Pub Date : 2025-04-10DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104306
Anna Prisco, Irene Ricciardi, Martina Percuoco, Vincenzo Basile
This investigation probes Generation Z's proclivity towards acquiring sustainable merchandise, incorporating the Normative Activation Model (NAM) and the Model of Goal-Directed Behaviour (MGB) with a specific lens on circular goods. A purposive sampling method was employed to ensure that the selected participants possessed the specific characteristics required for this study. The total sample consisted of 711 surveys, of which only 457 fully completed responses were considered for analysis. The analysis utilized in this investigation is conducted through the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The findings indicate that individuals' norms and aspirations substantially sway their procurement decisions, highlighting the importance of ecological consciousness and moral adjudication in sustainable consumption. The outcomes imply that the predilections of Generation Z are driven by altruistic intentions and the intrinsic valuation of sustainability, suggesting that corporations should conform to their sustainability ethos and anticipations, particularly within the sphere of circular commodities.
{"title":"Sustainability-driven fashion: Unpacking generation Z’s second-hand clothing purchase intentions","authors":"Anna Prisco, Irene Ricciardi, Martina Percuoco, Vincenzo Basile","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104306","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104306","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This investigation probes Generation Z's proclivity towards acquiring sustainable merchandise, incorporating the Normative Activation Model (NAM) and the Model of Goal-Directed Behaviour (MGB) with a specific lens on circular goods. A purposive sampling method was employed to ensure that the selected participants possessed the specific characteristics required for this study. The total sample consisted of 711 surveys, of which only 457 fully completed responses were considered for analysis. The analysis utilized in this investigation is conducted through the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The findings indicate that individuals' norms and aspirations substantially sway their procurement decisions, highlighting the importance of ecological consciousness and moral adjudication in sustainable consumption. The outcomes imply that the predilections of Generation Z are driven by altruistic intentions and the intrinsic valuation of sustainability, suggesting that corporations should conform to their sustainability ethos and anticipations, particularly within the sphere of circular commodities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104306"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143808125","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 : 2025-04-08DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104305
Jisoo Won, Jiyeong Son, Minjung Kwak
Designing products and components with long-term appeal that cater to both early adopters in the new product market and late adopters in the second-hand or remanufacturing markets is essential for extending product longevity and advancing a circular economy through reuse and remanufacturing. Achieving such a circularity-focused design necessitates an understanding of the shifts in customer preferences across different adopter groups, a gap insufficiently addressed in the existing literature. This study seeks to bridge this gap by introducing novel design frameworks called review lifecycle analytics (RLA) and importance-obsolescence analysis (IOA). This systematic review analytics framework reveals dynamic changes in customer preferences over the product adoption lifecycle, enabling design strategies to support product circularity. The RLA-IOA framework analyzes temporal changes in review content through attribute-level sentiment analysis, identifying shifts in the importance and performance of individual attributes between early and late adopters. By generalizing the findings across multiple products, the framework derives the patterns of importance change and obsolescence speed for each attribute, providing valuable design insights for enhancing product longevity through reuse and remanufacturing. As a novel data-driven approach, the RLA-IOA establishes a link between review analytics and sustainable design for circularity. To demonstrate its application and value, this study conducted a case analysis using 63,391 online customer reviews of 12 smartphone models from two brands.
{"title":"Review lifecycle analytics and importance–obsolescence analysis: A data-driven design approach to product circularity","authors":"Jisoo Won, Jiyeong Son, Minjung Kwak","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104305","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104305","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Designing products and components with long-term appeal that cater to both early adopters in the new product market and late adopters in the second-hand or remanufacturing markets is essential for extending product longevity and advancing a circular economy through reuse and remanufacturing. Achieving such a circularity-focused design necessitates an understanding of the shifts in customer preferences across different adopter groups, a gap insufficiently addressed in the existing literature. This study seeks to bridge this gap by introducing novel design frameworks called review lifecycle analytics (RLA) and importance-obsolescence analysis (IOA). This systematic review analytics framework reveals dynamic changes in customer preferences over the product adoption lifecycle, enabling design strategies to support product circularity. The RLA-IOA framework analyzes temporal changes in review content through attribute-level sentiment analysis, identifying shifts in the importance and performance of individual attributes between early and late adopters. By generalizing the findings across multiple products, the framework derives the patterns of importance change and obsolescence speed for each attribute, providing valuable design insights for enhancing product longevity through reuse and remanufacturing. As a novel data-driven approach, the RLA-IOA establishes a link between review analytics and sustainable design for circularity. To demonstrate its application and value, this study conducted a case analysis using 63,391 online customer reviews of 12 smartphone models from two brands.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104305"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143791754","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}
Given the growing popularity of online shopping, promoting environmental awareness and encouraging eco-friendly choices on these platforms are essential for advancing sustainability. This study explores the specific influence of presenting environmental educational video messages right before product selection, focusing on how they enhance visual attention to eco-friendly information and influence price sensitivity, brand impact, and preferences for green products among Generation Z consumers. The research is grounded in a theoretical framework integrating the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), Priming Effect, and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). It comprises two studies that combine eye-tracking technology with data collected by questionnaire. To analyze eye-tracking data, this study employs a novel analytical method by integrating Dynamic Grey Relational Analysis (DGRA) with T-tests, providing an advanced approach to evaluate behavioral patterns, ranking variable importance, and addressing non-linearity in consumer attention metrics beyond traditional significance thresholds. Based on the priming effect, the findings indicate that the timing of these messages significantly enhances attention to eco-friendly attributes, reduces price sensitivity, and guides decision-making toward greener choices by emphasizing the importance of sustainability. Additionally, the study highlights the dual role of brand familiarity, showing that under heightened environmental awareness, it strengthens preferences for eco-friendly products while diminishing its influence on non-eco-friendly ones. These insights provide practical implications for marketers and policymakers, emphasizing the strategic use of environmental video messages in digital retail to drive sustainable consumption and reinforcing the importance for brands to align with environmental values to sustain consumer engagement and remain competitive in increasingly sustainability-driven markets.
{"title":"From awareness to preference: The dual role of brand and eco-friendliness in shaping green choices","authors":"Amirhossein Najafabadiha, Ying Wang, Ehsan Javanmardi","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104302","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104302","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the growing popularity of online shopping, promoting environmental awareness and encouraging eco-friendly choices on these platforms are essential for advancing sustainability. This study explores the specific influence of presenting environmental educational video messages right before product selection, focusing on how they enhance visual attention to eco-friendly information and influence price sensitivity, brand impact, and preferences for green products among Generation Z consumers. The research is grounded in a theoretical framework integrating the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), Priming Effect, and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). It comprises two studies that combine eye-tracking technology with data collected by questionnaire. To analyze eye-tracking data, this study employs a novel analytical method by integrating Dynamic Grey Relational Analysis (DGRA) with T-tests, providing an advanced approach to evaluate behavioral patterns, ranking variable importance, and addressing non-linearity in consumer attention metrics beyond traditional significance thresholds. Based on the priming effect, the findings indicate that the timing of these messages significantly enhances attention to eco-friendly attributes, reduces price sensitivity, and guides decision-making toward greener choices by emphasizing the importance of sustainability. Additionally, the study highlights the dual role of brand familiarity, showing that under heightened environmental awareness, it strengthens preferences for eco-friendly products while diminishing its influence on non-eco-friendly ones. These insights provide practical implications for marketers and policymakers, emphasizing the strategic use of environmental video messages in digital retail to drive sustainable consumption and reinforcing the importance for brands to align with environmental values to sustain consumer engagement and remain competitive in increasingly sustainability-driven markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104302"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143777202","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 : 2025-04-02DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104295
Theresia Mennekes, Hanna Schramm-Klein
This study examines the impact of crisis-induced inflation and product scarcity on consumer behavior in Germany. Using the React-Cope-Adapt (RCA) framework, it analyzes how financial constraints and product shortages influence stress, financial planning, and purchasing decisions. The study is based on a two-wave survey (T1: N = 152, T2: N = 129) conducted during periods of high inflation and pre-Christmas economic conditions. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) is applied to assess the dynamic interplay between financial constraints, stress, and behavioral adaptations over time.
The results indicate that financial constraints and product scarcity significantly increase stress levels, which in turn drive both impulsive (e.g., panic buying) and strategic (e.g., financial planning) consumer responses. Financial planning proves to be a key coping mechanism, leading to reduced discretionary spending and a greater reliance on private-label products. Over time, stress-driven behaviors, such as panic buying, decline, while structured financial adjustments persist.
The findings provide practical implications for policymakers and retailers. Transparent financial communication and targeted support measures can help mitigate stress, while retailers can address shifting consumer preferences by expanding cost-effective product offerings and strengthening supply chain resilience.
{"title":"Effects of crisis-induced inflation on purchasing and consumer behavior in Germany","authors":"Theresia Mennekes, Hanna Schramm-Klein","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104295","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104295","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of crisis-induced inflation and product scarcity on consumer behavior in Germany. Using the React-Cope-Adapt (RCA) framework, it analyzes how financial constraints and product shortages influence stress, financial planning, and purchasing decisions. The study is based on a two-wave survey (T1: N = 152, T2: N = 129) conducted during periods of high inflation and pre-Christmas economic conditions. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) is applied to assess the dynamic interplay between financial constraints, stress, and behavioral adaptations over time.</div><div>The results indicate that financial constraints and product scarcity significantly increase stress levels, which in turn drive both impulsive (e.g., panic buying) and strategic (e.g., financial planning) consumer responses. Financial planning proves to be a key coping mechanism, leading to reduced discretionary spending and a greater reliance on private-label products. Over time, stress-driven behaviors, such as panic buying, decline, while structured financial adjustments persist.</div><div>The findings provide practical implications for policymakers and retailers. Transparent financial communication and targeted support measures can help mitigate stress, while retailers can address shifting consumer preferences by expanding cost-effective product offerings and strengthening supply chain resilience.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104295"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143759082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Currently, artificial intelligence is being rapidly deployed in frontline services, collaborating with employees in an increasing number of tasks. While this brings many benefits, it is also encroaching on the “skill toolbox” of frontline employees, subjecting them to mounting technological pressure. As a result, identifying key skills that are compatible with intelligent machines and helping employees cope with the challenges posed by AI, has become a focal point in academic research. However, the specific skills and mechanisms through which employees can adapt to this transformation remain unclear. This study combines the transactional model of stress and complementarity theory to explore the role of empathetic creativity as a key skill in this process. Through a two-wave survey and a semi-structured interview, the study finds that when employees have high empathetic creativity, the use of AI enhances their positive affective work prospection, thereby increasing their work effort. However, when employees have low empathetic creativity, AI may induce negative affective work prospection, leading to time theft behavior at work. This study highlights the important role of empathetic creativity in helping service industry employees cope with the challenges of AI, providing valuable practical insights for companies in shaping competitive advantages and employee training.
{"title":"Empathetic creativity as a ‘shield’: A dual-path study of the impact of artificial intelligence usage on employee work outcomes","authors":"Yuchen Jiao , Yuling Huang , Tong Wen , Mengyan OuYang","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104301","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104301","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Currently, artificial intelligence is being rapidly deployed in frontline services, collaborating with employees in an increasing number of tasks. While this brings many benefits, it is also encroaching on the “skill toolbox” of frontline employees, subjecting them to mounting technological pressure. As a result, identifying key skills that are compatible with intelligent machines and helping employees cope with the challenges posed by AI, has become a focal point in academic research. However, the specific skills and mechanisms through which employees can adapt to this transformation remain unclear. This study combines the transactional model of stress and complementarity theory to explore the role of empathetic creativity as a key skill in this process. Through a two-wave survey and a semi-structured interview, the study finds that when employees have high empathetic creativity, the use of AI enhances their positive affective work prospection, thereby increasing their work effort. However, when employees have low empathetic creativity, AI may induce negative affective work prospection, leading to time theft behavior at work. This study highlights the important role of empathetic creativity in helping service industry employees cope with the challenges of AI, providing valuable practical insights for companies in shaping competitive advantages and employee training.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104301"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143746607","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 : 2025-04-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104304
Rahat Ullah , Muhammad Aftab Alam , Atya Zeb
Movies evoke strong human emotions that resonate in the content of online reviews, known as electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Existing literature suggests that positive content enhances, and negative content reduces movie sales, with negative content having a stronger effect. We demonstrate that there is a limit to the negative emotional content's impact on sales, beyond which it boosts sales. We extract positive and negative emotional content from 80 Hollywood movie reviews (N = 23,046) and empirically examine their influence on movie sales. Results indicate that for high eWOM volume, the effect of positive content increases progressively, while negative content has diminishing returns. Grounded in ‘Emotions as Social Information’ (EASI) theory, this study provides marketers and researchers with a new understanding of how emotional content in eWOM influences moviegoers' choice of movie and sales. Our typology—Flop, Hype, Star, and Hit—helps predict movie sales and design targeted strategies.
{"title":"How emotions in online reviews affect movie sales: Evidence from Hollywood","authors":"Rahat Ullah , Muhammad Aftab Alam , Atya Zeb","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104304","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104304","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Movies evoke strong human emotions that resonate in the content of online reviews, known as electronic word of mouth (<em>e</em>WOM). Existing literature suggests that positive content enhances, and negative content reduces movie sales, with negative content having a stronger effect. We demonstrate that there is a limit to the negative emotional content's impact on sales, beyond which it boosts sales. We extract positive and negative emotional content from 80 Hollywood movie reviews (<em>N</em> = 23,046) and empirically examine their influence on movie sales. Results indicate that for high <em>e</em>WOM volume, the effect of positive content increases progressively, while negative content has diminishing returns. Grounded in ‘Emotions as Social Information’ (EASI) theory, this study provides marketers and researchers with a new understanding of how emotional content in <em>e</em>WOM influences moviegoers' choice of movie and sales. Our typology—Flop, Hype, Star, and Hit—helps predict movie sales and design targeted strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104304"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-29DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104296
Chunfeng Chen, Depeng Zhang, Lu Zhu, Junbao Wu
Despite the growing public awareness of environmental issues, a common gap between attitude and behavior persists. Effectively promoting public participation in pro-environmental actions remains a critical challenge in enhancing environmental governance. This research focuses on the gain-loss framing of green appeals and develops a research model to investigate the influence of different framing types (personal loss vs. collective gain) on the public's intention to engage in green behavior. Through four experiments, including both field and laboratory studies, the research demonstrates that framing green appeals in terms of personal losses is more likely to foster a higher intention to engage in green behavior than framing them in terms of collective gains. The underlying mechanism of this effect is that emphasizing personal losses strengthens the public's sense of psychological empowerment, thereby increasing their sense of green self-accountability, which, in turn, boosts their intentions to participate in green behaviors. However, this effect is moderated by individuals' green self-efficacy. The higher an individual's green self-efficacy, the weaker the impact of the gain-loss framing on their psychological empowerment.
{"title":"The power of personal losses: How the loss-gain frame influences public green participation intentions","authors":"Chunfeng Chen, Depeng Zhang, Lu Zhu, Junbao Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104296","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104296","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the growing public awareness of environmental issues, a common gap between attitude and behavior persists. Effectively promoting public participation in pro-environmental actions remains a critical challenge in enhancing environmental governance. This research focuses on the gain-loss framing of green appeals and develops a research model to investigate the influence of different framing types (personal loss vs. collective gain) on the public's intention to engage in green behavior. Through four experiments, including both field and laboratory studies, the research demonstrates that framing green appeals in terms of personal losses is more likely to foster a higher intention to engage in green behavior than framing them in terms of collective gains. The underlying mechanism of this effect is that emphasizing personal losses strengthens the public's sense of psychological empowerment, thereby increasing their sense of green self-accountability, which, in turn, boosts their intentions to participate in green behaviors. However, this effect is moderated by individuals' green self-efficacy. The higher an individual's green self-efficacy, the weaker the impact of the gain-loss framing on their psychological empowerment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104296"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143724656","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 : 2025-03-28DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104298
Nikee Silayach , Rajeev Kumar Ray , Navneet Kumar Singh , Devi Prasad Dash , Amit Singh
AI companion applications are transforming how people form and maintain relationships in the digital world, with millions of users now engaging in emotional and social interactions with AI agents. Understanding what drives user satisfaction becomes crucial as these applications become increasingly integrated into users' daily lives. Drawing on Orlikowski's practice lens theory and employing text mining and hierarchical clustering methodologies on user reviews enhanced with focus group discussions, this study identifies two key determinants of user satisfaction: Functional Capability Perception and Affective Social Attunement. The analysis of 156,637 user reviews and insights from diverse participants reveals that satisfaction emerges through users' simultaneous negotiation of technical proficiency and emotional boundaries in their AI interactions. Functional capabilities positively influence satisfaction, while deeper emotional engagement creates a paradoxical effect where users become more sensitive to AI limitations. The study demonstrates how societal conditions shape these dynamics, with evaluation criteria evolving from simple acceptance to deeper interpersonal connections, reflecting changing attitudes toward human-AI relationships. Our mixed methods approach uncovers the contextual factors and usage patterns that shape how users integrate these technologies into their daily routines and emotional ecosystems. These insights advance our understanding of human-AI relationships while providing practical guidance for developers on creating adaptive systems that respond to evolving user needs. By understanding these complex dynamics, stakeholders can develop AI companions that enhance human relationships rather than attempting to replace them.
{"title":"When algorithms meet emotions: Understanding consumer satisfaction in AI companion applications","authors":"Nikee Silayach , Rajeev Kumar Ray , Navneet Kumar Singh , Devi Prasad Dash , Amit Singh","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104298","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104298","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>AI companion applications are transforming how people form and maintain relationships in the digital world, with millions of users now engaging in emotional and social interactions with AI agents. Understanding what drives user satisfaction becomes crucial as these applications become increasingly integrated into users' daily lives. Drawing on Orlikowski's practice lens theory and employing text mining and hierarchical clustering methodologies on user reviews enhanced with focus group discussions, this study identifies two key determinants of user satisfaction: Functional Capability Perception and Affective Social Attunement. The analysis of 156,637 user reviews and insights from diverse participants reveals that satisfaction emerges through users' simultaneous negotiation of technical proficiency and emotional boundaries in their AI interactions. Functional capabilities positively influence satisfaction, while deeper emotional engagement creates a paradoxical effect where users become more sensitive to AI limitations. The study demonstrates how societal conditions shape these dynamics, with evaluation criteria evolving from simple acceptance to deeper interpersonal connections, reflecting changing attitudes toward human-AI relationships. Our mixed methods approach uncovers the contextual factors and usage patterns that shape how users integrate these technologies into their daily routines and emotional ecosystems. These insights advance our understanding of human-AI relationships while providing practical guidance for developers on creating adaptive systems that respond to evolving user needs. By understanding these complex dynamics, stakeholders can develop AI companions that enhance human relationships rather than attempting to replace them.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104298"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143724655","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}
This research proposes and shows that a fun conversational style fosters greater tourist engagement than chatbots' traditional warm conversational style in a hotel room booking context. Furthermore, successful technology adoption requires businesses to understand the influence of cultural factors. Specifically, comprehending how individualism, a key cultural factor, shapes the effectiveness of chatbot conversation styles is important to enhance tourist engagement. Our findings, across two studies employing a combination of online surveys (Study 1, n = 241) and a randomised between-subject experiment (Study 2, n = 113), demonstrate that tourists' individualism serves as a boundary condition for the relationship between chatbot conversation styles and engagement. Additionally, results show that a fun chatbot conversation style increases customer engagement through underlying mechanisms of consumer's sense of liberation and hedonic involvement. Our research contributes to the psychological theory of fun and literature related to customer engagement. From a practical standpoint, this research offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of chatbot conversations that resonate with the needs of tourists while booking a hotel room. Marketing firms should deploy fun chatbots that stimulate customers' attention, interest, arousal, and curiosity through enjoyable experiences to foster customer engagement.
{"title":"Fun or warm: How conversational style boosts customer engagement","authors":"Debashree Roy Bhattacharjee , Abhisek Kuanr , Debasis Pradhan , Tapas Ranjan Moharana","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104293","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104293","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research proposes and shows that a fun conversational style fosters greater tourist engagement than chatbots' traditional warm conversational style in a hotel room booking context. Furthermore, successful technology adoption requires businesses to understand the influence of cultural factors. Specifically, comprehending how individualism, a key cultural factor, shapes the effectiveness of chatbot conversation styles is important to enhance tourist engagement. Our findings, across two studies employing a combination of online surveys (Study 1, n = 241) and a randomised between-subject experiment (Study 2, n = 113), demonstrate that tourists' individualism serves as a boundary condition for the relationship between chatbot conversation styles and engagement. Additionally, results show that a fun chatbot conversation style increases customer engagement through underlying mechanisms of consumer's sense of liberation and hedonic involvement. Our research contributes to the psychological theory of fun and literature related to customer engagement. From a practical standpoint, this research offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of chatbot conversations that resonate with the needs of tourists while booking a hotel room. Marketing firms should deploy fun chatbots that stimulate customers' attention, interest, arousal, and curiosity through enjoyable experiences to foster customer engagement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104293"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143705609","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 : 2025-03-27DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104300
Yanghee Kim , Wei Tian , Taewoo Roh , Seojin Stacey Lee , Minwoo Lee
This study examines how perceived economic mobility (PEM) influences leisure consumption, specifically distinguishing between highbrow and popular cultural activities. This research posits that PEM, as a subjective perception of social class, significantly drives leisure consumption patterns, and that this effect is moderated by various dimensions of social capital, including social relationships, trust, and social networking. Using data from a comprehensive survey of 42,125 citizens in South Korea, this study assesses the relationships among these factors using confirmatory factor analysis and regression. The findings reveal that individuals with higher PEM are more likely to engage in both highbrow and popular leisure consumption, though the extent of this engagement is shaped by their social capital. Social trust and networking enhance the positive relationship between PEM and highbrow leisure consumption, while strong social relationships appear to reduce engagement in popular leisure consumption. These insights provide valuable implications for the leisure industry, suggesting that fostering economic optimism and leveraging social capital can effectively boost leisure consumption. This research contributes to the broader understanding of how economic perceptions and social factors interact to shape consumer behavior in leisure contexts, offering a nuanced perspective that bridges the gap between economic theory and social capital frameworks.
{"title":"Exploring the influence of perceived economic mobility on leisure consumption: The moderating effect of social capitals","authors":"Yanghee Kim , Wei Tian , Taewoo Roh , Seojin Stacey Lee , Minwoo Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines how perceived economic mobility (PEM) influences leisure consumption, specifically distinguishing between highbrow and popular cultural activities. This research posits that PEM, as a subjective perception of social class, significantly drives leisure consumption patterns, and that this effect is moderated by various dimensions of social capital, including social relationships, trust, and social networking. Using data from a comprehensive survey of 42,125 citizens in South Korea, this study assesses the relationships among these factors using confirmatory factor analysis and regression. The findings reveal that individuals with higher PEM are more likely to engage in both highbrow and popular leisure consumption, though the extent of this engagement is shaped by their social capital. Social trust and networking enhance the positive relationship between PEM and highbrow leisure consumption, while strong social relationships appear to reduce engagement in popular leisure consumption. These insights provide valuable implications for the leisure industry, suggesting that fostering economic optimism and leveraging social capital can effectively boost leisure consumption. This research contributes to the broader understanding of how economic perceptions and social factors interact to shape consumer behavior in leisure contexts, offering a nuanced perspective that bridges the gap between economic theory and social capital frameworks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 104300"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143715865","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}
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