With the evolution of Artificial intelligence (AI), emotional artificial intelligence service agents (AISA) have become common in service industry. However, how artificial empathy of AISA contributes to customer acceptance remains an open question. This study draws on Anthropomorphism Theory and Customer AI Experience Theory to examine whether and how artificial empathy has influence on customer acceptance of AISA. Evidence from three experiments (N=1057) designed by the Experimental vignette method (EVM) shows that: (1) artificial empathy including perspective-taking, empathic concern and emotional contagion has a positive impact on customer acceptance of AISA (study 1); (2) customer AI experience (emotional experience quality, social experience activation and social experience quality) mediates the relationship between artificial empathy and customer acceptance of AISA (study 2); (3) artificial empathy for hedonic (vs. utilitarian) services leads to a stronger effect on customer acceptance of AISA (study 3). This paper enriches our understanding of artificial empathy and provides practical guidance for practitioners strategically managing AISA services in AI-enabled marketing interactions.

The performance of an organization largely depends upon the strategy-environment fit (Mintzberg, 1979). The success of business-level strategy is contingent on industry environment characteristics (Pelham, 1999). Under the strategic fit, new ventures need to match their strategies of market, product with external environment. In different contextual situations, a new venture should employ appropriate management practices that positively impact its performance. The strategic fit provides important theoretical foundations for understanding how strategies drive firm performance. Today, technology-based start-up ventures and corporate entrepreneurship both embrace emerging markets and emerging technologies as the core of their competitive advantage (Thukral, Ehr, Walsh, Groen, & Sijde, 2008). For these new ventures, it is important to set up market orientation strategy at the beginning of founding. New ventures need to explore market opportunities and respond to market requirements. Proactive and responsive market orientations are two dimensions of market orientation considering to latent and current market needs ((Narver, Slater, & Maclachlan, 2004)). Current studies acquiescently treat proactive and responsive as two types of market orientations. However, further study need to clarify whether and what extent and under what contextual situations new ventures pursue two dimensions of market orientation strategy. In specifically, does pursuit of a hybrid market orientation lead to superior performance relative to a pure one? What extent should a new venture emphasize relative pure strategy which can help it to fit its strategy with performance objectives? Furthermore, is the market orientation strategy purity equally important in both emerging and established market conditions and industrial technology standards? This paper proposes hypotheses of positive relationship between market orientation strategy purity and new venture performance. And, Market needs has a moderating role on the relationship of MO purity and new venture performance. That is, for emerging market, the MO purity will exert a weaker influence on the new venture performance. Technological uncertainty has a moderating role on the relationship of MO purity and new venture performance. That is, for emerging technology, the MO purity (especially proactive market orientation) will exert a stronger influence on the new venture performance.