B. Morten, G. De Cicco, A. Gandolfi and C. Tonelli
A study has been carried out on the relationship between the composition, poling condition and piezoelectric properties of thick film layers. Pastes based on…
Abstract
A study has been carried out on the relationship between the composition, poling condition and piezoelectric properties of thick film layers. Pastes based on lead‐titanate‐zirconate (PZT) powders, with either PbO or a lead‐alumina‐silicate glass frit as binder, were prepared. Microstructure, electrical and mechanical properties were analysed. Processing and poling conditions modify these properties; then a wide latitude of opportunities is offered in the choice of ferroelectric/piezoelectric characteristics of the layers used as sensing elements for sensors. A pressure sensor was realised where a circular diaphragm of alumina supports two piezoelectric layers obtained by screen printing and firing a PZT/PbO‐based ferroelectric paste. The design and the performance characteristics are described.
Ja-Shen Chen, Tran-Thien-Y Le and Devina Florence
The rapid evolution in artificial intelligence (AI) has redefined the customer experience and created huge opportunities for companies to interact with customers using chatbots…
Abstract
Purpose
The rapid evolution in artificial intelligence (AI) has redefined the customer experience and created huge opportunities for companies to interact with customers using chatbots. This study explores the role of AI chatbots in influencing the online customer experience and customer satisfaction in e-retailing.
Design/methodology/approach
A research model based on the technology acceptance model and information system success model is proposed to describe the interrelationships among chatbot adoption, online customer experience and customer satisfaction. Personality is a moderator in the model. The authors used a quantitative approach to collect 425 useable online questionnaires and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) and SmartPLS to analyze the measurement model and proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The usability of the chatbot had a positive influence on extrinsic values of customer experience, whereas the responsiveness of the chatbot had a positive impact on intrinsic values of customer experience. Furthermore, online customer experience had a positive relationship with customer satisfaction, and personality influenced the relationship between the usability of the chatbot and extrinsic values of customer experience.
Originality/value
This research extends understanding of the online customer experience with chatbots in e-retailing and provides empirical evidence by showing that extrinsic and intrinsic values of online customer experience are enhanced by chatbot adoption.
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Archana Shankar, Shikha Gera and Md Salehin Ahmadi
The growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI)–enabled marketing has led to motivating customers purchase goods and services where they are ‘nurtured’ or ‘groomed’ to make a purchase…
Abstract
The growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI)–enabled marketing has led to motivating customers purchase goods and services where they are ‘nurtured’ or ‘groomed’ to make a purchase decision. Consumer grooming as the name suggests involves changing or influencing an individual's behaviour and decision-making abilities by repeated personalised messaging. We have entered an era where AI is driving marketing in almost all industries and influencing customer decision-making. The healthcare industry is quite a concern as it involves the health of the poor and vulnerable impacted by AI decision-making, also deeply affecting the conventional doctor–patient relationships. AI in healthcare marketing involves using marketing gimmicks by marketing organisations where individuals are targeted with individualised medical messaging, changing the trust dynamics between patients and doctors. The marketing gimmicks often impact the healthcare decision-making of patients, leading to induced healthcare purchases through these marketing messages, rather on advisory of doctors or other healthcare professionals. As a result of this constant patient grooming or medical brainwashing, patients end up making a wrong decision regarding their healthcare. Therefore, it is required that stakeholders in the health ecosystem prioritise more transparency, authenticity and patient empowerment to mitigate the challenges of patient grooming in the healthcare sector. The establishment of more stringent controls on medical marketing techniques, the development of health literacy, and the cultivation of open communication channels within the healthcare ecosystem are all necessary because of this. In the end, AI-driven marketing presents prospects for personalised healthcare experiences; yet its unregulated expansion raises substantial ethical and patient safety issues.
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Maher Georges Elmashhara and Ana Maria Soares
Consumer choices are influenced by available resources, and time is increasingly recognised as a valuable and scarce resource. This study aims to assess the effect of chronic time…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumer choices are influenced by available resources, and time is increasingly recognised as a valuable and scarce resource. This study aims to assess the effect of chronic time pressure (CTP) on the desire to stay in retail venues (DTS), considering the mediating role of utilitarian and hedonic shopping motivations and the moderating role of time management (TM); and examine the role of DTS in enhancing the shopping outcomes of satisfaction, patronage intentions and positive word-of-mouth (WOM).
Design/methodology/approach
Two survey-based studies were conducted, employing structural equation modelling (SEM) and Hayes’ PROCESS Model No. 1 to test the proposed model.
Findings
The findings indicate that CTP does not have a direct impact on shopping utilitarian motivations or DTS. However, it has a direct effect on hedonic motivations that mediate the path from CTP to DTS. In addition, TM positively moderates both paths from CTP and hedonic motivations to DTS. Finally, the results demonstrate that reinforcing shopper DTS leads to increased satisfaction, patronage intentions and positive WOM.
Research limitations/implications
Based on the findings, theoretical contributions and actionable managerial implications regarding how to leverage CTP and TM to enhance shopper engagement and retail venue outcomes are discussed.
Originality/value
While prior research has often focused on situational time pressure, this study concentrates on CTP and examines the impact of perceived time constraints and feeling rushed on utilitarian and hedonic shopping motivations and DTS. Moreover, the study tests the moderating role of TM and provides evidence that DTS leads to other desirable shopping outcomes.
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Abstract
Purpose
Generative conversational artificial intelligence (AI) demonstrates powerful conversational skills for general tasks but requires customization for specific tasks. The quality of a custom generative conversational AI highly depends on users’ guidance, which has not been studied by previous research. This study uses social exchange theory to examine how generative conversational AI’s cognitive and emotional conversational skills affect users’ guidance through different types of user engagement, and how these effects are moderated by users’ relationship norm orientation.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on data collected from 589 actual users using a two-wave survey, this study employed partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the proposed hypotheses. Additional analyses were performed to test the robustness of our research model and results.
Findings
The results reveal that cognitive conversational skills (i.e. tailored and creative responses) positively affected cognitive and emotional engagement. However, understanding emotion influenced cognitive engagement but not emotional engagement, and empathic concern influenced emotional engagement but not cognitive engagement. In addition, cognitive and emotional engagement positively affected users’ guidance. Further, relationship norm orientation moderated some of these effects such that the impact of user engagement on user guidance was stronger for communal-oriented users than for exchange-oriented users.
Originality/value
First, drawing on social exchange theory, this study empirically examined the drivers of users’ guidance in the context of generative conversational AI, which may enrich the user guidance literature. Second, this study revealed the moderating role of relationship norm orientation in influencing the effect of user engagement on users’ guidance. The findings will deepen our understanding of users’ guidance. Third, the findings provide practical guidelines for designing generative conversational AI from a general AI to a custom AI.
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Susana C. Silva, Roberta De Cicco, Božidar Vlačić and Maher Georges Elmashhara
Chatbots represent an undeniable player between online retailers and customers as they boost operational efficiency and bring cost savings to businesses while offering convenience…
Abstract
Purpose
Chatbots represent an undeniable player between online retailers and customers as they boost operational efficiency and bring cost savings to businesses while offering convenience for customers in terms of timing and immediacy. However, as chatbots represent a new-born online touchpoint in retailing, especially when it comes to online pre-purchase and purchase experience, this study examines whether and how effort expectation, facilitating condition, performance expectancy, social influence, trust, perceived risk and flow affect consumers' intention to use chatbots for online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 226 respondents participated in an online survey. Participants were asked to try a new online service and interact with a chatbot designed using Chatfuel, a platform within the Facebook Messenger setting. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed research model regarding the intention to use chatbots.
Findings
This study discusses the importance of offering useful and trustworthy conversational agents for online shopping and argues and explains the insignificant paths amongst other studied factors and intention to use chatbots concluding with the need to explore more drivers for such contemporary technologies. Moreover, the findings indicate that trust turns out to be an important predictor of behavioural intention towards chatbots, in addition to its role in mitigating perceived risk and enhancing flow experience.
Originality/value
Given the lack of empirical evidence related to chatbots applied for business purposes, this paper fills a gap in this research field and provides a deeper understanding of what leverages consumers' intention to use chatbots for online shopping.
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Emilio Pirraglia, Felice Giuliani, Roberta De Cicco, Claudio Di Berardino and Riccardo Palumbo
The outbreak of Covid-19 increased the average time spent on social media (SM). This led to a transformation in how companies manage their digital marketing channels and created…
Abstract
Purpose
The outbreak of Covid-19 increased the average time spent on social media (SM). This led to a transformation in how companies manage their digital marketing channels and created additional pressure for business-to-business (B2B) and family businesses, which tend to focus more on personal relationships with customers and stakeholders than on the implementation of digital marketing strategies on SM. The present research examines the case study of a Facebook advertising campaign created to promote the products and business values of an Italian family firm specialising in the production and commercialisation of biostimulants for agriculture.
Design/methodology/approach
The research aims to combine digital marketing avenues (i.e. a Facebook advertising campaign) with established psychological and behavioural theories, such as the dual process theories, by comparing the effects of two promotional videos (emotional vs functional).
Findings
The results suggest that emotional videos generate more passive behaviours, such as views, as well as active behaviours in the form of likes, comments and shares, while functional videos induce people to search for more information about the advertised products.
Originality/value
This is the first study to validate the role of Facebook advertising campaigns in developing an information-based approach to B2B family firms by testing the effectiveness of a targeted campaign comparing the impact of emotional and functional cues on increasing users' engagement while optimising the circulation of video content. The study helps to reduce the academic–practice gap by investigating the example of a fruitful integration between academic research and management practice.
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Daniel Maar, Ekaterina Besson and Hajer Kefi
This article draws on a reasoned action perspective and the two fundamental dimensions (i.e. warmth and competence) of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) to analyze customers'…
Abstract
Purpose
This article draws on a reasoned action perspective and the two fundamental dimensions (i.e. warmth and competence) of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) to analyze customers' chatbot-related attitudes and usage intentions in service retailing. The authors investigate how chatbot, customer, and contextual characteristics, along with perceptions of chatbot warmth and competence, shape customers' chatbot-related attitudes. Furthermore, the authors analyze whether the customer generation or the service context moderates the relationship between chatbot-related attitudes and usage intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
The results are based on two studies (N = 807). Study 1 relies on a 2 (chatbot communication style: high vs low social orientation) × 2 (customer generation: generation X [GenX] vs generation Z [GenZ]) × 2 (service context: restaurant vs medical) between-subjects design. Study 2 relies on a similar number of respondents from GenX and GenZ who answered questions on scheduling a service with either the dentist or the favorite restaurant of the respondents.
Findings
GenZ shows more positive attitudes toward chatbots than GenX, due to higher perceptions of warmth and competence. While GenZ has similar attitudes toward chatbots with a communication style that is high or low in social orientation, GenX perceives chatbots with a high social orientation as warmer and has more favorable attitudes toward chatbots. Furthermore, the positive effect of chatbot-related attitudes on usage intentions is stronger for GenX than GenZ. These effects do not significantly differ between the considered contexts.
Originality/value
This research formulates future directions to stimulate debate on factors that service retailers should consider when employing chatbots.
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Michaela Jánská, Marta Žambochová and Zuzana Vacurová
This paper aims to explore the recognition and success of different ways of branding native advertising in influencer marketing.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the recognition and success of different ways of branding native advertising in influencer marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
The data are evaluated using statistical tests, correlation and cluster analysis.
Findings
It was found that the higher the recognition rate of a post tagged in a particular way, the better the tagging method for influencer marketing on Instagram. Based on the findings of this study, word tag is recommended first because it is flexible and has one of the highest recognition rates.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of the results across different regional settings requires further investigation.
Practical implications
Good labeling of native advertising leads to greater success.
Originality/value
This study can be used by marketing managers, advertisers and influencers to gain insight into the issue, as well as to better select the appropriate labeling method for their advertising content.
Objetivo
Este trabajo tiene como objetivo explorar el reconocimiento y el éxito de diferentes formas de branding de publicidad nativa en el marketing de influencers.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Los datos se evalúan mediante pruebas estadísticas, correlación y análisis de conglomerados.
Resultados
Se encontró que cuanto mayor es la tasa de reconocimiento de un post etiquetado de una manera particular, mejor es el método de etiquetado para el marketing de influencers en Instagram. Basándose en los resultados de este estudio, se recomienda en primer lugar el etiquetado por palabras porque es flexible y tiene una de las tasas de reconocimiento más altas.
Implicaciones prácticas
Un buen etiquetado de la publicidad nativa conduce a un mayor éxito.
Originalidad
Este estudio puede ser utilizado por directores de marketing, anunciantes e influencers para obtener información sobre el tema, así como para seleccionar mejor el método de etiquetado adecuado para su contenido publicitario.
Limitaciones/Implicaciones de la investigación
La generalizabilidad de los resultados en diferentes entornos regionales requiere más investigación.
目的
本文旨在探讨影响者营销中不同方式的品牌原生广告的识别和成功。
方法
使用统计测试、相关性和聚类分析对数据进行评估。
研究结果
研究发现, 以特定方式标记的帖子的识别率越高, Instagram上影响者营销的标记方式就越好。基于这项研究的结果, 首先推荐单词标签, 因为它很灵活, 而且有最高的识别率之一。
实际意义
对原生广告进行良好的标注会带来更大的成功。
原创性
本研究可供营销经理、广告商和影响者使用, 以深入了解这一问题, 并更好地为其广告内容选择合适的标签方法。
研究局限性
研究结果在不同地区环境中的普适性需要进一步调查。