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Millennials' attitude toward chatbots: an experimental study in a social relationship perspective

Roberta De Cicco (Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy) (CAST, Center for Advanced Studies and Technology, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy)
Susana C. Silva (Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal)
Francesca Romana Alparone (Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy)

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

ISSN: 0959-0552

Publication date: 8 July 2020

Abstract

Purpose

Chatbots represent an innovative channel for retailers to meet young customers' needs anywhere and at any time. Being an emergent technology, however, it is important to investigate more thoroughly how users perceive it, and which are the variables that enhance a positive attitude towards this technology. On this premise, this study applies a social relationship perspective to the design of chatbots addressed to younger consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts a between-participants factorial design to investigate the effects of visual cues (avatar presence vs avatar absence) and interaction styles (social-oriented vs task-oriented) on social presence and how this, in turn, enhances millennials' perceived enjoyment, trust and, ultimately, attitude towards the chatbot. A survey experiment was employed to conduct the study on data collected from 193 Italian millennials.

Findings

The results show that applying a social-oriented interaction style increases users' perception of social presence, while an insignificant effect was found for avatar presence. The partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis further confirms the hypothesised model.

Originality/value

The adoption of new digital technologies such as chatbots is likely to have a far reaching effect on retailers, consumers, employees and society. For this reason, a broad understanding of the phenomenon is needed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to provide results from an experimental design in which both interaction style (social- vs task-oriented) and avatar (presence vs absence) of a chatbot are manipulated to directly explore social presence and its effect on trust, perceived enjoyment and millennials' attitude towards a chatbot applied for retailing purposes.

Keywords

Citation

De Cicco, R., Silva, S.C. and Alparone, F.R. (2020), "Millennials' attitude toward chatbots: an experimental study in a social relationship perspective", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 48 No. 11, pp. 1213-1233. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-12-2019-0406

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Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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