Search results

AI-powered digital human avatar influencer (DHAI) is a digitally created character with a human-like appearance and noteworthy social media presence. They mimic human behavior through form, behavior and emotional realism. However, there have been varied viewpoints in the literature about the effect of DHAI realism on consumer response. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of form, behavioral and emotional realism on consumer engagement and parasocial relationships that further affect attachment toward DHAI and brand, with the moderating effect of content authenticity.

Using a cross-sectional design, 426 respondents in India were asked to visit the Instagram page of a specific DHAI identified through a pretest study. The authors used the Smart PLS 4.0 version to examine the hypotheses.

Accordingly, based on the social presence theory, the findings of the quantitative study indicated that DHAI’s form, behavioral and emotional realism positively influence customers’ engagement with DHAI, but only the behavior and emotional realism of DHAI positively affect the parasocial relationship. Further, perceived DHAI’s content authenticity moderates the effect of DHAI engagement and parasocial relationship on DHAI sentimental attachment.

This study provides novel and practical insights for developing DHAI by considering realism characteristics for enhanced customer engagement, parasocial relationship and attachment toward DHAI and brands.

Designed as an educational hub for sustainability, the Irish ecovillage of Cloughjordan is dealing with a significant challenge: creating stronger synergies between its educators to maximize its impact on the mainstream. Based on the empirical findings of a study conducted in this community, this paper aims to identify the principal informational and organisational factors that might encourage the development of such synergies.

Coherently with practice-related and ethnographic methodological principles, data were primarily collected through participant observation and semi-structured, open-ended interviews.

The lack of collaboration and information sharing between educational practices is relatable to different understandings and meanings about education for sustainability that are amplified by some power asymmetries.

The analysis of the community’s educational practices may have been limited by the many interruptions brought by the recent pandemic.

This is the very first study to explore the educational activities of the ecovillage of Cloughjordan, and one of the first ones to combine the notions of “information in social practice” and “communities of practice” to explore a real-life project.