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Despite the promising development and marketing potential of the metaverse, our understanding of how realistic metaverse environments impact user engagement and behaviours remains limited. This study investigates the role of perceived realism in influencing user engagement, thereby affecting external search behaviour and visit intentions.

We surveyed 270 active metaverse users to test the research model. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results of our study show that three dimensions of realism – avatar involvement, perceptual pervasiveness and social realism – significantly enhance user engagement, which in turn influences external search behaviour and visit intention. In contrast, simulation realism and freedom of choice have minimal effects on absorption and dedication.

This study highlights the role of perceived realism in enhancing user engagement with the metaverse and its impact on physical world behaviours. It contributes to metaverse literature by demonstrating that engagement within the metaverse significantly influences physical world behaviours, including visit intentions and external search behaviours.

This study offers practical guidance for developers to enhance user engagement in metaverse environments. Specifically, our findings advocate for visual and audio quality enhancements, greater persuasiveness of virtual spaces, improved avatar representativeness and a closer alignment of metaverse activities with real-life events.

This study advances the theoretical understanding of perceived realism by examining how its dimensions – such as visual and audio quality, avatar representativeness and alignment with real-life events – impact user engagement in the metaverse. It also explores how this engagement influences offline behaviours, thus bridging the gap between virtual and real-world interactions.

Social commerce (s-commerce) is an online business model combining commercial and social features. Vendors may engage in a business-oriented relationship with customers and/or establish a personal relationship with customers. The role performed by the vendors may not match customer expectations and needs, resulting in low repurchase intention. Drawing on role theory in the context of customer orientation, this study integrates functional customer orientation (FCO) and relational customer orientation (RCO) with the expectation–confirmation model (ECM) to propose a theoretical framework for explaining customers' post-consumption behaviors. This study also examines how product-specific attributes moderate the effect of FCO and RCO on customer satisfaction.

This study analyzed 273 survey responses from WeChat users by using PLS-SEM.

The results confirmed that the confirmation of customer expectations positively affected FCO and RCO. Additionally, FCO and RCO had different effects on customer satisfaction, depending on product type and brand awareness, and their effects on customers' post-consumption behaviors also varied.

The findings suggest that both business and social roles are important to customers in C2C s-commerce. This study also demonstrates product characteristics moderating the effectiveness of customer orientation on customer satisfaction.

This study provides empirical support for vendors and platform developers to implement appropriate selling strategies and manage customer expectations in C2C s-commerce.

This study is the first to incorporate FCO and RCO into the ECM theoretical framework to obtain new insights into vendors' selling approaches in C2C s-commerce, thus contributing to the marketing literature.

Young consumers have increasingly adopted wearable health-care technology to improve their well-being. Drawing on generation cohort theory (GCT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study aims to illuminate the major factors that drive the adoption of health-care wearable technology products by Generation Z (Gen-Z) consumers in Hong Kong.

A self-administrated online survey was used to collect data from a sample of Gen-Z consumers in Hong Kong with experience in using health-care wearable technology. Data analysis was performed using partial least-squares-structural equation modeling to verify four hypotheses.

The results reveal that consumer innovativeness (CI) and electronic word-of-mouth referral (EWOM) are significant predictors of perceived credibility, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, which subsequently drive online engagement intention and adoption intention (AI).

This research provides practical guidance for marketers of health-care wearable technology products. In particular, CI and EWOM hold the key to young consumers’ product perceptions (and thereby their online engagement and AIs).

This research leverages the insights of GCT to enrich the TAM, specifically by including CI and EWOM as antecedents and online engagement as a consequence in the context of health-care wearable technology. The results of an empirical study enhance theoretical understanding of Gen-Z consumers’ perceptions and behavioral intentions toward health-care wearable technology. They also point to actionable recommendations for marketing this new technology to young consumers.

Virtual reality (VR) technology is a potential tool for tourism marketers to maintain the attractiveness of their destinations and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effectiveness of VR technology in motivating potential tourists' visit intention under lockdown conditions remains unknown. An integrated model based on the experience economy framework and mood management theory was, therefore, used to explain how tourists' VR experiences affect their mood management processes and subsequent behaviors. This research also examined how perceived travel risk influenced the relationship between mood management processes and future decisions.

This study used a cross-sectional design based on a sample collected from a Chinese survey company, Sojump. The author surveyed 285 respondents who had experienced VR tourism activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research model was tested using partial least squares–structural equation modeling.

The results demonstrated that the four dimensions of VR experiences differently affected mood management processes, while perceived travel risk differently moderated the influence of mood management processes on visit intention and VR stickiness. This provides insights for tourism marketers to adapt to the current tourism environment and develop recovery strategies.

In response to gaps in the literature, this research examined the effectiveness of VR technology in driving tourists' visit intention during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing insights for tourism marketers to successfully implement VR tourism and plan timely recovery strategies.

This study aims to examine the impact of virtual reality (VR) interactivity elements, including synchronicity, two-way communication and active control, on tourists’ VR memorable experiences, and the subsequent effect on tourists’ word-of-mouth (WOM) and VR continuance intention.

The research model was tested using self-administrated survey data from 285 Chinese tourists who were experienced in travel and VR tourism activities. Partial least squares–structural equation modelling was adopted to perform latent variable analysis.

VR interactivity elements, including synchronicity, two-way communication and active control, play a considerable role in driving tourists’ VR memorable experiences, which in turn drive tourists’ WOM and VR continuance intention.

Cross-sectional, single country data was used and thus the generalisability of the findings may be limited. Future research is recommended adopting a longitudinal approach to compare the relationship between constructs in countries with diverse cultures.

The findings provide guidance for tourism marketers to use the interactive features of VR, including synchronicity, two-way communication and active control, to drive tourists’ memorable experiences and thereby strengthen tourists’ referral and continuance intention.

Scholarly attention on the importance of VR interactivity in driving tourists’ memorable experiences and behavioural intention is limited. This study contributes to the tourism marketing literature by empirically testing the research model to reveal the importance of VR interactivity elements, including synchronicity, two-way communication and active control, to drive tourists’ VR memorable experiences and behavioural intentions.

虚拟现实交互在COVID-19时代中构建难忘的游客体验和采纳意向的作用

本研究旨在检验虚拟现实 (VR) 交互元素的影响, 包括同步性、双向通信和主动控制, 对游客的VR 难忘的经历, 以及对游客口碑 (WOM) 和 VR 的持续意向。

该研究模型采用来自285名体验过旅行和VR旅游活动的中国游客的调查数据进行了测试。偏最小二乘 - 结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）用来执行潜在的变量分析。

VR交互元素, 包括同步性、双向通信和主动控制, 在推动游客 VR 难忘体验方面发挥了相当大的作用, 进而推动游客的口碑和VR持续意向

使用了横断面的单一国家数据, 因此调查结果的普遍性可能有限。建议未来的研究采用纵向比较方法来比较具有多元文化不同国家为背景的构象之间关系。

研究结果为旅游营销人员利用VR的交互特性, 包括同步性、双向交流、主动性控制, 来驱动游客难忘的体验, 从而加强游客的推荐和继续意向

学术界对 VR 交互性在构建游客的难忘经历和行为意图的重要作用的研究仍然有限。本研究有助于旅游营销文献通过实证检验研究模型揭示VR交互元素的重要性, 包括同步性、双向通信、和主动控制, 构建游客的 VR 难忘体验和行为意图。

Using consumption value theory, this study aims to examine the impact of tourists’ perceived consumption value dimensions of tea beverages offered by Hong Kong (HK)-style cafés, including taste value, price value, health value and emotional value, on tourists’ memorable experience (ME), satisfaction and revisit intention.

Using an online survey, this study collected 225 usable data from tourists who had experience in visiting HK-style cafés. Partial least squares–structural equation modelling was used to examine the importance of tourists’ value dimensions, including taste value, price value, health value and emotional value, on tourists’ ME, satisfaction and revisit intention.

The results revealed that taste value, price value, health value and emotional value are significant predictors of tourists’ ME in HK-style cafés, which in turn drive their satisfaction and revisit intention.

This study focusses on a single context: HK-style cafés. Future research may enhance the generalisability of the findings by replicating the model in other countries with diverse cultures.

Tourism marketers may strengthen tourists’ ME, satisfaction and revisit intention by promoting tea beverages as well as HK-style cafés. Tourism marketers are recommended to communicate taste value, price value, health value and emotional value of HK-style tea beverages, which in turn encourages tourists to learn about the features of tea beverages. Subsequently, it drives tourists’ ME and satisfaction, thereby strengthening their intention to revisit.

This study contributes to the tourism marketing literature by providing an understanding of the role of tea beverage value in driving tourists’ ME, satisfaction and revisit intention. By empirically testing a research model, this study confirms that specific consumption value elements of tea beverages, namely, taste value, price value, health value and emotional value, are critical drivers in driving tourists’ ME, satisfaction and revisit intention.

There are two main objectives in this study. First, we aim to develop a set of constructs for health task management support (HTMS) features to evaluate which health-related tasks are supported by mobile health application (mHealth app) functions. Second, drawing on innovation resistance theory (IRT), we examine the impacts of the newly developed HTMS dimensions on perceived usefulness, alongside other barrier factors contributing to technology anxiety.

Using a mixed-method research design, this research seeks to develop new measurement scales that reflect how mHealth apps support older adults’ health-related needs based on interviews. Subsequently, data were collected from older adults and exploratory factor analysis was used to confirm the validity of the new scales. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze survey data from 602 older adults.

The PLS-SEM results indicated that medical management task support, dietary task support, and exercise task support were positively associated with perceived usefulness, while perceived complexity and dispositional resistance to change were identified as antecedents of technology anxiety. Perceived usefulness and technology anxiety were found to positively and negatively influence adoption intention, respectively.

This study enriches the information systems literature by developing a multidimensional construct that delineates how older adults’ health-related needs can be supported by features of mHealth apps. Drawing on IRT, we complement the existing literature on resistance to innovation by systematically examining the impact of five types of barriers on technology anxiety.

Through the theoretical lenses of media richness, perceived realism and customer engagement, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms that promote customer engagement in metaverse-mediated environments in the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) context, as well as the impact of customer engagement on customers’ metaverse usage intensity and future visit intention.

A survey of customers who have experience with metaverse-mediated MICE activities was conducted. Data from 267 respondents were analysed using partial least squares-structural equation modelling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to test our research framework.

Media richness dimensions, including multiple cues, immediate feedback and personal focus, were found to enhance perceived metaverse realism, which in turn affects the dimensions of customer engagement, leading to customers’ metaverse usage intensity and future visit intention. The fsQCA analysis identifies three configurations that lead to high event visit intention.

This research helps developers and marketers better understand how rich media contents create realistic experiences in the metaverse, aiding them to devise strategies for customer engagement and improve resource allocation.

Despite its potentially revolutionary impacts, empirical studies on the mechanisms driving customer engagement in the metaverse and its effects are scarce. This study contributes by revealing the multiple-phase mechanism of the customer engagement journey in the metaverse-mediated MICE context. By expanding the media richness theory into this area, our study provides new insights by illustrating how media richness dimensions create multisensory experiences and real-time interactions, enhancing perceived metaverse realism and customer engagement. It also addresses the debate on whether metaverse-mediated events substitute or complement real-life events.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of two types of reciprocity (restricted reciprocity and generalized reciprocity) on customers’ trust in social commerce (s-commerce) and trust performance (purchase intention and word-of-mouth intention). Furthermore, this study examines how individual and contextual moderators (personal shopping experience and community shared language) could impact the trust development process.

This study adopted a survey method and obtained data from 287 users in a customer-to-customer (C2C) s-commerce platform. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the research hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that two types of reciprocity positively affect trust in s-commerce. Customers’ trust performance is significantly affected by trust in s-commerce. Additionally, shopping experience in s-commerce is found to positively moderate the relationship between restricted reciprocity and trust in s-commerce.

The findings help to understand the nature and role of reciprocity in influencing trust and trust-related behaviors in the context of C2C s-commerce. The research also helps to explore the individual and contextual moderators that impact the effect of reciprocity on trust development.

The results offer a comprehensive view of trust building strategies for s-commerce practitioners, including shoppers, vendors and managers of s-commerce platforms.

This study is among the first few research studies that offers a theory-based conceptualization of reciprocity in C2C s-commerce and provides empirical support for the impact of reciprocity on customers’ trust in C2C s-commerce. In addition, this study devises a broader view of reciprocity based on restricted and generalized exchange principle to represent the interaction of vendor–shopper and shopper–shopper, respectively.

In the era of digital evolution, companies are increasingly deploying digital platforms to optimize operational efficiencies and to connect with customers more directly. However, little is known about whether and how companies can leverage digital platforms to enhance their brand prestige. Integrating insights from the resource-based view of the firm into the branding literature, this study aims to compare and distinguish the effects of the two digital platform functions, technical and social functions, on a company’s brand prestige. This study also assesses the moderating roles of two institutional factors, market uncertainty and brand imitation.

This study estimates a moderated regression model using a survey of 240 companies in China that deploy digital platforms. This study uses SPSS 24.0 to perform regression analysis.

The study finds that technical functions positively, whereas social functions negatively affect brand prestige. Moreover, the technical functions of digital platforms are more beneficial for companies to build their brand prestige when the market is turbulent and the extent of brand imitation is high, whereas, under the same conditions, social functions lead to lower brand prestige.

There are several limitations of this study that offer future research opportunities. First, due to the difficulties of data collection, measures were taken from the same source for which common method bias could be a potential concern. Second, this study considered two institutional boundary conditions in these models. Future research should consider mediators as well as other potential moderators to understand the underlying mechanisms of how digital platforms affect brand prestige. Third, future studies may develop better constructs to manifest these two types of digital platform functions. Finally, this sample was limited to companies in China.

This study provides important implications for companies leveraging digital platforms to build brands. First, companies must distinguish between the different functions of digital platforms. The findings reveal that companies that leverage digital platforms to build brand prestige are suggested to make greater use of technical functions yet should be cautious in developing social functions. Second, this research suggests although market uncertainty and brand imitation are not conducive to enhancing brand prestige, it is possible for companies to take advantage of these unfavorable environments to better serve niche customers.

Prior marketing studies emphasize the benefits of digital platforms and largely overlook the double-edged sword effect of digital platforms on companies’ brand building. This study contributes to the marketing literature by revealing the benefits of technical function and the challenges of social function in driving brand prestige in complex institutional settings.