumer’s ability to touch a product prior to purchase becomes important to study. Prior research has found inconsistent results on whether product touch facilitates consumers’ product-related decision making. Some studies report a positive effect, whereas others do not. The current research reconciles this inconsistency and draws retailing implications. Across three experiments, we show that the effect of product touch on consumers’ purchase intentions and willingness to pay for a product being evaluated is evident when consumers’ mental representation of the product is concrete, but not when abstract. We further show that perceived risk and perceived ownership simultaneously mediate this moderating effect of mental representation. Implications are drawn for both offline and online retailers.
Touchscreen technology has rapidly penetrated the consumer market and embedded itself into our daily lives. Given the pervasiveness of this new phenomenon, we know surprisingly little about its effect on consumers. This research updates academic theory by investigating how newly evolved touchscreen technology affects consumer behavior. Across three lab experiments with university students, we found purchase intentions differ across device and product nature. In particular, this research demonstrates that purchase intention differs between touchscreens and desktop computers. Further, situation-specific thinking style is revealed as an underlying mechanism that contributes to such differences, such that touchscreens evoke a stronger experiential thinking style, while desktops evoke a stronger rational thinking style. Moreover, the findings suggest that greater experiential thinking enhances a consumer's preference towards hedonic products, while greater rational thinking endorses utilitarian products. Together, this pattern leads touchscreen users to prefer hedonic products over utilitarian products. Given the growing usage of touchscreen devices, this research has important implications for consumers, marketers, and policy makers.
As mobile phones have evolved into Smartphones, they have become more than simple communication tools; transforming into personal assistants, entertainment devices and information gateways. There is a need to understand how this rapid transformation and complexity of Smartphone uses have impacted on users’ relationship with their phones. This study presents a thematic analysis of three focus group discussions around attitudes and experiences of owning and using Smartphones. Themes that emerged included a bifurcation in attitudes to Smartphones as simultaneously materialistic objects, and ones which users express anthropomorphic and sentimental views about. Participant accounts reflected the evolution of Smartphones from functional communication devices, to informational and recreational tools. Participants discussed using Smartphones to alleviate boredom and that device usage had become habituated for some users. However, context determined Smartphone use with some participants using them to feel secure while away from familiar settings. Participant accounts provide rich insights into different Smartphones uses and infer numerous implications for understanding why some users develop strong psychological attachments to them. Findings also imply that users may not be attached to the device itself, but rather the affordances on offer. The implications of these findings, for example in the assessment of Smartphone addiction, are discussed.
Computer Science finds a variety of applications in different fields. In the modern scenario, the combination of human senses with field of computer science is becoming more and more common. A detailed study of haptic technology is described in this paper which is entirely related to touch. The complete potential of the field is yet to be explored. The science of applying touch sensation and control to interact with computer developed applications is the best definition given for haptic technology. With the help of Haptic device people get a sense of touch with computer generated environments, so that when virtual objects are touched, they seem to be real and tangible. Haptic technology enables the user to interface with a virtual environment via the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user. This mechanical simulation helps in the creation of virtual objects, controlling of virtual objects and to augment the remote control properties of machines and devices. This paper describes how haptic technology works, its devices, applications, and disadvantages. A brief explanation on haptics functions and its implementation in various fields of study is provided in this paper. A description on some of its future applications and a few limitations of this technology is also provided.
Touch has become an inseparable element of mobile platforms. This study examines the use of different touch features and the impact of these touch gestures on consumer engagement with a mobile shopping app. We focus on three informational touch features that are common among shopping apps: touch to zoom in on a page (zoom-page), to view product details (product-view), and to be directed to outside links (open-webpage). We develop a two-level model that captures (1) consumers’ decisions to stay with or leave an app and (2) their use of touch features. Our main results empirically demonstrate the strong explanatory power of informational touch gestures, especially their dwell time, in consumer app browsing decisions, whereas navigational touch gestures do not significantly affect app stay likelihood. A longer dwell time and early use of zoom-page within a session encourage the stay. Moreover, we observe strong synergy and antergy (negative synergy) among these touch gestures. The cumulative dwell time and temporal progression of touch gestures affect subsequent touch feature usage. Managerially, our results suggest that an early intervention that encourages the use of zoom-page increases app stay likelihood, and marketers may apply our model to quantify the impact of such interventions on consumer browsing decisions at the individual level. The results also shed light on how marketers can infer the stage of the shopping process based on touch gestures (segmentation) and guide consumers through the purchase funnel by promoting the use of zoom-page and product-view. Lastly, the findings provide insights into how marketers can promote the use of open-webpage, which has the lowest baseline usage rate yet is crucial for transactions, based on the synergy among touch gestures and through improving the non-native browsing experience.
Touch screens are a key component of consumer mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as an increasingly common self-service component of information retrieval on fixed screens and mobile devices in-store. The ubiquity of touch screens in daily life increases consumer accessibility and extended use for shopping, whilst software innovations have increased the functionality of touch screens, for example the extent to which images respond to fingertip control. This study examines how users engage with interactive visual rotation and tactile simulation features while browsing fashion clothing products on touch screen devices and thus contributes to retail touch screen research that previously focused on in-store kiosks and window displays. Findings show that three dimensions of user engagement (endurability, novelty and felt involvement) are positively influenced by both forms of manipulation. In order to examine the extent to which touch screen user engagement varies with individual preferences for an in-store experience, the paper also examines whether user engagement outcomes are mediated by an individual's need for physical touch. Findings show that the need for touch does not explain the variance between individuals. We conclude that touch screen technology complements the physical retail environment.
People are able to order food using a variety of computer devices, such as desktops, laptops, and mobile phones. Even in restaurants, patrons can place orders on computer screens. Can the interface that consumers use affect their choice of food? The authors focus on the "direct-Touch" aspect of touch interfaces, whereby users can touch the screen in an interactive manner. In a series of five studies, they show that a touch interface, such as that provided by an iPad, compared with a nontouch interface, such as that of a desktop computer with a mouse, facilitates the choice of an affect-laden alternative over a cognitively superior one-what the authors call the "direct-Touch effect." The studies provide some mediational support that the direct-Touch effect is driven by the enhanced mental simulation of product interaction with the more affective choice alternative on touch interfaces. The authors also test the moderator of this effect. Using multiple product pairs as stimuli, the authors obtain consistent results, which have rich theoretical and managerial implications.