The aim of this study is to investigate the positive impact of accented voice-over ads in the globalized consumer market and the factors that affect the purchasing intentions for the products being advertised. Two studies were conducted to examine the factors that affect consumers’ perceptions, attitude, and purchase intentions of the voiceovers in online advertisements.

In three studies, we show that semployee accent directly, indirectly (through intelligibility and trust), and/or conditionally affects customer participation (CP) in services positively or negatively, depending on the type of accent and its valence, the customer’s need for interaction, and the type of CP, i.e. voluntary, mandatory, or replaceable CP.

This study aimed to investigate Korean high school students’ comprehension level and attitudes towards three different English accents: American-accented, Malaysian-accented, and Korean-accented English. The experiment was conducted with 340 female high school students in Gyeongsangnam-do. The data collection in this study consisted of the results of three listening comprehension tests and two survey questionnaires. The results show that speakers' various English accents affected the participants’ listening comprehension: The participants understood the American-accented and the Korean-accented English better than the Malaysian-accented English. The study also shows that there is no interaction between the English accents and the participants' L2 listening proficiency levels. In addition, the results indicate that the participants display more positive attitude toward American-accented English, followed by Malaysian-accented English, and finally Korean-accented English. This paper therefore suggests that Korean students need to be exposed to various English accents in order to become familiar with the concept of World Englishes.