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Shadows across cultures: exploring the dark side of anthropomorphized agents
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to delve into the cultural differences between developing and developed countries pertaining to the negative behavioral fallouts of adopting anthropomorphized humanoids or robots. The underlying motivation (for the study) lies in the fact that these countries are at the vanguard of artificial intelligence development and deployment, albeit with varying levels of development and acceptance.
Design/methodology/approach
The research framework used in this study is guided by the computers as social actors framework, expectancy disconfirmation theory, and is supported by the uncanny valley theory. The data was collected in two contexts using a probabilistic sampling technique, N= 782 (n1 = 393 respondents: developed country, i.e. USA, and n2 = 389 respondents: developing country, i.e. India). The partial least square analysis was carried out for the proposed model’s validation and hypotheses testing.
Findings
This study shows that in developed countries, the consumers have high preinteraction expectations while they express comparatively more dark behavior than respondents from developing countries. Consumers in developed countries focus on anthropomorphic knowledge and design cues, while in developing countries, they pay attention to utility and functionality. Finally, the results also suggest that female respondents from developed countries exhibit more resilience toward anthropomorphized agents in adopting and expressing dark behavior.
Originality/value
The present research makes essential contributions to anthropomorphism literature. First, this study explored the impact of the interaction effect on the dark side, a rather under-explored domain in regret literature. Second, this study provides evidence for cross-cultural variations pertaining to the dark side impacts. Finally, this study adds to the impact of demographic variables, showing that gender played a significant role in moderating relationships in the proposed model.
Purpose
Masstige (mass-produced and affordable luxury) goods are receiving increasing literature-based attention. However, despite existing advances, insight into how different cultural backgrounds shape consumer perceptions, attitudes and behaviors toward masstige goods remains tenuous. Correspondingly, this study aims to examine the association of masstige luxury with customers’ love for and brand engagement with masstige products across cultures.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a sample comprising 342 Indian and 354 Canadian masstige customers. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results corroborate brand prestige and identification as key antecedents to customers’ love for masstige brands, which in turn impact their brand engagement. Surprisingly, the authors find that the effects of brand prestige and brand identification on brand love and customer brand engagement do not significantly differ between Indian and Canadian customers. However, the positive effect of brand identification and brand love on customer brand engagement is stronger for Indian customers than for Canadian customers.
Research limitations/implications
This study addresses an important literature-based gap in understanding how cultural backgrounds shape consumer perceptions of masstige brands. It offers key theoretical and practical implications for masstige marketing.
Practical implications
Identifying differential effects among Indian and Canadian customers provides a foundation for tailoring marketing approaches in the masstige sector.
Originality/value
This study addresses a critical literature-based gap in understanding how cultural backgrounds shape consumer perceptions of masstige brands, offering key theoretical and practical implications for masstige marketing.
Purpose
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a pivotal technology in both marketing and daily life. Despite extensive research on the benefits of AI, its adverse effects on customers have received limited attention.
Design/methodology/approach
We employed meta-analysis to synthesise effect sizes from 45 studies encompassing 50 independent samples ( N = 19,503) to illuminate the negative facets of AI's impact on customer responses.
Findings
Adverse effects of AI, including privacy concern, perceived risks, customer alienation, and uniqueness neglect, have a negative and significant effect on customers' cognitive (perceived benefit, trust), affective (attitude and satisfaction) and behavioural responses (purchase, loyalty, well-being). Additionally, moderators in AI (online versus offline), customer (age, male vs. female), product (hedonic vs. utilitarian, high vs. low involvement), and firm level (service vs. manufacturing) and national level (individualism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation) moderate these relationships.
Practical implications
Our findings inform marketing managers about the drawbacks of utilising AI as part of their value proposition and provide recommendations on how to minimise these effects in different contexts. Additionally, policymakers need to consider the dark side of AI, especially among the vulnerable groups.
Originality/value
This paper is among the first research studies that synthesise previous research on the dark side of AI, providing a comprehensive view of its diminishing impact on customer responses.
Companies are increasingly collaborating with virtual influencers (VIs) as endorsers for their social media campaigns, yet they often lack awareness of the risks and opportunities involved. VIs are AI‐generated, and visually presented as an interactive, real‐time animated entity in a digital environment. Grounding on the uncanny valley theory, this study investigates how the anthropomorphism of VIs influences consumer behavior. Through two experimental studies, we investigate the effect of a VI's level of anthropomorphism on consumer intentions, revealing the mediating role of uncanniness. Specifically, we find that highly anthropomorphized VIs may elicit a greater sense of uncanniness among consumers. Interestingly, the second study unveils that, in the presence of social cues, the influence of anthropomorphism on uncanniness is attenuated. From a theoretical perspective, these findings contribute to the existing literature on the uncanny valley theory and reveal the role of social cues in mitigating consumers' sense of uncanniness. Alongside this, it offers practical insights for practitioners navigating the complexities of managing VIs in digital marketing endeavors.
Purpose – Although humanoid robots are increasingly adopted in many business settings, the dynamic effects of anthropomorphism and the functional perceptions of service robots on consumers’ responses remain unclear. This research examines the impacts of robot anthropomorphism on consumers’ trust, receptivity, and the downstream effect on satisfaction. Furthermore, it examines the mediating effects of perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) in the relationship between anthropomorphism and consumer responses.
Design/methodology/approach – After conducting two separate pilot studies to help design the research materials, this research involves three sequential studies. In Studies 1A and 1B, we used two distinct humanoid robots (i.e., Connie and Pepper) to test the direct effects of anthropomorphism on trust and receptivity, and the mediated effects via PEOU and PU. Study 2 conducted a 2 (robot appearance: machine-like vs. human-like) × 2 (task complexity: low vs. high) between-subjects experimental design to further explore the boundary effects of task complexity on trust and customer satisfaction.
Findings – This research theorizes and empirically examines the mediating effects of PEOU and PU in the relationship between anthropomorphism and consumers’ responses (i.e., trust and receptivity) to service robots. Results also demonstrate a moderating role of task complexity whereby only when the task was complex did anthropomorphism affect consumer responses and customer satisfaction. The parallel mediations of PEOU and PU were also confirmed. However, when task complexity was low, we observed no differences between human- and machine-like robots.
Originality – This study provides original and valuable contributions to the growing literature on service robots by addressing scholarly incongruencies regarding the impact of anthropomorphism and disentangling its positive influence on consumers’ perceptions and acceptance of service robots. Our work also contributes to research on technology acceptance and service robot receptivity by empirically demonstrating the mediating role of PEOU and PU. Furthermore, this research enriches the body of knowledge on task-technology fit by providing evidence that task complexity is a crucial factor to consider in service robot design.
Multigroup analysis (MGA) in partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) has grown considerably in the past few years in many different research fields, particularly in the business area. However, a close examination of MGA in PLS-SEM articles revealed much less research that compared more than two groups. Furthermore, research applying MGA in PLS-SEM with more than two groups has several constraints. For instance, most researchers need clarification about using either the omnibus test of group differences (OTG) or non-parametric distance-based tests (NDT) for an overall difference across the groups. Moreover, they do not handle family-wise error when comparing more than two groups, nor do they check for measurement invariance. This article uses an empirical illustration to fully understand multigroup analysis with more than two groups, providing valuable guidelines and comprehensible recommendations for researchers applying PLS-MGA.
This study examines the willingness of customers to accept, and their intention to recommend, the services provided by service robots in restaurants. A mixed-methods research approach was taken to evaluate a theoretical model based on behavioural reasoning theory (BRT). The results demonstrated the important influence of positive attitudes and objections to the use of service robots on consumers’ willingness to use service robots, as well as their intention to recommend restaurants that use them. Among the main aspects that affect attitudes and objections, we found hedonic perceptions, perceived safety, interaction quality perception and anthropomorphism.
Food retailers are lagging behind other industries in implementing innovative mobile solutions offering their services and purchasing processes on their online platforms. Chatbots can be leveraged as an application to provide customer-centric services while retailers benefit from collecting consumer data. Previous literature on chatbot technology provides evidence that human characteristics enhance the customer experience. This is the first experimental study to investigate consumer attitudes and satisfaction with anthropomorphic chatbots in food e-commerce. A sample of 401 participants was tested to verify the proposed hypotheses. The test group interacted with a standard chatbot without human-like characteristics, while the control group communicated with the anthropomorphically designed agent. The results confirm the vast potential of anthropomorphic cues in chatbot applications and show that they are positively associated with customer satisfaction and mediated by the variables enjoyment, attitude, and trust. The findings suggest that to remain competitive, food retailers should immediately adopt innovative technologies for their omnichannel strategy and incorporate anthropomorphic design cues.
Mobile banking liberates people from spatial and temporal constraints and delivers significant convenience but people are still hesitant to use mobile banking. The purpose of this study is to examine the most important factors influencing and impeding consumer adoption of mobile banking. This study uses Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Technology Readiness (TR) as a theoretical basis and integrates it with cognitive resistance to propose a conceptual model for m-banking adoption in India. Data was collected from 536 mobile banking customers from Delhi/NCR, using convenience sampling and was analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that the impact of facilitating factors namely, performance expectancy, effort expectance, social influence, optimism and innovativeness on behavioural intention to use m-banking is much more than the impact of inhibiting factors namely, discomfort, insecurity and cognitive resistance and also that behavioral intention has a significant impact on adoption of m-banking. In examining the relationship between facilitating factors and behavioral intention, there is no substantial moderation impact of age groups. However, gender moderated the relationship between effort expectancy and behavioral intention, as well as the relationship between optimism and behavioral intention. This research would help policymakers to understand and overcome the reluctance and barriers of adoption and would result in ensuring more adoption of advanced technological channels.
Purpose
Retailers are increasingly considering the introduction of service robots in their stores to support or even replace service staff. Service robots can execute service scripts during the service encounter that can influence customer interactions and the overall experience. While the role of service agents is well documented, more research is needed to understand customer responses to a technology-infused servicescape and to investigate the value of service robots as interaction partners. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree of customer immersion in human-human or human-robot interactions across different stages of the service experience and to understand how immersion affects store visit duration under each condition.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental field study was developed to test the research hypotheses. The study was conducted in a retail store selling premium Italian leather goods with 50 respondents randomly allocated to one of two experimental conditions, interaction with a service robot or interaction with a human sales associate. Participants’ biometrics were collected to measure their immersion in the service encounter and to assess its impact on store visit duration.
Findings
The interaction with a service robot increases the level of customer immersion during the service encounter’s welcome and surprise moments. Immersion positively affects visit duration. However, participants exposed to a robot sales associate reported a shorter visit duration as compared to those who interacted with a human sales associate.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the emerging service and retail marketing literature on service robot applications applying a neuroscientific approach to the study of human–robot interactions across different moments of the service encounter. For managers, this study shows the conditions under which service robots can be successfully implemented in retail stores in accordance with the type of task performed and the degree of immersion generated in customers.
The purpose of this study is to explore a set of mechanisms that mediate the influence of the impact of responsible service employee behaviour on customer satisfaction during the Covid-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was distributed online to UK residents who were instructed to recall and focus on either one very dissatisfying or one very satisfying face-to-face service encounter with an employee during the Covid-19 pandemic. A structural equation modelling approach was used to analyse the associations between the hypothesized response variables. The main finding was that the impact of responsible employee behaviour in service encounters on customer satisfaction was sequentially mediated by perceptions of employee morality and perceived employee humanness. A more parsimonious mediation model comprises only employee morality as a mediator. The attributions of morality to employees are important in a setting in which new social norms guide interpersonal behaviour and in which the violation of such norms can have serious health implications. This study adds empirical evidence to the emerging discourse in the service and retail literature on the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also contributes to the literature on customers’ moral reactions in commercial settings, and to the literature in which perceived humanness is seen as a relevant characteristic of human employees. The results imply that responsible employee behaviour should be encouraged not only from the perspective of the well-being of customers and employees, but also from a business point of view.
The importance of today’s public sector delivering citizen-centric services enabled by technology is well recognized. To deliver such services, the public sector is turning to artificial intelligence, and in particular virtual agents (VA). This research examines how citizens gain value from interacting with VAs in a public sector setting. Through empirical research, utilizing transcripts from citizens’ interactions with a VA, four dimensions of value-in-use were identified. This adds to the theoretical body of knowledge on value co-creation in public service settings and provides practical insights into how citizens use VAs and possible avenues for future investment and improvements.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been argued to offer a myriad of improvements in how we work and live. The notion of AI comprises a wide-ranging set of technologies that allow individuals and organizations to integrate and analyze data and use that insight to improve or automate decision-making. While most attention has been placed on the positive aspects companies realize by the adoption by the adoption and use of AI, there is a growing concern around the negative and unintended consequences of such technologies. In this special issue we have made a call for research papers that help us explore the dark side of AI use. By adopting a dark side lens, we aimed to expand our understanding of how AI should be implemented in practice, and how to minimize or avoid negative outcomes. In this editorial, we build on the notion of responsible AI, to highlight the different ways in which AI can potentially produce unintended consequences, as well as to suggest alternative paths future IS research can follow to improve our knowledge about how to mitigate such occurrences. We further expand on dark side theorizing in order to uncover hidden assumptions of current literature as well as to propose other prominent themes that can guide future IS research on AI adoption and use.
This study is the first to provide an integrated view on the body of knowledge on artificial intelligence (AI) published in the marketing, consumer research, and psychology literature. By leveraging a systematic literature review (SLR) using a data-driven approach and quantitative methodology (including bibliographic coupling), this study provides an overview of the emerging intellectual structure of AI research in the three bodies of literature examined. We identified eight topical clusters: (1) memory and computational logic; (2) decision making and cognitive processes; (3) neural networks; (4) machine learning and linguistic analysis; (5) social media and text mining; (6) social media content analytics; (7) technology acceptance and adoption; and (8) big data and robots. Furthermore, we identified a total of 412 theoretical lenses used in these studies with the most frequently used being: (1) the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology; (2) game theory; (3) theory of mind; (4) theory of planned behavior; (5) computational theories; (6) behavioral reasoning theory; (7) decision theories; and (8) evolutionary theory. Finally, we propose a research agenda to advance the scholarly debate on AI in the three literatures studied.
This study explores how using social networking sites (SNSs) to cope with stressors induced by a global pandemic (in this case, COVID-19) can have negative consequences. The pandemic has imposed particular stressors on individuals, such as the threats of contracting the virus and of unemployment. Owing to the lockdowns and confinements implemented to limit the spread of the pandemic, SNS use has surged worldwide. Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s theory of stress and coping, we consider COVID-19 obsession to be an adverse emotional response to the stressors brought about by the pandemic and emotional support seeking through SNS as a coping strategy. Furthermore, we identify SNS exhaustion as an adverse outcome of this form of coping. Finally, we analyze the intention to reduce SNS use as a corrective behavioral outcome to mitigate the negative effect of SNS-mediated coping. The findings indicate that: 1) the threat of the COVID-19 disease and the threat of unemployment drive COVID-19 obsession; 2) COVID-19 obsession contributes to emotional support seeking through SNS; 3) emotional support seeking through SNS exerts a positive effect on SNS exhaustion; 4) SNS exhaustion contributes to the intention to reduce SNS use. Our results advance Information Systems (IS) research by focusing on the use of Information Technology (IT) to cope with stressors that are essentially not IT-related; such research is largely absent from previous literature. Furthermore, our paper contributes to the increasing amount of literature on IT-mediated coping with stressors and reduced social media use.
Personal virtual assistants (PVAs) based on artificial intelligence are frequently used in private contexts but have yet to find their way into the workplace. Regardless of their potential value for organizations, the relentless implementation of PVAs at the workplace is likely to run into employee resistance. To understand what motivates such resistance, it is necessary to investigate the primary motivators of human behavior, namely emotions. This paper uncovers emotions related to organizational PVA use, primarily focusing on threat emotions. To achieve our goal, we conducted an in-depth qualitative study, collecting data from 45 employees in focus-group discussions and individual interviews. We identified and categorized emotions according to the framework for classifying emotions Beaudry and Pinsonneault (2010) designed. Our results show that loss emotions, such as dissatisfaction and frustration, as well as deterrence emotions, such as fear and worry, constitute valuable cornerstones for the boundaries of organizational PVA use.
There is a growing need to understand how consumers will interact with artificially intelligent (AI) domestic service robots, which are currently entering consumer homes at increasing rates, yet without a theoretical understanding of the consumer preferences influencing interaction roles such robots may play within the home. Guided by anthropomorphism theory, this study explores how different levels of robot humanness and social interaction opportunities affect consumers' liking for service robots. A review of the extant literature is conducted, yielding three hypotheses that are tested via 953 responses to an online scenario‐based experiment. Findings indicate that while consumers prefer higher levels of humanness and moderate‐to‐high levels of social interaction opportunity, only some participants liked robots more when dialogue (high‐interaction opportunity) was offered. Resulting from this study is the proposed Humanized‐AI Social Interactivity Framework. The framework extends previous studies in marketing and consumer behavior literature by offering an increased understanding of how households will choose to interact with service robots in domestic environments based on humanness and social interaction. Guidelines for practitioners and two overarching themes for future research emerge from this study. This paper contributes to an increased understanding of potential interactions with service robots in domestic environments.
Across travel and tourism services research, studies investigating “customer rage” typically prioritize the direct point-of-consumption, often within airport, airline, or hotel contexts. However, the sector is awash with intermediaries (e.g., travel agencies, insurance brokers, booking platforms), which serve as primary points-of-contact capable of shaping customer expectations. Accordingly, the consequences of service failure therein are nuanced and complex. Yet, extant research often portrays service failure as unilateral (i.e., solely the firm in question’s responsibility), overlooking one core demand-side characteristic: the customer’s sense of entitlement. Thus, while this study draws upon the Iranian travel agency setting (as a service intermediary) to assess a model of customer rage, it also explores whether customer entitlement moderates the relationships between customers’ rage emotions, expressions, and behaviors. Doing so, 736 survey responses were analyzed. Findings demonstrate how customer rage emerges in response to service failure, alongside the conditions under which customer entitlement moderates relationships therein.
Solo consumption has become an emerging trend in recent years. However, the service experiences of solo customers with the growing adoption of frontline humanlike robots remain unclear, particularly in direct comparison with joint customers. Building on the literature of anthropomorphism and information processing theory, this study examines whether and how frontline anthropomorphized robots (FAR) might improve the service experiences of solo customers relative to their joint counterparts. Data from four studies, including field and online experiments, reveal that solo customers are more likely than joint customers to perceive FAR as offering rapport but also as being eerie, leading to different service evaluations (both attitudinal and behavioral outcomes). Nevertheless, as parallel mechanisms, these levels of social rapport and eeriness are contingent on features of the FAR, the service delivery process, and customers’ consumption goals. The rapport (eeriness) mechanism is strengthened (weakened) when the robot is of in-group favoritism, the service process deprives customers of control, and customers have a hedonic consumption goal. With the boom in adopting frontline humanlike robots in hospitality services, this study offers managerially relevant implications for serving solo customers as an emerging segment along with the traditional segment of joint customers.
The scope of application of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) in industrial functions is gaining high prominence in academic and industrial discourses. In this article, we explore the usage of GAI and large language models (LLMs) in industrial applications. It promises myriad advantages such as greater engagement, cooperation and accessibility. LLMs like ChatGPT are able to evaluate unstructured queries, assess alternatives and offer actionable advice to users. It is being used to produce fast reports, flexible responses, environment scanning capabilities and insights that can enhance organisation flexibility in making better and quicker decisions, improving customer experiences and thereby augmenting firm profitability. This article offers a comprehensive review of scientific and grey literature in GAI and language models. The synthesis of complementary sources of information brings exciting perspectives in this fast evolving field. We provide directions surrounding future use of GAI as well as research directions for management researchers.
Purpose
There is growing interest in the use of human-like social robots, able to undertake complex tasks whilst building consumer engagement. However, further exploration is needed on the optimal level of humanoid appearance for service robots. In particular, the literature is limited with respect to mitigating disconfirmed expectations for robots high in human-likeness. This paper aims to address this gap by testing the effect of robot appearance, disconfirmed expectations and warmth (vs competence) on customers’ responses.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a mixed-method design by presenting a focus group (Study 1) that guides two laboratory experiments (Studies 2 and 3). Studies 2 and 3 test for the moderating effect of warmth (vs competence) and the mediating roles of perceived eeriness and disconfirmed expectations.
Findings
The findings show that a robot high (vs low) in human-likeness leads to higher negative customers’ responses, which is explained by disconfirmed expectations rather than perceived eeriness. However, when customers interact with a warm (vs competent) robot high in human-likeness, this negative effect vanishes.
Research limitations/implications
The paper investigates boundary conditions and underlying mechanisms that affect customers’ experiences. Although the study adopts high realistic experiments, a limitation lies in not measuring customers’ actual behaviours in the field.
Practical implications
This study provides new insights on how the appearance and characteristics of social robots influence the consumers’ experience. By doing so, this study offers managers actionable insights (i.e. enhancing warmth) to lessen the risk of disconfirmed expectations.
Originality/value
The paper offers new explanations as to why human-like robots can generate negative responses from customers. Moving beyond the “uncanny valley” hypothesis, this study shows the key role of disconfirmed expectations in explaining consumers’ negative responses towards humanoid robots. Moreover, it sheds light on the moderating role of warmth (vs competence), which can mitigate such negative effects.
With its rapid development and significant benefits, increasingly more organizations have adopted artificial intelligence (AI) and taken various ways to promote employees’ AI usage and AI-related support behaviors. As a primary way to promote AI usage and AI-related supportive behaviors, building an AI identity is widely recognized as having beneficial effects on employees’ work attitudes and outcomes. Drawing upon role identity theory, we challenge this general conclusion by identifying a potential dark side of AI identity and investigating how and when AI identity promotes unethical behavior. Based on an experiment and a multi-wave field study, we found that AI identity had a positive indirect effect on unethical behavior via psychological entitlement. Furthermore, perceived rarity of AI identity moderated the observed effects—that is, when perceived rarity of AI identity was high, employees with AI identity were more likely to have psychological entitlement, which increased unethical behavior. Taken together, our findings provide new insights into the consequences of AI identity as well as reveal the importance of the rarity of AI identity and psychological entitlement in this process.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of contactless service robots in hospitality industries. However, the key drivers of consumer behaviors against service robots have been ill-understood. This study examines the interactive relationships between the physical (visual features) and psychological (service autonomy) dimensions of service-robot anthropomorphism and their impacts on consumer acceptance of service robots. Adopting an experimental vignette method (EVM) with 402 participants, the study reveals that the impacts of visual features on consumers’ intention are affected by the level of service robots’ autonomy; particularly, consumers showed the highest intention when the robots have medium visual features and high autonomy while their intention became lower for the same level of visual features with low autonomy. Interestingly, consumers showed the lowest intention with high level visual features, regardless of the levels of autonomy. Our results also show that human identity threats and consumer resistance play a significant counterproductive mechanism between service robot anthropomorphism and consumers’ intention.
Purpose
The study aims to verify and compare the relationship of consumer innovativeness and technostress for FinTech usage behavior of Korean and Chinese Gen Z consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
The study proposes an integrative causal model derived from consumer innovativeness, technostress, and FinTech usage intention of the Korean and Chinese Gen Z consumers and test the causal relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
The study results showed that social innovativeness negatively affected the three dimensions of technostress and had a significant positive impact on FinTech usage intention for all samples. Hedonist innovativeness had no significant positive impact on FinTech usage intention for all samples, but it differently affected the three sub-dimensions of technostress (uncertainty, invasion, and complexity) for each sample.
Originality/value
This study presents nascent literature on the causal relationships of consumer innovativeness, technostress, and FinTech usage behavior for Korean and Chinese Gen Z consumers.
This study aims to analyse the mechanisms through which high performance work systems (HPWSs) affect employee job satisfaction in hospitality firms. A sample of 202 hotel employees working on Gran Canaria (Spain) was surveyed, and partial least squares structural equation modelling was applied to analyse the data. The results confirmed both the direct positive effect of HPWSs on job satisfaction and the indirect effect through a reduction in burnout. This study provides the first evidence of burnout as a mediating mechanism in the so-called black box that relates HPWSs to employee outcomes in the context of tourism and hospitality, and it contributes to the field with important theoretical contributions, as well as managerial recommendations.
Brands’ negative word of mouth (NWOM) generated by their unsatisfied consumers is increasingly transmitted by fans of competing brands. Although extant research has examined the generation of NWOM because of consumers’ negative consumption experience, little is known about the role of fans of rival brands in spreading NWOM of a focal brand and how the focal brand can mitigate this rival NWOM transmission. This research aims to investigate why fans who highly identify with rival brands are willing to transmit the focal brands’ NWOM and how the focal brand can mitigate the NWOM transmission. Through four studies comprising two surveys and two experiments, this article shows that consumers’ identification with rival brands leads to the NWOM transmission of focal brands, and that schadenfreude mediates the effect. Furthermore, NWOM transmission can be attenuated when the focal brand has responded to the original NWOM in an empathic way. This study enriches the word-of-mouth literature and offers important managerial implications.
Servitisation is conceptualised as product manufacturers' transition towards bundling products and services to offer customers enhanced value. Scholars have raised concerns regarding the potential challenges that firms face during servitisation, often termed servitisation paradoxes. Limited studies have explored the paradoxes experienced during the servitisation journey and the associated coping mechanisms. We utilise the open-ended essay methodology to unravel various paradoxes and coping mechanisms to address the gap. We collected data in two stages—from 69 participants in the first stage and 32 in the second stage. The study's findings reveal three broad paradoxes: the paradox of organising (autonomy and control, efficiency and flexibility, formal and informal information flow, and employee and customer needs), the paradox of learning (prior knowledge and new knowledge), and the paradox of performance (short-term and long-term performance). In addition, we identify four coping practices: change management, open communication, training programmes and digitalisation. The study augments the prior literature by developing a conceptual framework that elucidates the coexistence of numerous paradoxes and coping mechanisms.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate if customer delight is possible when the service encounter result may not be successful. Such a scenario is increasingly likely with the experiential, sticky and unpredictable nature of many competitively based experiential encounters where one side wins and the other loses.
Design/methodology/approach
Across four studies using both field and panel data, this research provides a framework to evaluate how firms can still create customer delight even if the result of the encounter is unpredictable or possibly negative. Further, the authors combine qualitative data, structural equation modeling and experimental design to test the models across four competitively based experiential contexts.
Findings
Findings indicate that firms can create delight through a variety of antecedent variables, including employee expertise, servicescape, social congruence and atmosphere. Neither importance of winning nor expectations for a win significantly alter the relationships of these antecedents in creating delight. Further, evidence from this research indicates that both feelings of nostalgia and geographic self-identity enhance delight’s effect on behavioral intentions, while geographic self-identity also enhances delight’s effect on customers’ evangelizing to others.
Research limitations/implications
This research extends the field’s understanding of the customer delight construct, sticky vs smooth encounters, as well as providing guidance to both practitioners and academics on new possibilities in the delight realm.
Practical implications
This research provides insights for practitioners on how to maximize customer emotions aside from surprisingly disconfirming customer expectations, as well as leaning into different tactics to influence the customer that are not outcome based.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to evaluate customer delight in competitively based experiential encounters where the encounter result is unpredictable and possibly negative.
Crowdsourcing has emerged as a preferred data collection methodology for advertising and social science researchers because these samples avoid the higher costs associated with professional panel data. Yet, there are ongoing concerns about data quality for online sources. This research examines differences in data quality for an advertising experiment across five popular online data sources, including professional panels and crowdsourced platforms. Effects of underlying mechanisms impacting data quality, including response satisficing, multitasking, and effort, are examined. As proposed, a serial mediation model shows that data source is, directly and indirectly, related to these antecedents of data quality. Satisficing is positively related to multitasking and negatively related to effort, and both mediators (in parallel) extend to data quality, indicating that the indirect effects on data quality through these mediating variables are significant. In general, a vetted MTurk sample (i.e., CloudResearch Approved) produces higher quality data than the other four sources. Regardless of the data source, researchers should utilize safeguards to ensure data quality. Safeguards and other strategies to obtain high-quality data from online samples are offered.
In this study, we delve into the perceived quality of recommendations provided by AI-based virtual service assistants (VSAs). Specifically, the role of the social presence of VSAs in influencing recommendation perceptions is investigated. We also explore how the social presence of a VSA is formed and how perceived anthropomorphism plays a vital role in shaping social presence and eventually instilling trust in VSAs among consumers. These relationships are examined in the context of online government services. The results indicate that consumer interaction with VSAs - manifesting via perceived anthropomorphism, social presence, dialog length, and attitudes - improves recommendation quality perceptions, which further instills trust in VSA-based recommendations. Perceived anthropomorphism was found to strongly influence the formation of social presence, whereas trust and recommendation quality - the outcomes of social presence - were found to be partially conditional on the dialog length and the degree of positive attitudes toward VSAs. The findings additionally suggest that a VSA can be considered a social actor that possesses the capability to bring a “human touch” to online services, therefore improving the overall online service experience.
The present study attempts to develop and empirically test a theoretical model of service robot use acceptance (SRUA) that intends to explain Indian customers’ willingness to accept the use of service robots in restaurant services by modifying the Artificially Intelligent (AI) Device Use Acceptance (AIDUA) model. The proposed model is grounded on the Cognitive Appraisal Theory, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) literature. The data collected through a survey generated 419 usable customer responses that were used to empirically test the proposed model using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings indicate that customers go through a three-stage process, which includes primary appraisal stage, secondary appraisal stage and the outcome stage, in determining their willingness to accept the use of service robots in restaurants. The results of the study also indicate significant moderating effects of customers’ gender and previous experience with service robots in the proposed model. By providing an understanding about customers’ perception towards service robots in Indian restaurant settings, the study is expected to serve as a base for successful diffusion of service robots to create positive dining experiences within the restaurant settings in India and other developing nations with similar cultural orientations.
Service robots are playing an increasing role in tourism and hospitality. However, this advanced technology is not immune to mistakes. The current research focuses on whether humor could be an effective recovery method in robot failure. Drawing on benign violation theory and regulatory focus theory, two experiments are conducted to demonstrate that, in low-severity failure conditions, humorous responses lead to higher humor appreciation and more positive customer evaluations. However, in high-severity failure conditions, humorous responses lead to higher perceived insincerity and more negative customer evaluations. We also examine the moderating role of anthropomorphism. This paper identifies whether and when humor is appropriate in robot failure and elucidates the introduction and promotion of robot services for managers.
Purpose
Status demotion in hierarchical loyalty programs (HLPs) has received considerable academic attention. However, little is known about whether status demotion engenders two widely recognised behavioural intentions: revenge and avoidance. This study aims to make up this gap by examining the effects of status demotion on customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions. The underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of these effects are also explored.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 was conducted using a structured survey from 347 active HLP members/customers of Chinese airlines. Study 2 used an online experiment amongst 268 active HLP airline customers in Australia. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling and Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS macro were used for data analysis.
Findings
The results of Study 1 show that status demotion increases customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions simultaneously. Meanwhile, these effects are more significant for demoted customers with an external locus of causality than those with an internal locus of causality and demoted customers with higher entitlement tend to possess more revenge intentions than avoidance intentions. Study 2 further identified perceived inequity as a mechanism, which links status demotion to revenge and avoidance intentions of demoted customers.
Research limitations/implications
This study examines demoted customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions amongst Chinese and Australian airline travellers. Future research may focus on actual behaviour and test the current study’s model in cross-cultural and cross-industry settings.
Practical implications
Managers should deal with demotion decisions carefully as the failure to manage outraged customers may weaken customer-company relationships.
Originality/value
This study extends the existing literature on relationship marketing and HLPs by offering a better understanding of how and under what conditions status demotion elicits customers’ intentions for revenge and avoidance.
Advancements in conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) have led to rapid growth in firms’ use of AI chatbots in customer service roles. While the shareholder wealth effects of AI chatbots have yet to be investigated, recent findings suggest that AI investment may contribute negatively to firm value. This cautionary evidence, and the growing prevalence of AI chatbots, underscore that a clear understanding of their impact on firm value is urgently needed. An event study of 153 AI chatbot announcements demonstrates that implementation of AI customer service chatbots generates a .22% abnormal stock return, indicating investors respond favorably to this practice. Importantly, B2B (vs. B2C) firms have substantially more to gain from implementing AI chatbot customer service. However, we find chatbot anthropomorphism interacts with customer type, as investors respond less (more) favorably to anthropomorphized chatbots used in B2B (B2C) customer service roles. Two additional studies provide support for this pattern of findings.
Purpose
The rapid progress of information and communication technologies enables business creators to access a wide variety of tools. These tools facilitate electronic exchanges and interactions with customers and companies. The purpose of this study is to test and compare the effectiveness of two virtual reality technologies, the avatar and anthropomorphic virtual agents, on consumers’ psychological states and perceived realism.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental survey was conducted to measure the potential superiority of the anthropomorphic virtual agent over the avatar and to identify the determining characteristics of the anthropomorphic virtual agent’s effectiveness. An experimental website was designed for the purpose of the study. A total of 1,262 internet users participated in the experiment.
Findings
Results confirm the superiority of the anthropomorphic virtual agent over the avatar in affecting consumers’ flow state, telepresence experience and perceived realism. These findings can be explained by the humanized characteristics of this type of agent (i.e. verbal and nonverbal language).
Originality/value
The originality of this research lies in the study of different forms of social interactivity. This latter has been little studied and essentially treated with a dichotomous perspective (presence/absence of a virtual agent). New trends in digital marketing challenge entrepreneurs to be proactive and to anticipate customers’ behavior on their online stores. That is why, virtual reality technologies, namely, anthropomorphic agents, can be considered as a relevant tool to engage in efficient inbound marketing strategies. Today, the development of intelligent technologies encourages entrepreneurs operating online to design more interactive, realistic and humanized virtual merchant environments that are more adapted to the realities of the new consumption trends and environment.
[The full text is available on request] This preface introduces the special issue on The Dark Sides of AI. The special issue offers six papers that focus on challenges of AI technology. In the twenty-first century, artificial intelligence (AI) is an extremely disruptive innovation that has attracted considerable attention from practitioners and academics. AI provides extensive, and unprecedented, opportunities for fundamental changes and extensive upgrades across many industries. This disruptive technology makes incredible things possible, such as autonomous vehicles, facial recognition payment, guidance robots, etc.
Despite humanoid service robots having attracted considerable research attention, it remains unclear how consumers respond to some specific human characteristics of robots. Drawing from theories on social categorization and identification, we study the role of consumer perceived control as a psychological mechanism to explain how human-robot gender congruity alters consumers’ affective reactions (feelings of comfort in the service encounter and service brand attitudes). We also consider that such gender congruity effects may be contingent on the individual cultural value of masculinity. We demonstrate experimentally that human-robot gender congruity (vs. incongruity) elicits more positive affect, while masculinity moderates some of these effects. Moreover, perceived control mediates effects of gender congruity on affective reactions only for consumers high on masculinity. We offer three major theoretical contributions as we 1) focus on social identity theory to shed light on how human-robot gender congruity affects consumer behavior in service encounters, 2) demonstrate the role of perceptions of control as a psychological process variable to explain these effects, and 3) provide insights into the role of the cultural value of masculinity as a factor that shapes human-robot gender congruity effects.
The COVID-19 outbreak has accelerated the development of service robots. However, service robots in some hotels have been put aside despite successful adoption. This study thus focuses on hotel employees' inhibited continuous usage intention by examining the challenges of benefiting from service robots. A robot usage resistance model (RURM) has been proposed based on the results. In this model, lack of authentic anthropomorphous features and low usability as technological characteristics could influence employees' cognitions toward service robots, while robot-related excessive workloads, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty as psychological stimuli could trigger negative emotional arousal, which in turn fosters employee resistance to service robot continuous usage. This study offers a more solid conceptual investigation into employee resistance to service robot continuous usage, thus allowing the development of strategies to better reap the rewards of hotel service robot usage.
Along with the popularity of service robots in various service settings, service robots are often gendered as either female or male. This study examines the role of service robots’ gender and level of anthropomorphism of service robots on pleasure and customer satisfaction at service encounters. A 2 gender of service robots (female/male) X 2 level of anthropomorphism (low/high) between-subject factorial design is employed to test hypotheses using a scenario-based experimental survey. Results of the proposed moderated mediation model suggests that female service robots generated more pleasure and higher satisfaction compared to that of male service robots, and its influence is amplified when the level of anthropomorphism is high rather than low. Findings highlight the benefit of female service robots in a hotel setting which is only effective when the service robot is humanized, which provides useful guidelines for hoteliers when applying service robots in their service settings.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to distinguish those emotions which customers express verbally during a failed remote service encounter from those which they do not. The study further attempts to investigate the post-consumption customer behaviour of verbally expressed and unexpressed negative customer emotions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a survey-based research design. The hypotheses were tested through the “partial least squared structural equation modelling” method.
Findings
This study shows that in a failed remote service encounter, customers verbally express retaliatory rage emotions, such as anger and rage. At the same time, they are able to suppress rancorous rage emotions, such as disgust and contempt and do not express them verbally. The authors demonstrate that after emotions are verbally expressed during a failed remote service encounter, they are followed by the post-consumption behaviours of negative word of mouth and revenge; when emotions are not expressed verbally during a failed service encounter, they are followed up by exit behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The effects of variables, such as switching costs and individual and situational factors, can be investigated in the model. Future studies can also explore the role of organizational interventions, such as explanation and apology, on negative customer emotions during failed remote service encounters. Their moderating impact on customer behaviour during and after the encounters can be investigated.
Practical implications
This study has much practical relevance in the post-COVID-19 world, where remote service delivery is becoming the new normal in many sectors. In remote service delivery situations, verbally unexpressed negative emotions can remain undetected; however, they have negative consequences for firms. This study underscores the need to train frontline employees to notice these unexpressed emotions so that service recoveries can be initiated.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the area of dysfunctional customer behaviour and service recovery. The existing literature has not explored whether some negative emotions are expressed during a failed service encounter and then acted upon later, and some emotions are not expressed but acted upon later. This study addresses the problem of firms getting caught unawares when they find customers resorting to undesirable post-consumption behaviour without demonstrating any verbal expressions during the preceding failed service encounters.
Purpose
Since its inception, mobile payment is rapidly gaining popularity over the years, and starting to replace traditional modes of payment. The usage of mobile payments has further escalated following various precautionary measures (i.e. social distancing) in curbing the transmission of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, most of the elderlies are still sceptical about the usage of mobile payment services. The current study was set to investigate the impact of functional, psychological and risk barriers that resulted in elderlies' resistance towards using such services. The impact of stickiness to cash was also examined as a moderator on the investigated relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Online survey questionnaires were used to collect the responses from 400 elderly consumers at the age of 60 and above. Data analysis was then performed using the SPSS and AMOS statistical software packages.
Findings
Findings obtained acknowledged the significance of functional (i.e. perceived complexity, perceived incompatibility and perceived cost), psychological (i.e. lack of trust, inertia, and technological anxiety) and risk (i.e. privacy risk, security risk, financial risk and operational risk) barriers in influencing resistance towards mobile payment services among the elderlies. Consequently, resistance would influence their attitude and non-adoption intention; with attitude as the mediator between resistance and non-adoption intention. Finally, moderation analysis also confirmed the moderating effect of stickiness to cash towards elevating the correlation between resistance and non-adoption intention.
Originality/value
This study is one of the very few studies that explored the minimally investigated territory on the consequential importance of mobile payment usage among the elderlies, specifically, through extending the literature on the impact of functional, psychological and risk barriers towards the individuals' resistance. Besides, this study also successfully contributed to existing body of knowledge by highlighting the mediating role of attitude and moderating role of stickiness to cash in the interrelationships between resistance, attitude and non-adoption intention.
There is a growing tendency for users to expect conversational agents (CAs) to recognise social cues and follow interpersonal communication principles to enhance their subjective evaluation. Therefore, this paper studies how personal pronouns should be used by CAs in response to users. We conducted a 3 (CAs’ personal pronoun) × 3 (users’ personal pronoun) × 2 (participants’gender) mixed design. this study used mixed methods based on an experimental design, including ratings, forced choices and interviews, for mutual confirmation. The findings indicate that first, users prefer that CAs use second-person pronouns. Second, there is also turn-taking and convergence tendency between users and CAs in personal pronoun use. Third, there are gender differences in personal pronoun preferences and relationship positions toward CAs. These results can inform personalised voice interaction and humanlike design and help build closer relationships between users and CAs in future human–computer interactions.
With production increases and new affordances offered by wearable devices, it is surprising that individuals resist the adoption and use of smartwatches. This study examines the barriers to smartwatch adoption to understand why individuals avoid smart technologies. To more fully understand this phenomenon, we draw from reactance theory, which suggests that individuals will react against efforts that infringe upon their perceptions of freedom. Specifically, we develop a research model that explores how perceptions of value incongruence and social influence affect perceptions of freedom restriction, affecting perceptions of intrusiveness of the smartwatch and result in status quo behaviors towards the smartwatch. We test this model by surveying individuals who do not own smartwatches about their perceptions. We contribute to research with new applications of reactance theory to explain smartwatch status quo. We offer implications for practitioners on how to mitigate the status quo behaviors towards smartwatches.
The international growth of medical tourism requires hospital operators to adopt effective marketing practices to ensure survival and competitiveness. Although there is a burgeoning research on medical tourism, there is still limited knowledge about the roles of brand image and brand trust on medical tourists within the healthcare service context. This study investigates the influence of advertisements and social media communication on the hospital brand image and brand trust formation before consumption stage, and their impacts on medical tourists' perceptions and attitudes at the post-consumption stage in relation to service quality, satisfaction, and behavioural intention. Data was collected from 294 Chinese medical tourists and a structural equation modelling technique was used for testing the hypotheses. The findings revealed that advertisements and social media communication positively influence medical tourists' perception of hospital brand image, which influences their trust towards the hospital's brand. It was also found that medical tourists' perceived value and trust towards the medical staff mediates the relationship between their perceived service quality and satisfaction. Overall, the study contributes to the literature by providing evidence and understanding on hospital branding formation and its influence on the perceptions and attitudes of medical tourists before and after the consumption of the healthcare service.
Chatbots have become common in digital customer service contexts across many industries. While many companies choose to humanize their customer service chatbots (e.g., giving them names and avatars), little is known about how anthropomorphism influences customer responses to chatbots in service settings. Across five studies, including an analysis of a large real-world dataset from an international telecommunications company and four experiments, the authors find that when customers enter a chatbot-led service interaction in an angry emotional state, chatbot anthropomorphism has a negative effect on customer satisfaction, overall firm evaluation, and subsequent purchase intentions. However, this is not the case for customers in non-angry emotional states. The authors uncover the underlying mechanism driving this negative effect (expectancy violations caused by inflated pre-encounter expectations of chatbot efficacy) and offer practical implications for managers. These findings suggest it is important to both carefully design chatbots and consider the emotional context in which they are used, particularly in customer service interactions that involve resolving problems or handling complaints.
With the popularization of smart devices and the rapid development of smart voice technology, AI personal assistants (AIPAs) have penetrated deeply into users' lives. Compared with previous years, the accuracy, semantic understanding ability, and wake-up ability of AIPAs have been improved, but the lack of service maturity and the insufficient degree of scene integration have brought users a poor human–computer interaction experience. However, studies have scarcely uncovered the underlying mechanism through which those dark sides of AIPAs exert impacts on users' continuance intention. From the perspective of technostress, the current study proposes a theoretical model for consumers to cope with service failure pressure sources. This article collected 413 questionnaires and conducted an empirical analysis. Results show that negative technical characteristics will affect consumers’ psychological responses and ultimately affect consumers’ technical exhaustion, satisfaction, and two kinds of continuance intentions (general and partial continuance intentions) through cognitive load. Findings open up new avenues for research by exploring the mechanism of how the service failures of these AIPAs affect consumers' continuance intention through the perspective of technostress.