This study explores the role of the digital communication in determining customers’ e-service agent use behavior and examines whether perceived communicator authority interacts with communication style toward strengthening or weakening future e-service agent use intention. The results of this study provide pioneering evidence on the effects of digital service communication strategies. This study contributes to digital service research by exploring the communication strategies of e-service agents. Results also provide implications for practitioners on how to achieve most out of deploying digital communications in the digital customer service platform.

As digital technology becomes more prevalent in today’s business environment and interest in digital trust rises, restaurants need to identify whether and how their mobile apps enhance the customer experience, and what features of the apps can strengthen customers’ attachment to them. However, few studies have examined the role of restaurant mobile apps as a catalyst for building customer loyalty. Considering restaurant mobile apps as a means to build a trustworthy relationship between customers and restaurants, this study develops and validates a research framework to measure digital trust between restaurants and customers through restaurant mobile apps. Specifically, due to the lack of measurement constructs for digital trust, a reliable and valid set of measurements that can explain digital trust in relation to restaurant mobile apps is developed and the effects of mobile apps’ digital trust on customers’ trust in a restaurant brand, overall experience, and their continued use intention are assessed.

Even though luxury brands embraced social media (Godey et al., 2016; Kim & Ko, 2012), research on the use of social media for luxury brand marketing is limited. Given the increasing popularity of social media, it is imperative to examine social media-based communication strategies for luxury brands to achieve desirable consumer evaluations of brands and advertising. This research explored the role of brand anthropomorphism strategies in social media in enhancing consumers’ advertising and brand evaluations. Specifically, this research investigated (1) the effects of verbal-based brand anthropomorphism in the luxury goods brand context (Study 1), (2) the effects of verbalbased brand anthropomorphism in the luxury service brand context (Study 2), and (3) the effects of verbal-based brand anthropomorphism cues (Study 3) on consumers’ luxury brand and advertising evaluations. Studies 1 and 2 both collectively examined the role of self-focused anthropomorphized brand effects in two different contexts. Consumers easily connect themselves with an anthropomorphized advertising, compared to an objectified advertising for luxury brands. Study 3 identified the fit between luxury brand type and an anthropomorphized brand cue to explore the effectiveness of brand anthropomorphism. Depending on the type of luxury brands, consumers processed anthropomorphized brand cues differently. Consumers favorably perceived the fit between luxury good brands and partner cues; on the other hand, consumers favorably perceived the fit between luxury service brands and servant cues. Results of this research contribute to the social media advertising and luxury brand marketing literature by clarifying the role of brand anthropomorphism in consumer-brand relationships as well as in brand-advertising relationships. Results also provide industry suggestions for delivering personified brand messages to have desirable consumer brand and advertising evaluations.