Pub Date : 2022-05-23DOI: 10.1177/10949968221095549
A. Ramesh, Vaibhav Chawla
Chatbots have become common in marketing-related applications, providing 24/7 service, engaging customers in humanlike conversation, and reducing employee workload in handling customer calls. However, the academic literature on the use of chatbots in marketing remains sparse and scattered across disciplines. The present study combines morphological analysis and co-occurrence analysis to bring structure to this area and to identify relevant research gaps. Morphological analysis divides a problem into pertinent and clearly distinguishable components, namely dimensions (at an abstract level) and variants (at a concrete level). A Zwicky box (a cross-variant matrix of dimensions) is then constructed to identify future research opportunities. Here, the authors obtain 11 dimensions and 264 variants. To eliminate inconsistent configurations (i.e., combinations of variants across dimensions), they perform a cross-consistency assessment and identify potential research gaps. To increase objectivity in the selection of relevant gaps, the authors use VOSviewer software to conduct a co-occurrence analysis of the variants.
{"title":"Chatbots in Marketing: A Literature Review Using Morphological and Co-Occurrence Analyses","authors":"A. Ramesh, Vaibhav Chawla","doi":"10.1177/10949968221095549","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221095549","url":null,"abstract":"Chatbots have become common in marketing-related applications, providing 24/7 service, engaging customers in humanlike conversation, and reducing employee workload in handling customer calls. However, the academic literature on the use of chatbots in marketing remains sparse and scattered across disciplines. The present study combines morphological analysis and co-occurrence analysis to bring structure to this area and to identify relevant research gaps. Morphological analysis divides a problem into pertinent and clearly distinguishable components, namely dimensions (at an abstract level) and variants (at a concrete level). A Zwicky box (a cross-variant matrix of dimensions) is then constructed to identify future research opportunities. Here, the authors obtain 11 dimensions and 264 variants. To eliminate inconsistent configurations (i.e., combinations of variants across dimensions), they perform a cross-consistency assessment and identify potential research gaps. To increase objectivity in the selection of relevant gaps, the authors use VOSviewer software to conduct a co-occurrence analysis of the variants.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"472 - 496"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43876407","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 : 2022-05-18DOI: 10.1177/10949968221095550
Xuejing Ma, Hongju Liu, Qiaowei Shen
As a novel and booming medium, the livestreaming industry has attracted millions of broadcasters and viewers worldwide. Gifts from viewers have become the main revenue source for most broadcasters and livestreaming platforms. This study employs data from a major showroom livestreaming platform in China to examine this practice of “gifting” during a livestreaming event. The authors first explore the antecedents of gift-receiving, which mainly focus on the effect of social interaction. The results show that the more social interactions in a live session, the more likely the broadcaster receives more gifts, and the effect is enhanced when a more experienced broadcaster is participating. Furthermore, the authors examine the consequences of gift-receiving and social interaction on broadcasters’ short-term activation and long-term retention. They find that both gift-receiving and social interaction can positively affect broadcasters’ live content provision in the short and long run, and the effects change with the increase of broadcasters’ experiences. This study offers insight into gifting in livestreaming, which gives scope for relevant future explorations.
{"title":"Antecedents and Consequences of Gift-Receiving in Livestreaming: An Exploratory Study","authors":"Xuejing Ma, Hongju Liu, Qiaowei Shen","doi":"10.1177/10949968221095550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221095550","url":null,"abstract":"As a novel and booming medium, the livestreaming industry has attracted millions of broadcasters and viewers worldwide. Gifts from viewers have become the main revenue source for most broadcasters and livestreaming platforms. This study employs data from a major showroom livestreaming platform in China to examine this practice of “gifting” during a livestreaming event. The authors first explore the antecedents of gift-receiving, which mainly focus on the effect of social interaction. The results show that the more social interactions in a live session, the more likely the broadcaster receives more gifts, and the effect is enhanced when a more experienced broadcaster is participating. Furthermore, the authors examine the consequences of gift-receiving and social interaction on broadcasters’ short-term activation and long-term retention. They find that both gift-receiving and social interaction can positively affect broadcasters’ live content provision in the short and long run, and the effects change with the increase of broadcasters’ experiences. This study offers insight into gifting in livestreaming, which gives scope for relevant future explorations.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"497 - 516"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44948368","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 : 2022-05-18DOI: 10.1177/10949968221095555
Hualu Zheng, Lu Huang
Businesses often rely on owned social media (brand pages on networking sites) to advertise their brands, and multibrand companies frequently manage individual brand pages, rather than representing all company brands together on one firm page. Because advertising results in cross-brand effects, companies need to understand how such effects manifest across their pages. This study investigates the cross effects of owned social media advertising by distinguishing between intra- and interbrand portfolio scenarios. It also compares the effects between television advertising and owned social media advertising. With a focus on the U.S. soft drink market, this study reveals that brand page advertising results in cannibalization within company portfolios, whereas positive spillover results from television advertising. The cross effects migrate to brands outside the portfolios, thereby intensifying competition. Accounting for the combined effects of cannibalization and competition reveals that owned social media increase portfolio demand more effectively than television advertising overall, which implies some key managerial recommendations for developing brand page strategies.
{"title":"Owned Social Media Advertising: Cannibalization and Competition","authors":"Hualu Zheng, Lu Huang","doi":"10.1177/10949968221095555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221095555","url":null,"abstract":"Businesses often rely on owned social media (brand pages on networking sites) to advertise their brands, and multibrand companies frequently manage individual brand pages, rather than representing all company brands together on one firm page. Because advertising results in cross-brand effects, companies need to understand how such effects manifest across their pages. This study investigates the cross effects of owned social media advertising by distinguishing between intra- and interbrand portfolio scenarios. It also compares the effects between television advertising and owned social media advertising. With a focus on the U.S. soft drink market, this study reveals that brand page advertising results in cannibalization within company portfolios, whereas positive spillover results from television advertising. The cross effects migrate to brands outside the portfolios, thereby intensifying competition. Accounting for the combined effects of cannibalization and competition reveals that owned social media increase portfolio demand more effectively than television advertising overall, which implies some key managerial recommendations for developing brand page strategies.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"442 - 456"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42607299","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 : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/10949968221088275
V. Swaminathan, H. A. Schwartz, Rowan Menezes, Shawndra Hill
This article highlights how social media data and language analysis can help managers understand brand positioning and brand competitive spaces to enable them to make various strategic and tactical decisions about brands. The authors use the output of topic models at the brand level to evaluate similarities between brands and to identify potential cobrand partners. In addition to using average topic probabilities to assess brands’ relationships to each other, they incorporate a differential language analysis framework, which implements scientific inference with multi-test-corrected hypothesis testing, to evaluate positive and negative topic correlates of brand names. The authors highlight the various applications of these approaches in decision making for brand management, including the assessment of brand positioning and future cobranding partnerships, design of marketing communication, identification of new product introductions, and identification of potential negative brand associations that can pose a threat to a brand's image. Moreover, they introduce a new metric, “temporal topic variability,” that can serve as an early warning of future changes in consumer preference. The authors evaluate social media analytic contributions against offline survey data. They demonstrate their approach with a sample of 193 brands, representing a broad set of categories, and discuss its implications.
{"title":"The Language of Brands in Social Media: Using Topic Modeling on Social Media Conversations to Drive Brand Strategy","authors":"V. Swaminathan, H. A. Schwartz, Rowan Menezes, Shawndra Hill","doi":"10.1177/10949968221088275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221088275","url":null,"abstract":"This article highlights how social media data and language analysis can help managers understand brand positioning and brand competitive spaces to enable them to make various strategic and tactical decisions about brands. The authors use the output of topic models at the brand level to evaluate similarities between brands and to identify potential cobrand partners. In addition to using average topic probabilities to assess brands’ relationships to each other, they incorporate a differential language analysis framework, which implements scientific inference with multi-test-corrected hypothesis testing, to evaluate positive and negative topic correlates of brand names. The authors highlight the various applications of these approaches in decision making for brand management, including the assessment of brand positioning and future cobranding partnerships, design of marketing communication, identification of new product introductions, and identification of potential negative brand associations that can pose a threat to a brand's image. Moreover, they introduce a new metric, “temporal topic variability,” that can serve as an early warning of future changes in consumer preference. The authors evaluate social media analytic contributions against offline survey data. They demonstrate their approach with a sample of 193 brands, representing a broad set of categories, and discuss its implications.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"255 - 277"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47702724","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 : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/10949968221087249
Robin Wünderlich, N. Wünderlich, F. Wangenheim
Predicting future purchase levels is an important and constant challenge for marketing professionals, as purchase patterns often vary over time and across customers. Moreover, purchases often follow individual and cross-sectional seasonal patterns, which affect forecasts of purchase propensity and customer dropout. The authors develop the hierarchical Bayesian seasonal model with dropout (HSMDO), which captures the interrelation between individual and cross-sectional seasonality, purchase, and dropout rates, with the aim of improving forecast accuracy at specific points in time. They perform (1) a parameter recovery analysis with synthetic data; (2) an empirical validation on three noncontractual retail data sets; (3) an analysis of different model variants to isolate the effects of dropout, seasonality, and hierarchical seasonality; and (4) a comparison with several probabilistic models from the marketing literature. The results demonstrate that the HSMDO provides increased forecast accuracy and that tracking errors decrease further with data exhibiting strong seasonality and high customer retention. The HSMDO yields a measure of individual seasonality that has high discriminative power even with sparse data sets and is useful to customer relationship management analysts for customer segmentation, portfolio management, and improvement in the timing of marketing actions.
{"title":"A Seasonal Model with Dropout to Improve Forecasts of Purchase Levels","authors":"Robin Wünderlich, N. Wünderlich, F. Wangenheim","doi":"10.1177/10949968221087249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221087249","url":null,"abstract":"Predicting future purchase levels is an important and constant challenge for marketing professionals, as purchase patterns often vary over time and across customers. Moreover, purchases often follow individual and cross-sectional seasonal patterns, which affect forecasts of purchase propensity and customer dropout. The authors develop the hierarchical Bayesian seasonal model with dropout (HSMDO), which captures the interrelation between individual and cross-sectional seasonality, purchase, and dropout rates, with the aim of improving forecast accuracy at specific points in time. They perform (1) a parameter recovery analysis with synthetic data; (2) an empirical validation on three noncontractual retail data sets; (3) an analysis of different model variants to isolate the effects of dropout, seasonality, and hierarchical seasonality; and (4) a comparison with several probabilistic models from the marketing literature. The results demonstrate that the HSMDO provides increased forecast accuracy and that tracking errors decrease further with data exhibiting strong seasonality and high customer retention. The HSMDO yields a measure of individual seasonality that has high discriminative power even with sparse data sets and is useful to customer relationship management analysts for customer segmentation, portfolio management, and improvement in the timing of marketing actions.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"212 - 236"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48090971","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 : 2022-04-28DOI: 10.1177/10949968221087259
Luis-Alberto Casado-Aranda, J. Sánchez-Fernández, M. I. Viedma-del-Jesús
Previous interactive marketing literature has concluded that banner attributes are key drivers of ad effectiveness and online consumer behaviors. In particular, prior advertising studies have largely defined the two most commonly used ad appeals in online settings: hedonic (i.e., visually attractive, joy-focused, and interactive) and utilitarian (i.e., informative, convenient, and functional). However, no unanimous conclusions have been drawn about their effects on online consumer behavior. Furthermore, no studies have assessed the psychological mechanisms underlying the processing of hedonic and utilitarian banner ads, which could be crucial given the unconscious, internal, and introspective nature of ad evaluation and online purchasing decisions. In this research, the authors used neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]) to identify the neural mechanisms underlying the evaluation of hedonic and utilitarian banners. The results reveal that whereas hedonic layouts engage brain areas associated with reward, self-relevance, and emotion, utilitarian banner ads trigger brain networks related to object identification and recognition, reasoning, executive function, and cognitive control. This research also examines the extent to which neural data derived from processing hedonic and utilitarian banners complement the ability of self-reported banner effectiveness to predict online consumer behavior. The results reveal that neural data from banner appeals help predict between 9% and 18% of online consumer behavior beyond that indicated by the perceived ad effectiveness reported by consumers. Taken together, these results provide new insights into the connection between neuropsychological data and real-world online consumer behavior.
{"title":"Neural Responses to Hedonic and Utilitarian Banner Ads: An fMRI Study","authors":"Luis-Alberto Casado-Aranda, J. Sánchez-Fernández, M. I. Viedma-del-Jesús","doi":"10.1177/10949968221087259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221087259","url":null,"abstract":"Previous interactive marketing literature has concluded that banner attributes are key drivers of ad effectiveness and online consumer behaviors. In particular, prior advertising studies have largely defined the two most commonly used ad appeals in online settings: hedonic (i.e., visually attractive, joy-focused, and interactive) and utilitarian (i.e., informative, convenient, and functional). However, no unanimous conclusions have been drawn about their effects on online consumer behavior. Furthermore, no studies have assessed the psychological mechanisms underlying the processing of hedonic and utilitarian banner ads, which could be crucial given the unconscious, internal, and introspective nature of ad evaluation and online purchasing decisions. In this research, the authors used neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]) to identify the neural mechanisms underlying the evaluation of hedonic and utilitarian banners. The results reveal that whereas hedonic layouts engage brain areas associated with reward, self-relevance, and emotion, utilitarian banner ads trigger brain networks related to object identification and recognition, reasoning, executive function, and cognitive control. This research also examines the extent to which neural data derived from processing hedonic and utilitarian banners complement the ability of self-reported banner effectiveness to predict online consumer behavior. The results reveal that neural data from banner appeals help predict between 9% and 18% of online consumer behavior beyond that indicated by the perceived ad effectiveness reported by consumers. Taken together, these results provide new insights into the connection between neuropsychological data and real-world online consumer behavior.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"296 - 322"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47023577","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 : 2022-04-26DOI: 10.1177/10949968221087256
Gerrit Sundermann, Juha Munnukka
Social media influencers (SMIs) have become an effective channel for reaching targeted customers. The present study explores the influence process of advertising recognition on consumer responses in the SMI marketing context. The authors examined an Instagram post featuring the endorsement of a brand and created an experimental design with four conditions related to advertising recognition and the parasocial relationship. Findings from a partial least squares structural equation modeling procedure indicate that advertising recognition results in overall negative consumer responses to SMI brand endorsements. The results also indicate parallel mediating effects of source credibility and attitude toward endorsements as well as moderating effects of the parasocial relationship and consumer skepticism toward influencer marketing. The study sheds light on the influence process of SMI brand endorsements and the boundary conditions under which consumer responses to advertising recognition are moderated.
{"title":"Hope You’re Not Totally Commercial! Toward a Better Understanding of Advertising Recognition's Impact on Influencer Marketing Effectiveness","authors":"Gerrit Sundermann, Juha Munnukka","doi":"10.1177/10949968221087256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221087256","url":null,"abstract":"Social media influencers (SMIs) have become an effective channel for reaching targeted customers. The present study explores the influence process of advertising recognition on consumer responses in the SMI marketing context. The authors examined an Instagram post featuring the endorsement of a brand and created an experimental design with four conditions related to advertising recognition and the parasocial relationship. Findings from a partial least squares structural equation modeling procedure indicate that advertising recognition results in overall negative consumer responses to SMI brand endorsements. The results also indicate parallel mediating effects of source credibility and attitude toward endorsements as well as moderating effects of the parasocial relationship and consumer skepticism toward influencer marketing. The study sheds light on the influence process of SMI brand endorsements and the boundary conditions under which consumer responses to advertising recognition are moderated.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"237 - 254"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44668495","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 : 2022-04-21DOI: 10.1177/10949968221087265
Kunal Swani, George R. Milne
Globally, consumers and firms are negotiating rising privacy expectations. This article advances research by developing a multidimensional privacy measure that captures the idea of privacy as an expectation to be left alone through control and access of their personal information, time, and space. Drawing on boundary regulation perspectives from law and environmental psychology, the authors conceptualize, develop, and measure the meeting privacy expectations (MPE) scale. Six studies show the reliability and stability of the 12-item MPE scale in depicting the three subdimensions and in meeting reliability and validity criteria. The results indicate that the MPE scale is not only distinct from previously established privacy scales but also a better predictor of behavioral intentions. Moreover, the scale is invariant across different cultures and influences cognitive trust and emotional violation. The authors find that meeting privacy expectations vary in their levels and outcomes cross-culturally. Marketers can use the MPE scale to globally track, assess, manage, and plan for meeting the changing consumer privacy expectations. The MPE scale is a good candidate to address the rising public policy issues related to privacy.
{"title":"Impact of Unmet Privacy Expectations Across Information, Time, and Space: Evidence from Four Countries","authors":"Kunal Swani, George R. Milne","doi":"10.1177/10949968221087265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221087265","url":null,"abstract":"Globally, consumers and firms are negotiating rising privacy expectations. This article advances research by developing a multidimensional privacy measure that captures the idea of privacy as an expectation to be left alone through control and access of their personal information, time, and space. Drawing on boundary regulation perspectives from law and environmental psychology, the authors conceptualize, develop, and measure the meeting privacy expectations (MPE) scale. Six studies show the reliability and stability of the 12-item MPE scale in depicting the three subdimensions and in meeting reliability and validity criteria. The results indicate that the MPE scale is not only distinct from previously established privacy scales but also a better predictor of behavioral intentions. Moreover, the scale is invariant across different cultures and influences cognitive trust and emotional violation. The authors find that meeting privacy expectations vary in their levels and outcomes cross-culturally. Marketers can use the MPE scale to globally track, assess, manage, and plan for meeting the changing consumer privacy expectations. The MPE scale is a good candidate to address the rising public policy issues related to privacy.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"278 - 295"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42357075","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 : 2022-04-13DOI: 10.1177/10949968221083555
Tim Hilken, Jonas Heller, D. Keeling, Mathew B. Chylinski, D. Mahr, Ko de Ruyter
Many firms use augmented reality (AR) that projects lifelike product holograms into the physical environment to assist customers in bridging so-called “imagination gaps,” which can arise on their path to purchase. However, research has not yet studied whether and how AR might help customers address two pertinent sources of such imagination gaps: (1) increased cognitive load when evaluating multiple products together (e.g., in a bundle) and (2) extended physical distance to the point-of-sale (e.g., out-of-store, at home). Building on mental imagery theorizing, we explain how AR supports customers in bridging these gaps, and, through a series of field and experimental studies, we evidence effects on customer purchase intentions and behavior. Specifically, we show that AR-generated imagery of bundled (versus individual) products enhances intended and actual purchases at the point-of-sale. Furthermore, when deployed at distant points in the purchase funnel (out-of-store, at-home), AR increases purchases through improved self-projection, which we describe as the psychological mechanism customers use to mentally bridge distance to the point-of-sale. We qualify this mediating mechanism through an important moderating process, where the effect of AR-generated imagery on self-projection is suppressed for customers with a holistic (versus analytic) thinking style.
{"title":"Bridging Imagination Gaps on the Path to Purchase with Augmented Reality: Field and Experimental Evidence","authors":"Tim Hilken, Jonas Heller, D. Keeling, Mathew B. Chylinski, D. Mahr, Ko de Ruyter","doi":"10.1177/10949968221083555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221083555","url":null,"abstract":"Many firms use augmented reality (AR) that projects lifelike product holograms into the physical environment to assist customers in bridging so-called “imagination gaps,” which can arise on their path to purchase. However, research has not yet studied whether and how AR might help customers address two pertinent sources of such imagination gaps: (1) increased cognitive load when evaluating multiple products together (e.g., in a bundle) and (2) extended physical distance to the point-of-sale (e.g., out-of-store, at home). Building on mental imagery theorizing, we explain how AR supports customers in bridging these gaps, and, through a series of field and experimental studies, we evidence effects on customer purchase intentions and behavior. Specifically, we show that AR-generated imagery of bundled (versus individual) products enhances intended and actual purchases at the point-of-sale. Furthermore, when deployed at distant points in the purchase funnel (out-of-store, at-home), AR increases purchases through improved self-projection, which we describe as the psychological mechanism customers use to mentally bridge distance to the point-of-sale. We qualify this mediating mechanism through an important moderating process, where the effect of AR-generated imagery on self-projection is suppressed for customers with a holistic (versus analytic) thinking style.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"356 - 375"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46713557","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 : 2022-04-11DOI: 10.1177/10949968221083095
Junyun Liao, Chunyu Li, Raffaele Filieri
Marketing managers increasingly monitor their company's online reputation and respond to online consumer reviews on various digital platforms. The current literature provides valuable insights into effectively initiating management response (MR) to negative reviews. However, research on how companies should respond to positive reviews is limited, despite their prevalence in MR practice. In this study, we postulate that using humor in MR for positive reviews can be an effective response strategy to enhance positive attitudinal and behavioral responses. Drawing on parasocial interaction theory, we conducted a field investigation and two experimental studies to demonstrate that humorous (vs. humorless) MRs to positive reviews fostered perceived parasocial interaction between prospective consumers and brands, which enhanced brand attitude and purchase intention. Furthermore, the proposed effects were stronger for consumers with communal norms than for those with exchange norms. This research advances the emerging literature on MR to consumer reviews of different valences and suggests important guidelines for effective MRs.
{"title":"The Role of Humor in Management Response to Positive Consumer Reviews","authors":"Junyun Liao, Chunyu Li, Raffaele Filieri","doi":"10.1177/10949968221083095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221083095","url":null,"abstract":"Marketing managers increasingly monitor their company's online reputation and respond to online consumer reviews on various digital platforms. The current literature provides valuable insights into effectively initiating management response (MR) to negative reviews. However, research on how companies should respond to positive reviews is limited, despite their prevalence in MR practice. In this study, we postulate that using humor in MR for positive reviews can be an effective response strategy to enhance positive attitudinal and behavioral responses. Drawing on parasocial interaction theory, we conducted a field investigation and two experimental studies to demonstrate that humorous (vs. humorless) MRs to positive reviews fostered perceived parasocial interaction between prospective consumers and brands, which enhanced brand attitude and purchase intention. Furthermore, the proposed effects were stronger for consumers with communal norms than for those with exchange norms. This research advances the emerging literature on MR to consumer reviews of different valences and suggests important guidelines for effective MRs.","PeriodicalId":48260,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interactive Marketing","volume":"57 1","pages":"323 - 342"},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44072809","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}