This study investigates why videos from the same virtual idol exhibit significant viewership disparities. Based on symbolic interactionism, we propose a three-stage framework: (1) Meaning Construction—viewers assign multidimensional meanings to videos and express them through comments; (2) Meaning Interaction—these meanings influence one another and spread to potential viewers; (3) Behavior Transformation—potential viewers form expectations and make viewing decisions. We integrated large language models with clustering, resulting in six core meaning categories extracted from comments. Using two-phase fsQCA, we analyze causal configurations linking these meanings to viewership, while fuzzy cognitive map visualizes their interdependencies. Phase-one configurations reveal two viewing patterns for high-view videos (Entertainment-Social-Driven and Content-Engagement-Driven) and two for low-view videos (Low-Resonance and Adoration-Centric). Phase two identifies three fundamental meanings of mid-to-high viewership: Demand Feedback, Entertainment Interaction, and Influence Amplification. This study extends symbolic interactionism to digital contexts and provides strategies for virtual idol video development and dissemination.
{"title":"What drives virtual idol videos to go viral? The impact of latent meanings in viewer comments on viewing behavior","authors":"Yingtong Lu, Zhongjun Tang, Yiran Wang, Duokui He, Yijing Liu, Qianqian Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115966","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115966","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates why videos from the same virtual idol exhibit significant viewership disparities. Based on symbolic interactionism, we propose a three-stage framework: (1) Meaning Construction—viewers assign multidimensional meanings to videos and express them through comments; (2) Meaning Interaction—these meanings influence one another and spread to potential viewers; (3) Behavior Transformation—potential viewers form expectations and make viewing decisions. We integrated large language models with clustering, resulting in six core meaning categories extracted from comments. Using two-phase fsQCA, we analyze causal configurations linking these meanings to viewership, while fuzzy cognitive map visualizes their interdependencies. Phase-one configurations reveal two viewing patterns for high-view videos (Entertainment-Social-Driven and Content-Engagement-Driven) and two for low-view videos (Low-Resonance and Adoration-Centric). Phase two identifies three fundamental meanings of mid-to-high viewership: Demand Feedback, Entertainment Interaction, and Influence Amplification. This study extends symbolic interactionism to digital contexts and provides strategies for virtual idol video development and dissemination.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115966"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-08DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115978
Mingjin Luo , Shengquan Wang
Drawing on the corporate behavioral theory, this study examines how underperformance influences corporate digitalization by conceptualizing it as a strategic response. Using panel data of listed Chinese firms from 2010 to 2022, we discover that underperformance elevates firms’ digital disclosures. Notably, this increase is more pronounced in strategic disclosures rather than those that are action-oriented. Meanwhile, these improvements are not matched by a commensurate increase in intangible asset investments associated with digitalization, indicating that the transformation is more symbolic than substantive. Further analyses reveal that such disclosures facilitate underperforming firms’ access to bank loans and government subsidies, revealing their opportunistic motives. We contribute to corporate behavior theory by demonstrating how underperforming firms strategically amplify digital disclosures to access financing, while neglecting substantive digital commitments.
{"title":"Behind booms: the digitalization of underperforming Chinese companies","authors":"Mingjin Luo , Shengquan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115978","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115978","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drawing on the corporate behavioral theory, this study examines how underperformance influences corporate digitalization by conceptualizing it as a strategic response. Using panel data of listed Chinese firms from 2010 to 2022, we discover that underperformance elevates firms’ digital disclosures. Notably, this increase is more pronounced in strategic disclosures rather than those that are action-oriented. Meanwhile, these improvements are not matched by a commensurate increase in intangible asset investments associated with digitalization, indicating that the transformation is more symbolic than substantive. Further analyses reveal that such disclosures facilitate underperforming firms’ access to bank loans and government subsidies, revealing their opportunistic motives. We contribute to corporate behavior theory by demonstrating how underperforming firms strategically amplify digital disclosures to access financing, while neglecting substantive digital commitments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115978"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-08DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115972
Jun Ouyang , Yanli Jia
While the convenience of e-commerce has fueled explosive growth in online sales, it has also inadvertently contributed to increased consumer choice regret and order cancellations. To address this issue, the present research identifies a nuanced approach for reducing consumers’ choice regret. Specifically, we propose that employing visual product frames to separate product alternatives can undermine consumers’ tendency to engage in a maximizing strategy and subsequently decrease their propensity to regret their choices. Across five studies, we provide convergent empirical evidence supporting these propositions and suggest actionable guidelines for online retailers on how to alleviate consumers’ choice regret and, consequently reduce order cancellations.
{"title":"How visual product frames reduce online choice regret: the role of maximization","authors":"Jun Ouyang , Yanli Jia","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115972","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115972","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While the convenience of e-commerce has fueled explosive growth in online sales, it has also inadvertently contributed to increased consumer choice regret and order cancellations. To address this issue, the present research identifies a nuanced approach for reducing consumers’ choice regret. Specifically, we propose that employing visual product frames to separate product alternatives can undermine consumers’ tendency to engage in a maximizing strategy and subsequently decrease their propensity to regret their choices. Across five studies, we provide convergent empirical evidence supporting these propositions and suggest actionable guidelines for online retailers on how to alleviate consumers’ choice regret and, consequently reduce order cancellations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115972"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115967
Xiaoru Zhang , Wei Jiang , Chuanqing Wu
In the digital era, data factor marketisation, supported by data ownership rights, data trading and data circulation, is expected to stimulate a new wave of labour transformation. Based on data from Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2022, this study uses data trading platforms as a quasi-natural experiment and employs a staggered difference-in-differences model to explore the impact of data factor marketisation on firms’ labour income share. Our findings indicate that data factor marketisation increases firms’ labour income share by 6.4%, with human capital upgrading, resource allocation efficiency optimisation and financing constraint alleviation playing key mediating roles in this process. We also demonstrate that this effect is more pronounced for labour-intensive firms, state-owned enterprises and those located in regions with a high depth of data factor marketisation. Extended analysis reveals that the impact of data factor marketisation on firms’ labour income share is primarily reflected in wage growth, contributes to improving internal income distribution within firms and facilitates the substitution of conventional jobs with employment in non-traditional tasks. Our findings provide valuable insights for accelerating data factor marketisation and enhancing the labour income share.
{"title":"Does data factor marketisation effect labour income share? Evidence from Chinese A-share listed companies","authors":"Xiaoru Zhang , Wei Jiang , Chuanqing Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115967","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115967","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the digital era, data factor marketisation, supported by data ownership rights, data trading and data circulation, is expected to stimulate a new wave of labour transformation. Based on data from Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2022, this study uses data trading platforms as a quasi-natural experiment and employs a staggered difference-in-differences model to explore the impact of data factor marketisation on firms’ labour income share. Our findings indicate that data factor marketisation increases firms’ labour income share by 6.4%, with human capital upgrading, resource allocation efficiency optimisation and financing constraint alleviation playing key mediating roles in this process. We also demonstrate that this effect is more pronounced for labour-intensive firms, state-owned enterprises and those located in regions with a high depth of data factor marketisation. Extended analysis reveals that the impact of data factor marketisation on firms’ labour income share is primarily reflected in wage growth, contributes to improving internal income distribution within firms and facilitates the substitution of conventional jobs with employment in non-traditional tasks. Our findings provide valuable insights for accelerating data factor marketisation and enhancing the labour income share.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115967"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115964
Yuxue Shi , Xianfeng Zhang , Jong-Hyeong Kim , Huilin Ouyang
This study integrates customer inspiration theory and meaning transfer theory to examine how tourists’ discrete emotions lead to the comparative advantage of virtual (vs. human) influencer endorsers in enhancing tourists’ responses and whether advertising appeals and color hues have boundary constraints. Results from three experiments demonstrate that virtual (vs. human) influencer endorsements are more likely to boost tourists’ favorable attitude toward destinations and increase their travel or word-of-mouth intention via serial mediation through destination coolness and travel inspiration. Furthermore, it proves that forestalgic (vs. nostalgic) advertising appeals and cool (vs. warm) color hues can accentuate tourists’ positive responses when matched with virtual (vs. human) influencers. Theoretically, this research advances virtual influencer literature by proposing a novel explanatory framework for endorsement effectiveness, investigating emotion-related mechanisms, and examining temporal-based advertising appeals and color hue effects. Practically, it offers valuable insights for destination marketers to launch effective marketing campaigns with virtual influencers.
{"title":"Virtual influencer or human influencer in destination endorsement? The role of travel inspiration and forestalgic appeals","authors":"Yuxue Shi , Xianfeng Zhang , Jong-Hyeong Kim , Huilin Ouyang","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115964","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115964","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study integrates customer inspiration theory and meaning transfer theory to examine how tourists’ discrete emotions lead to the comparative advantage of virtual (vs. human) influencer endorsers in enhancing tourists’ responses and whether advertising appeals and color hues have boundary constraints. Results from three experiments demonstrate that virtual (vs. human) influencer endorsements are more likely to boost tourists’ favorable attitude toward destinations and increase their travel or word-of-mouth intention via serial mediation through destination coolness and travel inspiration. Furthermore, it proves that forestalgic (vs. nostalgic) advertising appeals and cool (vs. warm) color hues can accentuate tourists’ positive responses when matched with virtual (vs. human) influencers. Theoretically, this research advances virtual influencer literature by proposing a novel explanatory framework for endorsement effectiveness, investigating emotion-related mechanisms, and examining temporal-based advertising appeals and color hue effects. Practically, it offers valuable insights for destination marketers to launch effective marketing campaigns with virtual influencers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115964"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115965
Jie Sun , Minghui Xie , Jie Li
Financial distress prediction (FDP) is of substantial concern to stakeholders. We categorize enterprises’ financial status into three states: financial distress, financial sub-health, and financial health. As a bridge between management and investors, earnings communication conferences (ECCs) enhance corporate transparency. We construct ECC textual features capturing interaction degree, management and investor sentiment, corporate situation, and question and answer (Q&A) quality, and incorporate them into multi-class FDP models. The SHapley Additive exPlanations is utilized to interpret the models and assess feature importance. Empirical results indicate that ECC textual features can significantly improve FDP performance beyond financial, governance, and annual report features. Feature importance analysis further shows that ECC textual features rank second only to financial features. Among the ECC textual features, Q&A quality contributes the most to FDP.
{"title":"Multi-class financial distress prediction using the textual information of earnings communication conferences based on ensemble machine learning models","authors":"Jie Sun , Minghui Xie , Jie Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115965","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115965","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Financial distress prediction (FDP) is of substantial concern to stakeholders. We categorize enterprises’ financial status into three states: financial distress, financial sub-health, and financial health. As a bridge between management and investors, earnings communication conferences (ECCs) enhance corporate transparency. We construct ECC textual features capturing interaction degree, management and investor sentiment, corporate situation, and question and answer (Q&A) quality, and incorporate them into multi-class FDP models. The SHapley Additive exPlanations is utilized to interpret the models and assess feature importance. Empirical results indicate that<!--> <!-->ECC textual features can significantly improve FDP performance beyond financial, governance, and annual report features. Feature importance analysis further shows that ECC textual features rank second only to financial features. Among the ECC textual features, Q&A quality contributes the most to FDP.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115965"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115947
Kamyar Goudarzi , Ali Ahmadi , Goce Andrevski
Competitive dynamics research has extensively examined the drivers of firms’ competitive action repertoires. However, less attention has been given to how a firm’s positioning in the competitive landscape affects its repertoire. We address this gap by investigating how competitive repertoire intensity, complexity, and nonconformity are influenced by rival positioning convergence which decreases the distinctiveness of firms’ market position. We propose a protection-adjustment framework and, using a comprehensive sample of public U.S. firms from 2001 to 2022, find an inverted U-shape relationship between rival positioning convergence and the intensity and complexity of firms’ competitive repertoires. At moderate levels of rival convergence, firms exhibit higher intensity and complexity in their repertoires as contested fronts expand, and they attempt to protect their positions. However, extreme levels of rival positioning convergnece are associated with lower intensity and complexity as firms attempt to de-escalate rivalry and avoid its heightened costs by adjusting their repertoires. Conversely, we find a U-shape relationship between rival positioning convergence and firms’ competitive nonconformity. As rivals move closer, firms tend to adopt more conventional actions as a protective response. Yet, when rivals converge substantially, firms adjust their repertoires with greater action nonconformity. We advance our understanding of how rival positioning convergence influences competitive behavior by triggering a protection–adjustment process.
{"title":"From protection to adjustment: How rival repositioning alters competitive action repertoires","authors":"Kamyar Goudarzi , Ali Ahmadi , Goce Andrevski","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115947","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115947","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Competitive dynamics research has extensively examined the drivers of firms’ competitive action repertoires. However, less attention has been given to how a firm’s positioning in the competitive landscape affects its repertoire. We address this gap by investigating how competitive repertoire intensity, complexity, and nonconformity are influenced by rival positioning convergence which decreases the distinctiveness of firms’ market position. We propose a protection-adjustment framework and, using a comprehensive sample of public U.S. firms from 2001 to 2022, find an inverted U-shape relationship between rival positioning convergence and the intensity and complexity of firms’ competitive repertoires. At moderate levels of rival convergence, firms exhibit higher intensity and complexity in their repertoires as contested fronts expand, and they attempt to protect their positions. However, extreme levels of rival positioning convergnece are associated with lower intensity and complexity as firms attempt to de-escalate rivalry and avoid its heightened costs by adjusting their repertoires. Conversely, we find a U-shape relationship between rival positioning convergence and firms’ competitive nonconformity. As rivals move closer, firms tend to adopt more conventional actions as a protective response. Yet, when rivals converge substantially, firms adjust their repertoires with greater action nonconformity. We advance our understanding of how rival positioning convergence influences competitive behavior by triggering a protection–adjustment process.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115947"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Virtual reality (VR) technologies provide novel opportunities to experience tourism, especially for mobility-limited older adults. Integrating theoretical frameworks from socioemotional selectivity, social presence, and self-determination theories, this study investigates how shared versus solo VR tourism experiences impact older adults’ life satisfaction. Through three experiments conducted in assisted living facilities, we explore the mediating role of sense of meaning and the moderating effects of external engagement and prior social isolation. The findings indicate that shared VR tourism experiences significantly enhance life satisfaction, particularly for older adults with high levels of external engagement and prior social isolation. This research has practical implications for VR developers, caregiving professionals, and policy-makers in designing effective VR programs that can enhance older adults’ quality of life.
{"title":"Virtual Journeys, shared meaning: Enhancing consumer well-being of mobility-limited older adults through virtual reality tourism","authors":"Liying Zhou , Limin Niu , Valerie Lynette Wang , Banggang Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115975","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115975","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Virtual reality (VR) technologies provide novel opportunities to experience tourism, especially for mobility-limited older adults. Integrating theoretical frameworks from socioemotional selectivity, social presence, and self-determination theories, this study investigates how shared versus solo VR tourism experiences impact older adults’ life satisfaction. Through three experiments conducted in assisted living facilities, we explore the mediating role of sense of meaning and the moderating effects of external engagement and prior social isolation. The findings indicate that shared VR tourism experiences significantly enhance life satisfaction, particularly for older adults with high levels of external engagement and prior social isolation. This research has practical implications for VR developers, caregiving professionals, and policy-makers in designing effective VR programs that can enhance older adults’ quality of life.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115975"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145921852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115968
Yang Liu , Fukang Zhang , Li Hu , Han Zhang
This study examines the effect of chairmen’s military imprinting on corporate ESG performance, using ESG ratings from the Sino-Securities Index (SNSI) for empirical analysis. The results reveal that chairmen with military imprinting tend to improve their firms’ ESG performance. Furthermore, we explore boundary conditions including top management team (TMT) political capital, external supervision, and state ownership. The analysis shows that higher levels of TMT political capital and stronger external oversight reinforce the positive influence of military imprinting. This relationship is explained by two key mechanisms: corporate national pride and the tenure of the chairman. National pride cultivates leadership oriented toward public welfare, while extended tenure enables sustained commitment to long-term ESG objectives. This research expands our knowledge about how military imprinting shapes corporate sustainability, offering practical implications for governance and ESG strategy.
{"title":"From battlefield to boardroom: The impact of board chair’s military experience on corporate ESG performance","authors":"Yang Liu , Fukang Zhang , Li Hu , Han Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115968","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115968","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the effect of chairmen’s military imprinting on corporate ESG performance, using ESG ratings from the Sino-Securities Index (SNSI) for empirical analysis. The results reveal that chairmen with military imprinting tend to improve their firms’ ESG performance. Furthermore, we explore boundary conditions including top management team (TMT) political capital, external supervision, and state ownership. The analysis shows that higher levels of TMT political capital and stronger external oversight reinforce the positive influence of military imprinting. This relationship is explained by two key mechanisms: corporate national pride and the tenure of the chairman. National pride cultivates leadership oriented toward public welfare, while extended tenure enables sustained commitment to long-term ESG objectives. This research expands our knowledge about how military imprinting shapes corporate sustainability, offering practical implications for governance and ESG strategy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115968"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145921891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115954
Youlin Huang , Lixian Qian , Jinzhu Song
The service literature has overlooked situations in which a failed (successful) service process leads to a successful (failed) outcome. To fill this gap, we develop and test a typology of service success and failure to account for contradictory processes and outcomes in robotaxi service encounters. Three studies show that the negative spillover effect of blaming automated driving technology is more prominent in success–failure (successful process but failed outcome) service encounters and that firms’ engagement reinforces the spillover onto the technology in failure–failure encounters. However, in failure–success encounters, perceived competence of robotaxis is more likely to promote perceived competence of service firms. We enrich the service failure and artificial intelligence literature by showing that service processes and outcomes jointly affect the attribution process. We highlight the need for service firms to intervene in automated services after careful consideration, and for user expectation management and adaptive service processes.
{"title":"When service process contradicts service outcome: Spillover effects of users’ perceptions in the case of robotaxi service encounters","authors":"Youlin Huang , Lixian Qian , Jinzhu Song","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115954","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115954","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The service literature has overlooked situations in which a failed (successful) service process leads to a successful (failed) outcome. To fill this gap, we develop and test a typology of service success and failure to account for contradictory processes and outcomes in robotaxi service encounters. Three studies show that the negative spillover effect of blaming automated driving technology is more prominent in success–failure (successful process but failed outcome) service encounters and that firms’ engagement reinforces the spillover onto the technology in failure–failure encounters. However, in failure–success encounters, perceived competence of robotaxis is more likely to promote perceived competence of service firms. We enrich the service failure and artificial intelligence literature by showing that service processes and outcomes jointly affect the attribution process. We highlight the need for service firms to intervene in automated services after careful consideration, and for user expectation management and adaptive service processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 115954"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145921851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}