This study examined the effects of user interactivity with VR in a digital retail setting on mental imagery and sensory brand app experience and its consequential impacts on perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, attitude toward using VR, and behavioral intent. Mental imagery is understood in relation to quantity, vividness, and valence. The user involvement with the device is employed as a moderator to fully understand the impact of VR in connection with consumer engagement. An IKEA VR application was utilized for this study. A convenient sample of college students was recruited from a large research university in the US. The findings of the study show that user interactivity impacts mental imagery, and it subsequently influences sensory brand app experience, perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, attitude toward using VR, and behavioral intent. Overall, this study provides meaningful and practical information to academicians and practitioners.

Engaging customers is a critical requirement for sharing economy platforms (SEPs) to sustain and grow their user base. Although the interactions between users who consume the service (customers) and those who provide it (peer service providers) are the primary source of SEPs’ economic value, little is known about the role of interactivity in driving customer engagement. This research links these two important concepts by theorizing and empirically testing the influence of different dimensions of interactivity (two-way communication, participation, joint problem-solving) on customer engagement (cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, behavioral engagement) in SEPs.

Digital humans integrating anthropomorphism into the performance and problem-solving features of AI offer innovative sources of insights and value that promotes a product, service, or brand. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a digital human’s aura and anthropomorphism on perceived interactivity, attitude toward a brand, attitude toward a digital human, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) intention, and purchase intention. An entrenched digital human’s aura and anthropomorphism increase perceived interactivity, attitude toward a brand, attitude toward a digital human, eWOM intention, and purchase intention. This study contributes to the literature by clarifying the concept of the digital human’s aura and anthropomorphism and the relationships between perceived interactivity, attitude toward a brand, attitude toward a digital human, eWOM intention, and purchase intention.

본 논문은 크리스타 좀머러(Christa Sommerer, 1964-)와 로랑 미뇨노(Laurent Mignonneau,1967-)의 공동 작품인 인공생명 이론을 접목한 인터랙티브 예술 작품을 분석한다. 좀머러와 미뇨노가 미술계에 주목 받게 된 계기는 첫 작품이라 할 수 있는 <인터랙티브 식물 성장Interactive Plan Growing>(1992)를 발표 하면서부터이다. 이 계기로 좀머러와 미뇨노는 인공생명 개념을 예술분야에 적용하기 위한 본격적으로 연구를 시작했으며, 이후 인터랙티브 아트의 예술적 가능성을 한 차원 더 높였다는 평가를 받았다. 이들은 인간과 상호작용하는 동시에 스스로 자생하는 인공생명을 작품으로 보여주며 뉴미디어 아트의 한 지평을 넓혔다. 본 글에서는 우선 작품 제작에 핵심 개념이라 할 수 있는 인공생명의 정의와 함께 인공생명 개념이 예술과 접목될 수 있던 계기를 살펴본다. 다음으로 좀머러와 미뇨노가 인공생명 예술 개념에 관심 갖게 된 계기와 더불어 이들 작품의 특징이라 할 수 있는 상호작용성을 중심으로 분석해 보고자 한다. 또한 인공생명이라는 존재가 인터랙티브 아트로서 갖는 관람자와의 상호작용성을 알아본다.

The study proposed a dual-path model to examine the relationship between customer perceived hotel innovativeness and customers’ interactivity, building the signaling theory. The model was tested with hotel customers from China. The findings suggest that customers’ perceived hotel innovativeness not only has a positive and direct impact on their interactivity, it also indirectly contributes to customers’ interactivity via two indirect paths, one featuring a cognitive-economic motivation pathway and the other featuring an affective-motivation pathway.

Although the concept of “common sense” is often taken for granted, judging whether behavior or knowledge is common sense requires a complex series of mental processes. Additionally, different perceptions of common sense can lead to social conflicts. Thus, it is important to understand how we perceive common sense and make relevant judgments. The present study investigated the dynamics of neural representations underlying judgments of what common sense is. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants indicated the extent to which they thought that a given sentence corresponded to common sense under the given perspective. We incorporated two different decision contexts involving different cultural perspectives to account for social variability of the judgments, an important feature of common sense judgments apart from logical true/false judgments. Our findings demonstrated that common sense versus non-common sense perceptions involve the amygdala and a brain network for episodic memory recollection, including the hippocampus, angular gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, suggesting integrated affective, mnemonic, and social functioning in common sense processing. Furthermore, functional connectivity multivariate pattern analysis revealed that interactivity among the amygdala, angular gyrus, and parahippocampal cortex reflected representational features of common sense perception and not those of non-common sense perception. Our study demonstrated that the social memory network is exclusively involved in processing common sense and not non-common sense. These results suggest that intergroup exclusion and misunderstanding can be reduced by experiencing and encoding long-term social memories about behavioral norms and knowledge that act as common sense of the outgroup.

We aim to determine the level of Image Interactivity Technology which can create an optimal engagement on the online consumer’s experience while surfing on hotel websites. Our model includes three personal traits as moderating variables and will be tested through a mixed approach (i.e. experiment, interview and questionnaire).

Employee innovation is critical to business success and draws knowledge and ideas from customer engagement (CE). In particular, customer interaction, a key aspect of CE, offers opportunities for, and act as a source of, hotel employees’ innovative behaviors (Jaakkola & Alexander, 2014; Li & Hsu, 2016). Focusing on the hotel industry, this study investigates the role of customer interaction, positive affect, and employee motivations in enhancing employees’ innovative behaviors. A structural model was developed based on relevant literature and pilot tested on data collected via a quantitative survey of 196 hotel employees who were in a position requiring interactions with customers. The findings provide support for the proposed model and suggest customer interaction, positive affect, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations as influential factors impacting on employees’ innovative behaviors directly and/or indirectly. This pilot study forms the basis of a larger project modeling the customer interaction - employee innovation relationship (findings to be presented at the conference). The study contributes to the limited literature on innovation through enhancing CB and employee emotional welfare, addressing the call to strengthen research on the antecedents and outcomes of CB (So, King, Sparks, & Wang, 2016). Practically, the results highlight a need for hotels’ benefit and reward systems to incorporate measures of employee performance in relation to CB.

본 연구는 청소년 온라인 게임문화가 어떻게 청소년의 일상문화로 자리 잡았으며 여가의 주요 수단으로 부상하였는지에 대한 시기적 구분과 아울러 확장 배경에 대한 사회구조적 접근을 시도해 보았다. 한국의 온라인 게임은 ‘상호작용성’을 기반으로 1998년 1차 파동과 2005년 2차 파동을 통해 청소년 일상 문화 전반의 변형을 가져왔다. 분명한 것은 온라인 게임 공간 내에는 청소년들의 지속적인 사회적 관계가 이어지고 있다는 것이다. 본 연구의 결과는 청소년 온라인게임 문화 및 청소년 일상문화 연구에 있어 균형적인 연구의 촉매제 역할을 함과 동시에 다양한 하위문화별 연구의 기초 자료로 활용될 수 있을 것이 다. 또한 본 연구에서 제시한 상호작용성을 기준으로 한 1,2차 파동에 대한 여러 비판적 후속 연구의 가 능성은 온라인 게임으로 인해 변화한 청소년 일상문화 연구의 학술적 공백들을 매우는 발전적 과정이 될 것이다.

The aim of the present study is to propose a model to examine the relationships among social Website interactivity, brand experience, brand choice, and behavioral intentions in the context of online travel agencies brand websites, as well as to examine the ultimate moderating role of the age of the traveler in the dynamic of this model. Drawing on website interactivity and brand development theories, current research suggests that the inclusion of social website interactivity in the design of online travel agencies brand websites helps to directly and indirectly create a positive brand experience and to enhance the perception of online travel agencies brand websites as valuable. These perceptions may consequently impact the behavior of travelers to pay higher prices and to continue buying from the online travel agencies brand websites. However, while this existent research mostly considers the positive and causal relationships among the aforementioned constructs, there is also some indication that the perceptions of travelers in relation to the proposed relationships change with age, suggesting that older travelers (age above 25) may perceive distinctively the relationships among these constructs in the context of online travel agencies brand websites as compared to younger travelers (aged 18-25). The study attempts to analyze on this relevant and under-examined research topic. This research is mainly based on a sample of travelers who have used an online travel agencies brand websites in China. The empirical findings suggest that social website interactivity, brand experience, and brand choice are essential factors for travelers to be willing to pay higher prices and to continue buying. The empirical findings also suggest that the proposed theoretical framework is adequately adjusted, therefore confirming that the age of the traveler moderates the proposed relationships first between social website interactivity and brand choice, second between brand choice and price premium, third between brand choice and buying intention, and lastly between brand experience and buying intention. Overall, the theory-driven framework accomplishes an acceptable model fit. Additionally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Social Website Interactivity (SWI) construct is defined as the reciprocal communication between individuals and technology. Research shows that SWI exerts a positive impact on the user that eventually causes an e-loyal behavior (Cyr et al., 2010). Voorveld et al. (2009) conclude the design of a theoretical model that includes SWI and branding elements is required to brand Websites. The theory explains SWI as a branding tool and its influence on travelers’ perceptions and behaviors in the travel context. Given these findings, the authors of this study predict that OTA Websites that incorporate features of SWI may have a remarkable competence to build a brand online. Based on the given review, it is rational to expect that SWI might influence user perceptions of value and positive brand experience of the OTA branded website. A favorable experience is what reduces perceived risks when buying online and what influences users to revisit the website. Brand selection and brand experience (Morgan-Thomas & Veloutsou, 2013) are key elements to influence consumers’ behavior therefore must have a significant influence on behavioral intentions and willingness to pay premium prices. The current perception in social sciences and behavioral marketing is that age is a critical demographic variable that has direct and moderating role in the impact of interactivity and brand selection, brand selection and willingness to pay higher prices, brand selection and behavioral intentions, and online experience on behavioral intentions (Kirk et al., 2012).

Trusting beliefs are playing an increasingly important role in building customer-based brand equity (CBBE) in the business arena. The present study examines the mediating effect of trusting beliefs on the interactivity-brand equity relationship. An online survey was administered to collect data from randomly selected consumers. The results show that system interactivity impact brand equity directly and indirectly through trust integrity. The present theory-driven model contributes to a better understanding of online brand equity. Therefore, allocating resources to influence the perception of system interactivity and trusting integrity beliefs is valuable to develop online brand equity. This research contributes to the interactivity theory and the relationship marketing theory and it also offers implications for practitioners.

The Internet is considered as a competitive marketing instrument in advancing business-related information and real-time transaction opportunities (Kumar, 2013). Several brand managers are questioning whether the existent marketing approaches to position their brands, with the purpose to operate in a traditional and online setting, may be enhanced (Liu, 2012). The Internet is recognized as an influential instrument that has changed the manner brands conduct business and the way consumers and businesses interact (Boyland et al., 2013). The distinctive value that the Internet offers over conventional media is the capacity to interact with consumers. This permits practitioners to adjust their presentation to adapt specific consumers’ needs. Contrary to other forms of media, the Internet assists companies to create long-term relationships with its consumers as it allows a distinctive reciprocal communication. This reciprocal communication that distinguishes the latest marketing channels from conventional media is website interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). a mechanized environment the same way as a company does in a traditional environment. It includes communicating with consumers directly, generating an exclusive and individual interaction with them. As a central aspect in technology-mediated communication, Website interactivity has been identified as a critical component to create strong brands (Voorveld et al., 2013). Regardless of the significance of Website interactivity, very limited research was identified in the branding and marketing literature that investigate the influential role of interactivity on brand equity. To this date very few researchers have devoted efforts to investigate the influential impact of Website interactivity on branding constructs. Therefore, this study closes this gap with the conceptualization and the impact of the two dimensions of Website interactivity namely social interactivity and system interactivity on brand equity. Additionally, another contribution is to examine the mediating effect of brand image and brand awareness in the formation of brand equity in the online environment. The study propose a theory-based model of Website interactivity as a precursor to build online brand equity and to examine the relationships among Website interactivity, bran image, brand awareness, and brand equity in the context of branded Websites. Leaning on the fundamentals of branding literature and the Website interactivity theory, a theoretical framework is designed and seven hypotheses are examined. A two-phase analysis is considered, first a Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and then a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings show that the dimensions of Website interactivity impact significantly on the brand awareness and brand image which in turn influence online brand equity. As today limited research has been focused on studying the impact of Website interactivity as a branding instrument. In this study, the authors consider Website interactivity to be the interaction between Websites and individuals. In this sense, Website interactivity is viewed as an essential high-tech capability for building brands (Voorveld et al., 2013) as it allows a reciprocal communication with the system and other users. Current literature indicates that for a more real illustration of the dual dimensions of Website interactivity, studies devote user control as an expression of system interactivity and two-way communication as an expression of social interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). Two-way communication (social interactivity) refers to reciprocal communication between individuals. The dimension is perceived as the interaction between the users and the system (e.g. Website) (e.g. through e-mail, chat or toll-free telephone access to customer service, etc.). The user control (system interactivity) perspective is more concerned with the ability of the user to select content and guide the interaction (Lowry et al., 2006). User control is manifested when individuals are granted the opportunity to select the content and influence the communication. For instance, Web users may feel themselves as possessing user control because they have the capacity to select without restrictions (through an internal search engine).

The development of digital technology has facilitated easier communication between people, and between people and organizations. WhatsApp, one of the most popular digital technology applications, is used not only for personal but also commercial purposes; in terms of marketing, the application has accelerated it, enabling it to be more direct and interactive. This paper will present a success story of the use of WhatsApp to support interactive marketing. In particular, this study aims to expand limited knowledge of the use of WhatsApp to support interactive marketing. A case study approach is employed to achieve this purpose, and the data analysed using the content analysis method. Several novelties that contribute to existing knowledge will also be presented, as well as trajectories for future research

Luxury brand marketers have recently turned their attention to luxury brand consumers and their social brand communities devoted to the brands. Luxury brands appeal to customers by enhancing their images regarding heritage, quality, and artistic value. Luxury fashion brands also establish social media communities to communicate their images more effectively. This study uses the key concepts of integration and interactivity to provide theoretical foundations to investigate luxury brand communities (LBCs) in the social media context. A survey was given to 252 members of Facebook fan pages for luxury brands from South Korea. This study examines effects of interaction as a process on perceived interactivity of LBCs in social media, and consequences, attitude, purchase intentions, and brand loyalties, hence offering implications for luxury brand management academics and practitioners

본 논문은 직장 내 인적자원들이 지각하는 체험적 요인들이 직원들 간의 상호작용성을 증대시키고 직 무만족을 이끌며 결국 조직몰입과 고객지향성이라는 성과로 나타날 수 있다는 것을 검증하였다. 기본적 으로 기존의 근무환경, 인센티브, 리더십 등 직무만족을 이끄는 여러 요인들과 달리 마케팅 분야에서 연구 되고 있는 소비자들이 브랜드에 대해 지각하는 체험을 인적자원이 지각할 수 있는 직장에서의 체험으로 변형하여 직무만족에 영향을 미치는 중요한 변수로 도입하여 검증하였다는 점에서 본 연구의 차별성이 있다고 볼 수 있다. 그리고 본 연구의 구체적인 시사점은 다음과 같다. 첫째, 인적자원들의 직장 내에서 지각하는 감각적 체험이 긍정적일수록 행동적 체험이 긍정적이고 직원 간 상호작용성이 높아지며 결국 직무만족을 달성할 수 있다는 점에서 감각적이고 감성적인 직장환경 을 조성하는 것이 중요할 수 있다는 점을 제시할 수 있다. 둘째, 직원들 간의 상호작용성을 높여주는 것이 또한 중요한 직무만족의 요인이라고 볼 수 있다. 본 연구는 과거 온라인 커뮤니티의 활성화 연구에서 등장했던 상호작용성이 일반 회사에서도 똑같이 중요한 역할을 할 수 있는 것을 검증하였는데 즉, 직원들 간의 소통이 원활하고 적극적으로 정보를 교환하는 것 은 조직성과를 위한 매우 중요한 요인일 수 있다는 것이다. 직원들이 잘 갖추어진 근무환경, 리더가 창출 하는 긍정적인 직장 분위기로 즐겁고 감성적인 조직문화를 만들어 준다면 결국 이는 직원들 간의 상호작 용과 직무만족을 이끄는 중요한 요인이 될 수 있기에 직원들의 상호작용성이 높다는 것은 성공적인 회사 일 수 있다는 반증이라고 생각된다. 마지막으로, 인적자원의 직무만족과 조직몰입은 고객을 응대하는 회사 직원들의 고객지향성으로 이어 주는 중요한 동인이 되었다. 이는 과거 연구들과도 비슷한 결과라고 볼 수 있는데 이전의 내부마케팅 연 구에서 제시되었듯이 회사에 대한 만족과 충성도는 특히 고객을 응대하는 직무에 있는 인적자원들이 고 객에게 최선을 다할 수 있게 하는 중요한 영향요소라는 것을 알 수 있었다.

The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of mobile fashion shopping characteristics and perceived interactivity on perceived usefulness, and the effect of perceived usefulness on purchase attitude and purchase intention based on TAM (Technology Acceptance Model). We conducted the survey targeting smartphone users in their 20s~30s living in Seoul and metropolitan area. Among 483 data collected, we used 452 samples except 31 unreliable respondents for the analysis. To analyze the structural equation model, we did factor analysis, reliability analysis, and structural equation model analysis using SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 16.0. The results were as follows: We confirmed 5 mobile fashion shopping characteristics (enjoyment, credibility, instant connectivity, security, and personalization) and 3 perceived interactivity factors (control, responsiveness and two-way communication, and contextual offer) as results of confirmative factor analysis. Mobile fashion shopping characteristics and perceived interactivity had positive effects on perceived usefulness. Mobile fashion shopping characteristics affected perceived interactivity and also had indirect effect on perceived usefulness via perceived interactivity. In other words, mobile fashion shopping characteristics had direct and indirect effect on perceived usefulness. Perceived usefulness influenced purchase attitude and purchase attitude influenced purchase intention. Perceived usefulness had direct effect on purchase intention and the indirect effect through purchase attitude was significant.

Driven by the consumer demand for companies to be socially responsible, companies are increasingly relating their brands to causes and charities in order to accomplish nonprofit objectives and corporate sustainability. In a social marketing campaign, the consumers’ choice of the cause can influence their reactions through the processes of choice. Allowing the consumers to choose the cause may also reinforce their personal role in the donation process, which may result in a better outcome. Further, advertisers are paying increasing attention to the launch of social marketing campaigns via social media, since social media has recently become an essential part of daily life and therefore an imperative venue through which companies connect with consumers. Focusing on the rapidly evolving social media landscape, this study primarily clarifies (1) how choice influences consumers’ perceived interactivity with a social marketing campaign in the social media context, and (2) consumer involvement, as consumers’ individual differences can enhance or limit the effects of a social marketing campaign with choice. Using field experiments, this study investigates the relationships between the consumers’ choice, perceived interactivity, attitude, and purchase intention, and considers the moderating effects of involvement on those relationships. This study’s contributions are that it illuminates (1) the effects of choice on the perceived interactivity of social marketing campaigns in social media contexts, (2) the role of involvement in social marketing campaigns as a moderator, and (3) attitude and purchase intention as outcomes that can facilitate the construction of a theoretical model for social marketing campaigns with choice in the social media context and offer possible implications for advertising practitioners.