Technology, for example, Personalized Technology Services (PTS), has groomed consumers to expect an integrated and personalized shopping experience regardless of the channels, such as websites, mobile apps, physical stores, etc. PTS refers to technologies that offer personalization functions to meet customer needs at the time of their shopping for a seamless experience. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of retailer mobile apps’ PTS in consumers’ omnichannel shopping experiences by: (1) identifying PTS values specific to retail mobile apps for in-store shopping and (2) testing the PTS values – channel integration – consumer responses links based on Information Integration Theory (IIT). We first proposed that PTS via mobile apps holds various positive values. Second, we postulated four hypotheses: H1. PTS values enhance the integration of PTS values, H2. Integration of PTS values positively affects customer engagement, H3. Customer engagement positively affects customer satisfaction and H4. Customer engagement mediates the relationship between integration and customer satisfaction. Two web-based survey studies were employed with US consumers who had an experience with mobile app-mediated PTS offered by retailers. For study 1, a total of 239 US consumers participated in the survey. Study 1 identified five value dimensions of the app-mediated PTS: hedonic value, utilitarian value, self-efficacy, co-creation, and synchronicity. For study 2, a total of 373 US participants completed the survey. Study 2 confirmed the proposed structural model that PTS values positively affected channel integration which, in turn, positively influenced customer engagement and shopping satisfaction. Additionally, customer engagement partially mediated the effect of integration on shopping satisfaction. This study expanded the literature on omnichannel retailing by exploring consumer in-store shopping experience using retail mobile apps from PTS and channel integration perspectives. Practically, the study findings provided insights for marketers into how to design the retailers’ mobile apps to enhance the integrated shopping experience of consumers.

Today, the metaverse is everywhere; it has become a major buzzword. The term was first coined in an American writer’s 1992 science fiction novel, Snow Crash, as a portmanteau of meta (Greek prefix meaning beyond) and universe. Nearly three decades later today, it is no longer the setting of a science fiction epic. Rather, it is becoming as real as the physical world. In the current time, the metaverse is used as a concept to describe a seamless convergence of the physical and digital worlds, or a virtual community where people can work, play-to-earn, transact and socialize (J.P. Morgan, 2022).

Building on Technology Readiness and Acceptance Model(TRAM), the study aimed to examine how technology readiness affects consumers’ perceptions of ease of use, usefulness, and risk, which in turn predict their intention to use retail service robots. Specifically, the study proposed that technology readiness motivators (optimism and innovativeness) would influence perceived ease of use and usefulness, while technology readiness inhibitors (discomfort and insecurity) would affect perceived risk. The study further examined if the perception factors (ease of use, usefulness, and risk) contribute to intention to use retail service robots. A survey method was used with data collected from Korean consumers. The final sample size was 418. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings of the study revealed that technology readiness motivators positively affected perceived ease of use and usefulness while innovativeness had no impact on usefulness. All the inhibitors increased perceived risk. Lastly, as hypothesized, perceptions of ease of use, usefulness, and risk predicted intention to use retail service robots. This study extended the retail technology literature by applying and validating TRAM to the context of consumer acceptance of retail service robots. The study further helped marketers and retailers by highlighting the importance of technology readiness in improving consumer perceptions and responses towards retail service robots.

Immersive Virtual Environment Technology (IVET) has emerged as a relevant technology in the marketing environment, with increased use in the retail context (O’Brien, 2016). As its use increases, there is a need to better understand its impact on consumer behavior and the experience that it delivers. Therefore, this study proposes a research model that captures the key constructs in understanding consumer acceptance behavior of the innovative technology used in marketing and how it impacts the brand experience. The objective of this study is to examine 1) antecedents (i.e., message fit and personal innovativeness) that may impact user’s attitude toward the IVET advertisement and self-image congruence, and 2) the transfer of positive or negative IVET advertisement attitude to behavioral intention. Survey was distributed at a large Southern university in USA. Out of 213 survey completed, 143 was usable. Hypotheses were tested using the structural equation model (SEM) analysis with maximum likelihood method (AMOS 23). The results showed that message fit had no significant impact on ad attitude and self-image congruence. Personal innovativeness had positive impact on ad attitude, but not on self-image congruence. Ad attitude had no effect on self-image congruence while having significant positive impact on offline store and online store visit intentions. Lastly, self-image congruence influences both offline and online store visit intentions. The results demonstrate that evaluation of the virtual world brand experience (i.e., attitude toward the IVET advertisement) is a strong predictor of user behavior toward the brand. A consumer’s interactions with a brand in the virtual environment may provide important information about the consumer’s desire to develop a relationship with the brand in other marketing channels, and serves as an opportunity for the marketer to assist in the buying process. Further, personal characteristic such as personal innovativeness may have a significant impact on a their attitude toward the IVET marketing which further leads to consumer’s decision to visit the online and offline store. In addition, self-image congruence were found to positively affect user’s intention to visit the stores, such that consumers who perceive their brand experience as more consistent with their self-image are more likely to consider purchasing the brand in the real world. The results suggest that some consumers may tend to behave in ways that are congruent with their self-identity across marketing channels.

In the era of digital retailing, consumer-empowering technologies greatly facilitate the dissemination of complaint messages. Consumer audiences, who view consumer complaints and the subsequent responses made by retailers, consider these messages as critical information sources for decision-making (Weitzl & Hutzinger, 2017). We argue that retailers can use two types of response strategies (warmth- vs. competence-related response) to regulate the information distributed online, and that these strategies may influence consumer audiences’ perceptions and subsequent attitudes and behaviors differently based on their different levels of power (Rucker, Galinsky, & Dubois, 2012). Two experimental studies using a 2 (retailer response: warmth vs. competence) X 2 (audience power: low vs. high) between-subjects design were conducted. Study 1 (N = 240) revealed an interactive effect of power and retailer response on perceived diagnosticity and perceived fairness; and Study 2 (N = 233) showed that the significant moderated mediation for audiences’ perceptions on the relationship between retailer response X audience power and outcome variables. Theoretically, this study enriches the consumer complaint management literature from the perspective of consumer audience. It also sheds light on the power theory by validating its notion in the context of service failure and recovery. Practically, results demonstrate how retailers can effectively respond to negative consumer reviews to maintain customer relationship management with consumer audiences in digital age.

Immersive Virtual Environment Technology (IVET) has emerged as a relevant technology in the marketing environment, with increased use in the retail context (O’Brien, 2016). As its use increases, there is a need to better understand its impact on consumer behavior and the experience that it delivers. Therefore, this study proposes a research model that captures the key constructs in understanding consumer acceptance behavior of the innovative technology used in marketing and how it impacts the brand experience. The objective of this study is to examine 1) antecedents (i.e., message fit and personal innovativeness) that may impact user’s attitude toward the IVET advertisement and self-image congruence, and 2) the transfer of positive or negative IVET advertisement attitude to behavioral intention. Survey was distributed at a large Southern university in USA. Out of 213 survey completed, 143 was usable. Hypotheses were tested using the structural equation model (SEM) analysis with maximum likelihood method (AMOS 23). The results showed that message fit had no significant impact on ad attitude and self-image congruence. Personal innovativeness had positive impact on ad attitude, but not on self-image congruence. Ad attitude had no effect on self-image congruence while having significant positive impact on offline store and online store visit intentions. Lastly, self-image congruence influences both offline and online store visit intentions. The results demonstrate that evaluation of the virtual world brand experience (i.e., attitude toward the IVET advertisement) is a strong predictor of user behavior toward the brand. A consumer’s interactions with a brand in the virtual environment may provide important information about the consumer’s desire to develop a relationship with the brand in other marketing channels, and serves as an opportunity for the marketer to assist in the buying process. Further, personal characteristic such as personal innovativeness may have a significant impact on a their attitude toward the IVET marketing which further leads to consumer’s decision to visit the online and offline store. In addition, self- image congruence were found to positively affect user’s intention to visit the stores, such that consumers who perceive their brand experience as more consistent with their self-image are more likely to consider purchasing the brand in the real world. The results suggest that some consumers may tend to behave in ways that are congruent with their self-identity across marketing channels.

The present study compared social capital scales of a six-dimensional version (Model 1), a three-dimensional version (Model 2), and a two-dimensional version (Model 3) in the context of two types of online brand communities. Model 1 explains social capital with six constructs including interaction, trust, reciprocity, identification, language, and vision (Chiu, Hsu, & Wang, 2006; Williams, 2006). Model 2, a shorter version of Model 1, is identified with three dimensions of interaction, trust, and shared values (Lin & Lu, 2011). Lastly, Model 3 presents bridging and bonding as two key dimensions of social capital (Williams (2006). The present study used a quantitative online survey method. The sample size was 588; 301 for company-generated communities and 287 for consumer-generated communities. For comparison, three models were evaluated on two criteria: (1) the consistency in the dimensionality of each scale between two subgroups of online brand communities: company-generated and consumer-generated brand communities and (2) the predictability of the scale on consumer commitment to the brand community. The findings reveal that the three-dimensional model of social capital (Model 2) is more robust than the other models (Models 1 and 3). By comparing three social capital scales and identifying the context-specific scale, the current study contributes to the consumer behavior literature specific to social capital of social network sites. Also, this study helps marketers have a better understanding of social capital elements developed through interpersonal relationships in an online brand community.

A company’s collaborative competence to seamlessly engage with its customers within the service industry becomes one of the primary sources of competitive advantage. Increasingly more customers expect more personalized and contextualized services to maximize the value they can obtain from each transaction, and companies are actively seeking opportunities to listen and learn from customers to enhance their value proposition. Scholars in the service marketing literature suggest that service recovery encounter represent one of the situations where a company can effectively leverage its collaborative competence to restore the company-customer relationship damaged due to an initial service failure. One of the important benefits customers can obtain from actively engaging in recovery is enhanced control. However, they are required to put additional personal resources which count as an increased cost for customers. Also, depending on the nature of a collaborative outcome (positive vs. negative), customers tend to ascribe responsibility differently (more credit to oneself for a positive result and less blame for an adverse result). This study attempts to 1) investigate the role of enhanced control and increased self-effort in customers’ equity perception toward a service recovery encounter and 2) examine how attributional bias intervene in the process. A 2 x 2 web-based experiment with a service recovery scenario was designed and administered to collect the data. The results indicate that when the resulting outcome is not desirable, the increased self-effort from customers counteracts the positive effect of enhanced control. When the recovery outcome is positive, on the other hand, customers with a low level of involvement in recovery process tend to overestimate their self-effort. However, such effect does not exist for customers with a high level of engagement. This study contributes to the extant literature by contemplating adverse impacts of effort and positive impacts of empowering customers with more control. It also provides valuable insight into the usefulness of customer engagement as a pre-emptive recovery strategy.

This study is to examine how different timing of free gifts (pre-informed vs. surprise) under different consumption occasions (ordinary vs. special) independently and/or together affect consumers’ affective (overall utility) and attitudinal (satisfaction) evaluations of dining service experiences. According to utility theory (Kahneman, Wakker & Sarin, 1997), an individual’s final choice is determined by his/her evaluation of utility which refers to the experience of feelings and emotions in response to a service. Anticipated utility occurs before a purchase or an actual event; experienced utility occurs during the event. In examining the customers’ dining experiences in conjunction with free gift timing and a consumption occasion, this study focuses on anticipated and experienced utility. Two hypotheses are proposed: H1. Consumption occasions moderate the effect of timing of free gift offer on overall utility and satisfaction with the service experience in a restaurant dining environment. Specifically, on a special (vs. ordinary) consumption occasion, surprise (vs. pre-informed) free gifts increase consumer’s overall utility about and satisfaction with restaurant service experience. H2. Overall utility mediates the interactive effects of free gifts and consumption occasions on satisfaction with restaurant service. Data were gathered using a web-based experiment with a 2(free gift: surprise vs. pre-informed) x 2 (consumption occasion: special vs. ordinary) between-subject design. As a result, both H1 and H2 are supported. Participants dining at a restaurant for a special occasion had higher overall utility about their restaurant service experience when they received free gifts as a surprise as opposed to pre-informed gifts. On the other hand, participants who dined on ordinary occasions perceived an overall utility of the restaurant service to a greater extent when they received pre-informed free gifts than surprising gifts. The results indicated that it is important to consider the strategic timing of complimentary gifts to enhance customer experiences. Moreover, this study found that overall utility mediates the effect of free gifts on satisfaction only under special consumption occasions. In special occasions, participants who receive free gifts elicit affective emotions and then, they are satisfied with the restaurant service, but participants under ordinary occasions are directly satisfied with the service through free gifts.

The rapid growth in the popularity of social media sites has meant that social media has become an important communication channel for brands. Brands create brand pages on social media to cultivate positive and strong relationships with consumers. This study seeks to enhance our understanding of how fashion brand pages in social media foster consumer-brand relationships by exploring the factors that affect the development of consumer-brand relationships. Drawing on the parasocial interaction theory, this study proposes parasocial interaction as a key factor of this process. Specifically, this study proposes four antecedents (vividness, interactivity, social presence, and focused attention) of consumers’ parasocial interaction with brand pages, which further affects consumer responses in terms of affective engagement and brand loyalty. An online survey was administered with consumers who have followed and visited at least one fashion brand page via a social networking site (SNS). Structural equation modeling revealed that consumers’ perceptions of vividness, interactivity, social presence, and focused attention on a fashion brand page positively affected their feelings towards parasocial interaction with the brand page, which in turn led to their affective engagement with the brand page and consequent brand loyalty. These findings suggest that consumers build relationships of varying degrees with brand pages in a similar manner to that with people, which leads to their development of a positive relationship with the brand. This study concludes with discussions and practical implications.

The popularity of visual communication in social network sites (SNS) can guide an important question about its effectiveness and the optimization for luxury brand advertising: How do visual communication messages via SNS work for consumer information processing and their evaluation of luxury hotels? To address this question, we examine consumer information processing in SNS in which visual communication messages work as narratives based on narrative transportation theory (Green & Brock, 2002; van Laer, Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, 2014). Specific purposes are: (1) to identify key features of consumer information processing as narrative persuasion (i.e., narrative transportation), (2) to examine how consumers’ perceptions of fluency with visual messages (i.e., comprehension fluency and imagery fluency) influence the narrative persuasion process, and (3) to explore how the narrative persuasion process develops consumer responses with respect to positive affect and visit intention. First, we predict that increased fluency of information processing (comprehension fluency and imagery fluency) would increase narrative transportation. Second, increased narrative transportation would increase affective response and visit intention. Lastly, as for the two consequences, we predict that affective response would positively affect visit intention. A web-based survey was used for data collection. Measurement items of research variables were adapted from previous studies. A total of 193 usable responses were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were directed to explore one randomly assigned luxury hotel Instagram page (Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton) and complete the questionnaire based on the experience. Results showed that comprehensive fluency, rather than imagery fluency, has significant impact on narrative transportation. Narrative transportation in turn influences affective response and visit intention; affective response influences visit intention. Additional tests suggest that narrative transportation and affective response play a mediating role in the narrative persuasion process. These findings highlight the power of narrative transportation in advertising for luxury brands, advising that marketers need to put efforts on enhancing visual storytelling in SNS communication.