Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing最新文献

Purpose

This study explores how predictor variables (value congruence and customer–AI-assisted exchanges) lead tourism businesses to meet customer needs through contactless technology and enhance their willingness to pay more.

Design/methodology/approach

The research model was designed from the perspective of consumer-brand relationships and acceptance of AI device use. This study collected and analyzed 647 valid questionnaires using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.

Findings

The findings indicate that value congruence and customer-AI-assisted exchanges (CAIX) affect intimacy. Intimacy affects satisfaction and the willingness to pay more for contactless technological services. Moreover, brand trust and sensory brand experience play a role in moderating contactless technological services.

Originality/value

Effective interactions between customers and AI-assisted services significantly contribute to overall satisfaction. When AI systems can understand and respond appropriately to customer queries, needs, and preferences, they enhance customer experience and satisfaction levels, increasing overall customer satisfaction with AI services.

Purpose

The synchronous interactivity in the metaverse afforded copresence, the feeling of being together with other users. Applying the flow theory, this study examines how copresence improves the subjective well-being of users through flow and escapism.

Design/methodology/approach

An online self-administered survey of 212 US adults who are currently using metaverse platforms is conducted. The collected data are analyzed by SPSS 27.0 for descriptive statistics and reliability analysis. AMOS 27.0 is employed for the confirmatory factor analysis. The bootstrapping analysis via the PROCESS Macro is used to analyze the mediating and moderating effects.

Findings

The results find that copresence, flow, and escapism improve the subjective well-being of metaverse users. A serial mediation analysis reveals that the influence of copresence on subjective well-being is mediated by flow and escapism. Additionally, the impact of escapism on subjective well-being is moderated by self-expansion.

Originality/value

The findings contribute to the metaverse literature and the industry by highlighting the role of copresence in improving user experience and subjective well-being.

Purpose

Customer–provider relationships unfold through multiple touchpoints across different channels. However, some touchpoints are more important than others. Such important touchpoints are viewed as “moments of truth” (MOTs). This study examines the impact of a series of touchpoints on an MOT, and the role MOTs play in determining future profitability and other behavioral outcomes (e.g. customer retention and customer cross-buy) in a business-to-business (B2B) context.

Design/methodology/approach

Building upon social exchange theory, a conceptual model is proposed and tested that examines the impact of human, digital, and physical touchpoints and past MOTs on customer evaluation of a current MOT and on future customer outcomes. This research employs a longitudinal methodology based on a unique panel dataset of 2,970 B2B customers.

Findings

Study results show that all touchpoints significantly contribute to MOTs, while human and physical touchpoints maintain their primacy during MOTs. The impact of MOTs on future customer outcomes is also demonstrated.

Practical implications

This study highlights the need for prioritizing human and physical touchpoints in managing MOTs, and for carefully managing MOTs across time.

Originality/value

Given its B2B outlook and longitudinal approach, this research contributes to the multichannel and interactive marketing literature by determining relevant touchpoints for B2B customers.

Purpose

This study examines the effects and driving mechanisms of relational bonds (i.e. financial, social, and structural bonds), live-streaming shopping atmosphere factors (i.e. suspense, entertainment, perceived crowdedness, and vicarious experience), consumer empowerment and customer commitment on consumers’ impulse consumption behavior. Additionally, the study examines the moderating influence of product involvement and collectivism.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was conducted with 665 valid respondents. The authors empirically validated the collected data through the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique, complemented by the artificial neural network (ANN) analysis.

Findings

The results suggest that financial bonds, structural bonds, suspense, entertainment, and vicarious experience promote consumer empowerment, which in turn leads to customer commitment and impulse consumption behavior. Second, collectivism moderates the relationship between customer commitment and impulse consumption behavior.

Originality/value

This study provides empirical evidence that relational bonds and live-streaming shopping atmosphere factors play predictive roles in enhancing consumer empowerment, which further promotes impulse consumption behavior through customer commitment. Also, collectivism is found as a moderator.

Purpose

This study explored the influence of personalized virtual try-on (PVTO) technology on consumer behavior in the apparel industry, focusing on decision comfort. It investigated how individuals’ spatial processing perception acts as a moderator in this context. Additionally, it examined the ease with which individuals imagine a product within the framework of this psychological mechanism.

Design/methodology/approach

Two experimental studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of PVTO technology on consumer decision comfort, with spatial processing perception as a moderating variable. The first experiment (n = 252) explored the impact of PVTO on decision comfort using photo-based simulations across various apparel items. The second experiment (n = 125) further examined these effects using measurement-based PVTO technologies to provide a deeper understanding of the role of spatial processing. Both studies employed a between-subjects design to isolate the influence of PVTO technology from other variables, ensuring a focused analysis of its effects on consumer behavior.

Findings

The findings indicated that the effects of PVTO are stronger for consumers with lower spatial perception abilities. Ease of imagining a product was identified as a mediator in the interactive effect between PVTO and spatial perception on decision comfort, demonstrating its pivotal role in online apparel shopping.

Originality/value

The findings indicated that the effects of PVTO are stronger for consumers with lower spatial perception abilities. Ease of imagining a product was identified as a mediator in the relationship between PVTO and decision comfort, demonstrating its pivotal role in online apparel shopping.

Purpose

Social media influencers (SMIs) have become vital components of interactive marketing to promote beauty-endorsed products. However, there are three major research gaps in the literature on influencer marketing. This research aimed to fill these gaps by integrating the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model with theories of source credibility and parasocial interaction (PSI).

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative method was used to gain a deep understanding of the Korean beauty field in YouTube influencer marketing.

Findings

The data showed that YouTube influencer marketing is an ongoing PSI process that conforms to the extended SOR model. This model was based on four concepts: stimulus, which was the SMIs’ source credibility; organism, which was the followers’ perceptions of homophily/relevance to the SMIs in PSIs; response, which was the desire to imitate and engage in impulse buying behavior, and management, which was the parasocial trust friendship and/or relationship.

Originality/value

This study expands the new concept into the existing SOR model and releases an insight into ongoing PSIs in YouTube influencer marketing.

Purpose

The motivation of value co-creation among the multi-actor in sharing economy was an important topic in interactive marketing communication research. This study investigated how customer gratitude expression leads to value co-creation of PSPs in the sharing economy, and also investigates the moderating effect of platform benevolent climate.

Design/methodology/approach

A three-wave field survey (Study 1) and two experiments (Studies 2 and 3) were given to respondents with sharing economy practitioners.

Findings

First, customer gratitude expression positively influenced PSP's perceived meaningful work, which in turn enhanced their value co-creation intention. Second, PSP's perceived platform benevolent climate moderated the relationship between customer gratitude expression and PSP's perceived meaningful work.

Originality/value

Prior research discussed PSPs' value co-creation intention mainly from the perspective of platforms and PSPs, but few considered customer-PSP interaction perspective. This study revealed how customer gratitude expression influences PSP's value co-creation intention in highly interactive digital business context, examined the boundary condition of gratitude expression, and extended the application scenarios of social information processing theory.

Purpose

Influencers’ vlogs have the potential to impact consumer behaviors through vlog-embedded corporate sponsorship and brand collaborations. However, even without brand involvement, vlogs can also “unintentionally” benefit influencers as a relationship-building tool. This study is designed to investigate the relationship between vlog-viewing and audiences’ purchase behaviors of influencer-recommended products through the impacts of influencer–follower interactions, perceived influencer credibility and parasocial relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

An influencer-disseminated online survey was conducted in collaboration with a YouTube celebrity among N = 948 of her 72.6 K subscribers. Statistical analysis was performed through structural equation modeling (SEM) on SPSS Amos.

Findings

SEM results indicated that the extent to which participants liked the vlogs had both a direct impact on their purchase behaviors and secondary impact through social media engagement, parasocial relationships and perceived influencer credibility.

Originality/value

The study expands current research and understanding of influencer marketing. Brands and social media content creators are advised to rethink vlogs as a creative genre for long-term brand–influencer collaborations and implicit social media endorsements.

Purpose

This research delves into the nuanced effects of positive goal framing quantity in advertising on consumer reactions towards new products, categorizing them into incrementally new products (INPs) and really new products (RNPs). It moves beyond the traditional binary evaluation of advertising effectiveness, offering a more intricate analysis of consumer engagement based on product novelty.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing a comprehensive dataset encompassing 461 digital video advertisements from six leading technology-centric firms, this study employs content analysis alongside hierarchical polynomial regression to dissect the dynamics between the volume of positive goal framings and consumer engagements. This examination is contextualized within the spectrum of product innovation, offering insights into the differential consumer behaviors elicited by INPs and RNPs.

Findings

The investigation uncovers a non-linear, inverted U-shaped correlation between the volume of positive goal framings and consumer responses. This relationship exhibits variability in its intensity between INPs and RNPs, with INPs demonstrating a more pronounced response variability around a higher inflection point on the curve. This pattern underscores the complex interplay between goal framing and product novelty in shaping consumer perceptions and actions.

Originality/value

This study pioneers the exploration of goal framing within the realm of product advertising, shifting the analytical lens from its traditional roots in health and medicine to the intricacies of consumer behavior in response to advertising. By introducing a distinctive classification of product newness through INPs and RNPs, the research augments current understanding of effective advertising strategies, delivering profound insights for marketers and advertisers in tailoring their campaigns to align with consumer expectations and product characteristics.

Purpose

Marketing Technology (Martech) is the cornerstone of creating digital experiences and interactive marketing, providing consumers with high experiential value. Drawing on the mindfulness theory, this study aims to explore how to achieve close psychological distance and experiential value in Martech servicescape (such as augmented reality [AR]).

Design/methodology/approach

We employed mixed methods research to clarify the research question. In Study 1, we conducted a systematic literature review of psychological closeness (PC) using a bibliographic coupling approach, identifying gaps in the research stream and discussing the research implications for the interactive marketing field. In Study 2, we used a task-based laboratory assessment to empirically verify our hypotheses and research framework. Two virtual try-on environments, AR and non-AR (e.g. traditional webpage browsing), were applied in a virtual fitting context. The two e-shopping environments were directly compared in terms of their moderating effects on the relationships among the mindfulness-oriented MarTech servicescape, PC and experiential value.

Findings

This study elucidates the antecedent of close psychological distance formation, indicating that the features of the mindfulness-oriented Martech servicescape – vivid sensory experience, consumer-focused shopping information and autonomous navigation, then result in creating experiential value. Moreover, this study also revealed that compared to a non-AR e-shopping environment, AR makes the better effect of the mindfulness-oriented Martech servicescape driving experiential marketing.

Originality/value

This study extends the research stream on mindfulness-oriented service to the Martech servicescape (e.g. AR try-on). In this way, this study’s findings will contribute to clarifying the interactive elements and design principles of mindfulness-oriented service in the Martech servicescape. By establishing the association between these three theoretical perspectives—mindfulness-oriented service research stream, construal level theory and experience economy paradigm—the study provides valuable insights into how Martech can enhance experiential marketing. Such research insights can help digital marketing managers shape appropriate Martech servicescape for effective experiential marketing.