This research examined how individual differences in anthropomorphic tendency (the tendency to humanize non-human agents/objects) influence how people respond to destination marketing communications. ...Specifically, this study examined whether individual-level anthropomorphic tendency and text-personification of destination marketing communications interact to influence destination attitude and travel intentions. Results from a study involving 210 Australian participants revealed that destination attitude and travel intentions were most favorable for people with high levels of anthropomorphic tendency and who were exposed to personified tourism messages. These findings indicate that text-personification represents a new communication tactic for tourism – particularly for target consumers who are high in anthropomorphic tendency – and one that can humanize the destination leading to more favorable attitudes and higher intentions to travel. This effect is mediated by positive emotions. People with high anthropomorphic tendency who are exposed to a personified advertisement feel more positive emotions, which lead to positive tourism outcomes.
•Travel intentions can be shaped by a personified advertisement combined with individual levels of anthropomorphic tendency.•Destination attitude is influenced by text-personification combined with an individual's level of anthropomorphic tendency.•Such effects are mediated by emotions felt by high anthropomorphic tendency individuals viewing a personified advertisement.
This research note addresses a significant gap in the literature in researching marginalised customers who may potentially experience vulnerability: the need to use a strengths-based approach in ...designing social marketing research. There has been a (positive) trend in recent decades towards greater inclusion of stakeholders in social marketing research, design and evaluation through the adoption of co-design methods. However, a theoretical issue that has not been adequately addressed within social marketing research (with some exceptions) is that it is possible to use co-design methods in such a way that the language and approaches that are employed serve to further disempower these groups through a deficit-based discourse. This research note uses reflexivity to propose a set of guidelines for how to implement a strengths-based approach when co-designing with customers experiencing vulnerability, specifically from a social marketing perspective. A real-world program in the context of empowering mature women to maintain secure housing is used to illustrate the guidelines.
PurposeA transformative service aims to improve wellbeing; however, current approaches have an implicit assumption that all wellbeing dimensions are equal and more dimensions led to higher wellbeing. ...The purpose of this paper is to present evidence for a new framework that identifies the paradox of competing wellbeing dimensions for both the individual and others in society – the transformative service paradox (TSP).Design/methodology/approachData is drawn from a mixed-method approach using qualitative (interviews) and quantitative data (lab experiment) in an electricity service context. The first study involves 45 household interviews (n = 118) and deals with the nature of trade-offs at the individual level to establish the concept of the TSP. The second study uses a behavioral economics laboratory experiment (n = 110) to test the self vs. other nature of the trade-off in day-to-day use of electricity.FindingsThe interviews and experiment identified that temporal (now vs. future) and beneficiary-level factors explain why individuals make wellbeing trade-offs for the transformative service of electricity. The laboratory experiment showed that when the future implication of the trade-off is made salient, consumers are more willing to forego physical wellbeing for environmental wellbeing, whereas when the “now” implication is more salient consumers forego financial wellbeing for physical wellbeing.Originality/valueThis research introduces the term “Transformative Service Paradox” and identifies two factors that explain why consumers make wellbeing trade-offs at the individual level and at the societal level; temporal (now vs. future) and wellbeing beneficiary.
Deepfakes, digital content created via machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence technology, are generating interest among marketers and the general population alike and are often portrayed ...as a “phantom menace” in the media. Despite relevance to marketing theory and practice, deepfakes—and the opportunities for benefit or deviance they provide—are little understood or discussed. This article introduces deepfakes to the marketing literature and proposes a typology, conceptual framework, and associated research agenda, underpinned by theorizing based on balanced centricity, to guide the future investigation of deepfakes in marketing scholarship. The article makes an argument for balance (i.e., situations where all stakeholders benefit), and it is hoped that this article may provide a foundation for future research and application of deepfakes as “a new hope” for marketing.
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.
Are new technologies driving us towards dystopia or utopia - or something in between? Marketers not only have a stake in finding out the answer to this question but also a direct (and indirect) ...influence on determining the answer. This commentary discusses recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, and how these are influencing marketers, consumers and society by either leading to a dystopian (black magic), utopian (white magic) or 'dualopian' future (grey magic). We argue that the net effect is squarely in the grey and that marketers have a unique power to leverage AI and robotics developments for good. The commentary concludes with 24 research questions forming an agenda for future research under three streams: marketing power, understanding the bias and ethics revisited.
PurposeThe use of supportive digital technology – the provision of supportive services and self-management health tools using digital platforms – by marketers is increasing alongside research ...interest in the topic. However, little is known about the motivations to use these tools and which tool features provide different forms of social support (informational, emotional, instrumental, network or esteem). The purpose of this paper is thus to explore consumer perceptions of supportive healthcare self-management and preferences for different levels of interactive features as social support in a health services context.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach involving 30 semi-structured interviews with consumers interested in two common preventative health services that use supportive digital tools (SDTs) (skin-cancer checks and sexually transmitted infection checks) was undertaken. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the verbatim transcripts.FindingsThis research identified there is a lack of motivation to initiate the search for SDTs; consumers are motivated by a desire to control and monitor health concerns and avoid overuse of the health system. The findings showed a preference for social support to go beyond informational support, with a need for interactivity that personalised support in a proactive manner.Research limitations/implicationsSDTs are positively perceived by consumers as part of health services. The motivation to use these tools is complex, and the social support needed is multifaceted and preferably interactive.Practical implicationsThis research assists service marketers to better design informational and instrumental support for preventative self-managed healthcare services.Originality/valueThis paper extends knowledge about the motivation and social support required from SDTs in a preventative health service context.
Purpose
Practitioners need to understand how households will engage with connected-home technologies or risk the failure of these innovations. Current theory does not offer sufficient explanation for ...how households will engage; hence, this paper aims to address an important gap by examining how households set “rules of engagement” for connected-home technologies in the context of electricity use and monitoring.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the extant psychology, technology and engagement literature is conducted and yields two research questions for exploration. The research questions are addressed via 43 in-depth household interviews. Analysis includes thematic analysis and computerized text analysis.
Findings
The results include a typology of technology engagement (the “PIP typology”) and discuss three main roles for technology in assisting households: intern, assistant and manager. Key contributions are as follows: consumers in household settings may experience “compromised engagement” where the perceived middle option is selected even if no-one selected that option originally; households open to using connected-home technologies are often taking advantage of their ability to “delegate” engagement to technology, and because consumers humanize technology, they also expect technology to follow social roles and boundaries.
Research limitations/implications
Future research may examine the PIP typology quantitatively and/or in different contexts and would benefit from a longitudinal study to examine how household technology engagement evolves. Four research propositions are provided, which may form the basis for future research.
Practical implications
Recommendations for practitioners are presented regarding the benefits of keeping consumers at the heart of connected-home technology goods and services. Specific design principles are provided.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills the need to understand how households will engage with connected-home technologies and the roles this technology may fulfill in the complex household service system.
Deepfakes are an emerging communication innovation possessing vast implications for innovation scholarship. A systematic literature review of multidisciplinary literature was undertaken to assess ...existing deepfake definitions and synthesize a new definition to guide future theoretical development and empirical understanding of this communication innovation. Further, the systematic review identifies deepfake creators and those depicted by deepfakes and evaluates value creation and destruction implications of deepfakes for customers and organizations. Following the PRISMA protocol, this review evaluates deepfake research published between January 2017 and June 2021 across five databases, including only English literature from Q1/Q2 peer-reviewed journals. Eighty research articles were included in the final review. Using text mining software, a new deepfake definition is synthesized which encompasses the emerging concepts of “videos”, “audio”, “realistic”, “fake”, “artificial”, “learning”, “media”, and “saying”. Undetermined actors and individual content creators were most commonly identified as deepfake creators, whereas public figures, celebrities, and actors were most frequently depicted by deepfakes. Deepfakes potentially create and destroy value for customers and organizations. This study provides a new, holistic multidisciplinary definition of deepfakes, offers fresh insights into the use and impact of deepfakes as a communication innovation, and provides a new understanding of the value implications derived from deepfakes for innovation. Lastly, a future deepfake research agenda for innovation scholars is provided.
•A new deepfake definition integrating multidisciplinary perspectives is synthesized.•Seven groups who create deepfakes are identified.•Twelve groups depicted by deepfakes are identified.•The value implications of deepfakes for customers and organizations are examined.•A research agenda guiding future innovation research into deepfakes is proposed.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to understand whether service robots can safeguard servicescapes from deviant consumer behaviour. Using routine activity theory, this research examines whether ...increasing the perceived humanness of service robots reduces customer intentions to commit deviant consumer behaviour and whether this negative relationship is mediated by perceived empathy and perceived risk of being caught.
Design/methodology/approach
Five hundred and fifty-three US residents responded to a hypothetical scenario that manipulated the humanness of a service agent (from self-service technology, to robot, to human employee) across seven conditions and measured the likelihood of deviant consumer behaviour, empathy towards the service robot, perceived risk of being caught and punished and negative attitudes towards robots.
Findings
The results indicate that replacing human service agents with different types of service robots does inadvertently reduce customer perceptions of capable guardianship (i.e. the human element that deters potential offenders from committing crimes) in the servicescape and creates conditions that allow customers to perpetrate more deviant consumer behaviour.
Practical implications
When investing in technology such as service robots, service providers need to consider the unintended cost of customer misbehaviour (specifically deviant consumer behaviour) in their return-on-investment assessments to optimise their asset investment decisions.
Originality/value
Moving beyond research on customer adoption and use, this research examines the unintended consequences that might arise when deploying service robots in a technology-infused service environment. Humanised service robots offer more guardianship than self-service technology but do not replace human employees in preventing deviant consumer behaviour, as they remain more capable of deterring customer misbehaviour.
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