How human users engage with consumer robots? A dual model of psychological ownership and trust to explain post-adoption behaviours

From "Human-to-Human" to "Human-to-Non-human" - Influence Factors of Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Consumer Value Co-creation Behavior

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has changed traditional methods of value co-creation. Diverging from traditional methods, this study discusses the influencing factors of AI-supported consumer value co-creation from the perspective of human-to-non-human interactions. This study adopts the stimulus-organism-response framework with consumer engagement (CE) as the intermediary to explore the impact of consumers' personal subjective factors, community factors, and perceptions of AI technology on their value co-creating behaviors. Data were collected from 528 respondents from the Huawei Huafen Club, Xiaomi BBS, Apple China Virtual Brand, Micromobile Phone, and Lenovo communities. SPSS Amos software was used for statistical analysis, revealing that perceived personalization, autonomy, community identity, trust in AI, and self-efficacy are motivational factors that have significant effects on consumer value co-creation behaviors, in which CE plays a significant intermediary role. Our study contributes to the literature on consumer value co-creation supported by AI technology. We also offer important insights for developers of AI-enabled products and service managers.

A Mind in Intelligent Personal Assistants: An Empirical Study of Mind-Based Anthropomorphism, Fulfilled Motivations, and Exploratory Usage of Intelligent Personal Assistants

Intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) own anthropomorphic features which enable users’ perception of anthropomorphism. Adopting the perspective of mind-based anthropomorphism, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how mind-based anthropomorphism influences users’ exploratory usage of IPAs. Based on the notion that anthropomorphism can satisfy people’s sociality and effectance motivation, we hypothesize that mind-based anthropomorphism can enhance people’s social connection with IPAs and IPA self-efficacy, which can in turn influence their exploratory usage of IPAs. Questionnaires were developed and distributed to users who had experience in smart speaker-based IPAs on Wenjuanxing and 551 valid questionnaires were collected to test the research model. The results revealed that cognitive and affective anthropomorphism exerted common and differential impacts on IPA self-efficacy and social connection. Cognitive anthropomorphism versus affective anthropomorphism had stronger influences on IPA self-efficacy, while affective anthropomorphism had stronger impacts on social connection. Both IPA self-efficacy and social connection enhanced users’ intentions to explore IPAs. This study enriches previous studies on IPA adoption or post-adoption by investigating exploratory usage which captures how users are deeply engaged with IPAs.

Technology enhanced learning acceptance among university students during Covid-19: Integrating the full spectrum of Self-Determination Theory and self-efficacy into the Technology Acceptance Model

This study proposes a unified theoretical model to integrate the full spectrum of Self-Determination Theory, self-efficacy, and the Technology Acceptance Model in understanding the acceptance of technology enhanced learning among university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the proposed theoretical model, 7 hypotheses were tested to understand the acceptance of technology enhanced learning. A total of 303 university students participated in this study. The Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) ratio of correlation was applied to measure Discriminant Validity for the Covariance-Based Structural Equation Model. Based on the results, the unified theoretical model provided better insight to understanding acceptance of technology enhanced learning (R2 = .71). Intrinsic motivation (IM), amotivation, motivation, and technology enhanced self-efficacy (TELSE) were identified as significant determinants of students' perceived ease of use (PEU). Amotivation, motivation and TELSE were significant determinants of students' perceived usefulness (PU) towards technology enhanced learning. During the Covid-19 pandemic, students had internalised external regulation and identified regulation. The empirical results also revealed that the relationship between amotivation and PEU were moderated by gender. Gender also played a role in moderating the effects of amotivation and motivation relationships towards PU. However, the relationships between IM and motivation toward PEU and TELSE to PU were vulnerable towards the moderating effects of gender and students' field of study. In conclusion, students' view on technology acceptance have changed since the pandemic, therefore, their participation in design, development, and implementation of learning resources is much needed than before to improve their psychological motivation.

Effect of Employee-Customer Interaction Quality on Customers' Prohibitive Voice Behaviors: Mediating Roles of Customer Trust and Identification

Given that customer voice behaviors are confused with customer complaint behaviors in usage, this study thoroughly explains the essential differences between the two constructs. On that basis, this study investigates how employee-customer interaction (ECI) quality affects customers' prohibitive voice behaviors, which is an crucial type of customer voice behaviors, by examining customer trust and identification as mediators. Data from 395 restaurant customers are collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that ECI quality positively affects customers' prohibitive voice behaviors. In this effect, customer trust and identification play direct and sequential mediating roles. This study contributes theoretically to the current knowledge by clearly distinguishing customer voice behaviors from customer complaint behaviors and by providing new insights into the mechanism of customers' prohibitive voice behaviors from the perspectives of service interaction and relational benefit enhancement. The practical implications of this study can help pointedly foster customers' prohibitive voice behaviors.

Journey of customers in this digital era: Understanding the role of artificial intelligence technologies in user engagement and conversion

Purpose

The first research objective is to understand the role of digital [artificial intelligence (AI)] technologies on user engagement and conversion that has resulted in high online activities and increased online sales in current times in India. In addition, combined with changes such as social distancing and lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital disruption has largely impacted the old ways of communication both at the individual and organizational levels, ultimately resulting in prominent social change. While interacting in the virtual world, this change is more noticeable. Therefore, the second research objective is to examine if a satisfying experience during online shopping leads to repurchase intention.

Design/methodology/approach

Using primary data collected from consumers in a developing economy (India), we tested the theoretical model to further extend the theoretical debate in consumer research.

Findings

This study empirically tests and further establishes that deploying AI technologies have a positive relationship with user engagement and conversion. Further, conversion leads to satisfying user experience. Finally, the relationship between satisfying user experience and repurchase intention is also found to be significant.

Originality/value

The uniqueness of this study is that it tests few key relationships related to user engagement during this uncertain period (COVID-19 pandemic) and examines the underlying mechanism which leads to increase in online sales.