Because of continuous improvements in their underlying technologies, customers perceive frontline robots as social actors with a high level of humanness, both in appearance and behavior. Advancing ...from mere theoretical contributions to this study field, this article proposes and empirically validates the humanness‐value‐loyalty model (HVL model). This study analyzes to what extent robots' perceived physical human‐likeness, perceived competence, and perceived warmth affect customers' service value expectations and, subsequently, their loyalty intentions. Following two pretests to select the most suitable robots and ensure scenario realism, data were collected by means of a vignette experimental study and analyzed using the partial least squares method. The results reveal that human‐likeness positively affects four dimensions of service value expectations. Perceived competence of the robot influences mainly utilitarian expectations (i.e., functional and monetary value), while perceived warmth influences relational expectations (i.e., emotional value). Interestingly, and contrary to theoretical predictions, the influence of the robot's warmth on service value expectations is more pronounced for customers with a lower need for social interaction. In sum, this study contributes to a better understanding of customers' reactions to artificial intelligence‐enabled technologies with humanized cognitive capabilities and also suggests interesting research avenues to advance on this emerging field.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Service robots and artificial intelligence promise to increase productivity and reduce costs, prompting substantial growth in sales of service robots and research dedicated to understanding their ...implications. Nevertheless, marketing research on this phenomenon is scarce. To establish some fundamental insights related to this research domain, the current article seeks to complement research on robots' human-likeness with investigations of the factors that service managers must choose for the service robots implemented in their service setting. A three-part framework, comprised of robot design, customer features, and service encounter characteristics, specifies key factors within each category that need to be analyzed together to determine their optimal adaptation to different service components. Definitions and overlapping concepts are clarified, together with previous knowledge on each variable and research gaps that need to be solved. This framework and the final research questions provide a research agenda to guide scholars and help practitioners implement service robots successfully.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Purpose
Considering the increasing impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on financial technology (FinTech), the purpose of this paper is to propose a research framework to better understand ...robo-advisor adoption by a wide range of potential customers. It also predicts that personal and sociodemographic variables (familiarity with robots, age, gender and country) moderate the main relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from a web survey of 765 North American, British and Portuguese potential users of robo-advisor services confirm the validity of the measurement scales and provide the input for structural equation modeling and multisample analyses of the hypotheses.
Findings
Consumers’ attitudes toward robo-advisors, together with mass media and interpersonal subjective norms, are found to be the key determinants of adoption. The influences of perceived usefulness and attitude are slightly higher for users with a higher level of familiarity with robots; in turn, subjective norms are significantly more relevant for users with a lower familiarity and for customers from Anglo-Saxon countries.
Practical implications
Banks and other firms in the finance industry should design robo-advisors to be used by a wide spectrum of consumers. Marketing tactics applied should consider the customer’s level of familiarity with robots.
Originality/value
This research identifies the key drivers of robo-advisor adoption and the moderating effect of personal and sociodemographic variables. It contributes to understanding consumers’ perceptions regarding the introduction of AI in FinTech.
Increasing uses of urban services enhance urban management efficiency and also favor social, environmental, and economic sustainability. This research analyzes how users' city attachment levels and ...other personal determinants contribute to their uses of urban services. Focusing on the city of Zaragoza (Spain), the empirical study reveals that personal attitudes and needs, possession of user cards, and education levels have positive influences on the use of urban services. City attachment affects use indirectly through attitude. This study also presents some innovative approaches to advance the development of smart cities and suggests implications for managing citizen-oriented urban services to achieve higher living standards.
•Benefits for smart cities derived from a higher use of urban services are reviewed.•The relevance of city attachment for urban services management is analyzed.•Personal attitudes and needs have a positive influence on the use of urban services.•Holding user cards and the level of education also affect the use of urban services.•City attachment affects the use of urban services indirectly via attitude.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
•An experimental design includes followers of a top fashion influencer.•Influencer–follower and influencer–product congruencies affect follower–product congruence.•Congruence between the follower and ...the product positively affects attitude.•Attitude toward the sponsored product leads to higher intentions to purchase and recommend.
Influencers increasingly provide sources of information and innovation to followers. Grounded in balance, cognitive dissonance, and congruity theories, the current article highlights how a congruence psychological mechanism, leveraged in influencer marketing campaigns, can contribute to the success of this novel form of persuasive communication. To understand consumers’ behavioral intentions when they encounter product recommendations from fashion influencers on Instagram, this study addresses the congruence among the three inherent contributors to any influencer marketing campaign: the influencer, the consumer (or follower), and the sponsored brand. The study involves 372 followers of a famous fashion influencer. Results confirm that when influencer–consumer congruence is fixed and high, high (low) influencer–product congruence prompts high (low) consumer–product congruence. Strong congruence between the consumer and product then generates more favorable attitudes toward the product, as well as higher purchase and recommendation intentions, ensuring optimal returns on influencer marketing campaigns.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study investigates the differences in place identity between residents of rural and urban communities. Differently from previous research comparing place identity between neighborhoods or ...countries, our study focuses on the local community type (urban or rural) as a key determinant of place identity. This fills a research gap in environmental social psychology, frequently ignoring the role of community type in shaping people's relationship with their local community. In particular, we analyze to what extent residents of rural communities present greater levels of cognitive, affective and evaluative place identity than their urban counterparts. Based on data from 1153 residents of Spanish rural and urban areas, results reveal that there is no difference between both environments in cognitive place identity. However, residents in rural communities show greater levels of affective and evaluative place identity than city dwellers. In addition, age moderates the influence of community type (urban vs. rural) on affective and evaluative dimensions of place identity. The discussion helps explain how place identity is developed differently in rural and urban locations. The study concludes that these differences are not caused by community size, but by community type and its personal relevance.
•Differences in place identity between urban and rural communities are analyzed.•Affective and evaluative place identity are greater in rural areas.•Cognitive place identity does not differ between rural and urban environments.•Age moderates the effect of community type on evaluative and affective place identity.•It is not community size, but community type which shapes place identity.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PurposeService robots are taking over the organizational frontline. Despite a recent surge in studies on this topic, extant works are predominantly conceptual in nature. The purpose of this paper is ...to provide valuable empirical insights by building on the attribution theory.Design/methodology/approachTwo vignette-based experimental studies were employed. Data were collected from US respondents who were randomly assigned to scenarios focusing on a hotel’s reception service and restaurant’s waiter service.FindingsResults indicate that respondents make stronger attributions of responsibility for the service performance toward humans than toward robots, especially when a service failure occurs. Customers thus attribute responsibility to the firm rather than the frontline robot. Interestingly, the perceived stability of the performance is greater when the service is conducted by a robot than by an employee. This implies that customers expect employees to shape up after a poor service encounter but expect little improvement in robots’ performance over time.Practical implicationsRobots are perceived to be more representative of a firm than employees. To avoid harmful customer attributions, service providers should clearly communicate to customers that frontline robots pack sophisticated analytical, rather than simple mechanical, artificial intelligence technology that explicitly learns from service failures.Originality/valueCustomer responses to frontline robots have remained largely unexplored. This paper is the first to explore the attributions that customers make when they experience robots in the frontline.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of consumers’ perceived enjoyment and usefulness on their intention to follow and recommend an official account of a brand community on ...Instagram through satisfaction, following a perception-evaluation-intention chain.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study suggests that both perceived enjoyment and usefulness have a positive influence on satisfaction, which in turn affects intended following and recommendation of an account on Instagram. Data are collected from 548 members of a fashion brand community official Instagram account. After the validation of measurement scales, the hypotheses are contrasted using a structural equation model.
Findings
Results show that both perceived enjoyment and usefulness have a positive effect on satisfaction with the Instagram account, which in turn positively affects the intention to follow and recommend the account. Specifically, satisfaction fully mediates the influence of perceptions on intentions, except for the influence of perceived usefulness on intended recommendation as these variables are also directly linked.
Practical implications
The findings help managers to understand consumers’ behavioral intentions on Instagram and note the relevant role of perceived enjoyment and usefulness in creating a satisfactory experience in this context.
Originality/value
Nowadays, brands and users are continuously joining Instagram and, as a result of its growing importance, there is a need to better understand consumer behavior in this context. This research analyses the antecedents of both the intention to follow and recommend an account on Instagram.
•Followers’ perceptions/responses on an Instagram fashion brand account are analyzed.•Creativity is essential to enhance affective commitment and interaction intentions.•Positive emotions have ...significant, but lower, effects on commitment and intentions.•Affective commitment influences interaction intentions on this context.•Emotions and commitment partially mediate the impact of creativity on interaction.
Instagram is emerging as the most influential social network; this phenomenon is especially apparent in the fashion industry. Fashion brands are launching creative campaigns on Instagram to engage their followers. The present study aims to increase the understanding of followers’ engagement by analyzing the consequences of brand publications on Instagram. Taking as a basis the S-O-R framework, brand publications (stimulus) may generate perceptions of creativity and positive emotions in their followers (organism) which, in turn, may influence their affective commitment and interaction intentions (response). Our results, based on data collected from 808 followers of an Instagram fashion brand account, analyzed using structural equation modeling, confirmed that perceived creativity is a crucial aspect of Instagram. In addition, positive emotions and affective commitment act as partial mediators in the relationship between perceived creativity and interaction intentions. These results have interesting implications for both the fashion industry and content generation on Instagram.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Robots are being implemented in many frontline services, from waiter robots in restaurants to robotic concierges in hotels. A growing number of firms in hospitality and tourism industries introduce ...service robots to reduce their operational costs and to provide customers with enhanced services (e.g. greater convenience). In turn, customers may consider that such a disruptive innovation is altering the established conditions of the service-provider relationship. Based on attribution theory, this research explores how customers’ attributions about the firm motivations to implement service robots (i.e. cost reduction and service enhancement) are affecting customers’ intentions to use and recommend this innovation. Following previous research on robot’s acceptance, our research framework analyzes how these attributions may be shaped by customers’ perceptions of robot’s human-likeness and their affinity with the robot. Structural equation modelling is used to analyze data collected from 517 customers evaluating service robots in the hospitality industry; results show that attributions mediate the relationships between affinity toward the robot and customer behavioral intentions to use and recommend service robots. Specifically, customer’s affinity toward the service robot positively affects service improvement attribution, which in turn has a positive influence on customer behavioral intentions. In contrast, affinity negatively affects cost reduction attribution, which in turn has a negative effect on behavioral intentions. Finally, human-likeness has a positive influence on affinity. This research provides practitioners with empirical evidence and guidance about the introduction of service robots and its relational implications in hospitality and tourism industries. Theoretical advances and future research avenues are also discussed.
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CEKLJ, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
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