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This study aims to apply the elaboration likelihood model to explore when, how and why robotic services increase customer engagement.

A field survey and two experiments were conducted to examine the proposed theoretical framework.

The robots’ proactive behavior encouraged customers to trust and engage with them. The influence of this behavior on customer engagement increased for highly interaction-oriented customers or when the reputations of companies were poor.

The findings can inform the efficient management of customer–robot interactions and thus support firms’ relationship marketing objectives.

The literature on robotic services has recognized that robots should be proactive to ensure positive customer experiences, but few studies have explored the relational outcomes of proactive robotic services. The authors’ in-depth empirical examination thus extends research into the role these services can play in fostering customer engagement.

This study aims to understand a customer-purchase mechanism in the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot context based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and technology acceptance model (TAM). The first objective is to examine how to boost chatbot adoption. The second objective is to investigate the role of information characteristics, technology-related characteristics and attitude toward AI in purchase intention.

Data was collected from a sample of 492 users in Vietnam, who are potential customers of chatbots for purchase. Structural equation modeling was applied for data analysis.

Results illustrate that chatbot adoption is significantly influenced by information credibility, technology-related factors (i.e. interactivity, relative advantage and perceived intelligence), attitude toward AI and perceived usefulness. Moreover, information quality and persuasiveness motivate information credibility. Information credibility and attitude toward AI are the essential motivations for perceived usefulness. Finally, chatbot adoption and information credibility determine purchase intention.

The results are insightful for practitioners to envisage the importance of chatbot use for customer purchase in the AI scenario. Additionally, this research offers a framework to practitioners for shaping customer engagement in chatbots.

The value of this work lies in the incorporation of technology-related characteristics into the two well-established theories, the ELM and TAM, to identify the importance of AI and its applications (i.e. chatbots) for purchase and to understand the formation of perceived usefulness and chatbot use through information credibility and attitude toward AI.

In recent years, consumers are moving toward purchasing green cosmetics instead of chemical one. Plenty of cosmetics products are banned globally due to the usage of poisonous substances such as triphenyl phosphate and petroleum. As such, it is needed to shift the conventional purchase behavior to green purchase behavior (GPB) to reduce the negative impact on the environment and health. This study aims to investigate the factors that affect GPB in the context of cosmetics products purchase. Additionally, this study examines the moderating role of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in influencing such green behavior.

This study used value-belief-norm (VBN) theory and elaboration likelihood model as a theoretical basis. By using judgmental sampling techniques, a total of 318 usable responses were gathered through online survey. The structural equation modeling approach using partial least square (SmartPLS, version 3.7) technique was used to test the study hypotheses.

Results reveal that altruistic value and hedonic value both positively affect pro-environmental beliefs, which eventually affect consumers’ personal norms. It is found that hedonic value has a greater influence on pro-environmental belief than altruistic value. Additionally, personal norm also exerts significant influence on GPB. Data also support the mediating role of pro-environmental belief and personal norm. Moreover, the multidimensional eWOM moderates the relationship between personal norm and GPB.

The findings from this study provide valuable insights for marketers, academicians and practitioners about the drivers of consumers’ green cosmetics purchase behavior. It will enable marketers to develop better strategies for the green market segment.

The study findings also contribute to the social aspects by understanding consumers’ purchase behavior toward green cosmetics products. It ultimately promotes to consider a healthier lifestyle and to be concerned about environmental well-being.

This study is the first to introduce the eWOM as a moderator in the VBN theory. Moreover, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the field by examining few new linkages; more specifically, considering pro-environmental belief as to the mediator between “hedonic value and personal norm,” as well as the mediating effect of personal norm in the relationship between “pro-environmental belief and GPB.” Moreover, this is a pioneer study to consider eWOM as a multidimensional construct rather than unidimensional, which is new in green marketing literature.

This paper aims to explore the determinants of maternal and infant health knowledge (M&IHK) adoption and sharing in the short video from an empathy theory perspective. We explore how to transfer users from free health knowledge to health-related product purchase intention, which is vital for platform knowledge management and service.

Focusing on the M&IHK, this study proposes four processes of health knowledge adoption and sharing – knowledge quality persuasion process; source credibility persuasion process; affective empathy emotion process; and cognitive empathy emotion process – to build a framework of M&IHK adoption and sharing. Furthermore, based on adoption and sharing, we explore whether they can promote health-related product purchase intentions. A theoretical model is constructed and tested via Smart PLS in 388 samples.

In a short video context, perceived knowledge quality and perceived source credibility are still two determinants of health knowledge adoption and sharing. On the contrary, perceived affective empathy and perceived cognitive empathy are two new determinants of health knowledge adoption, but not of health knowledge sharing. Adoption of M&IHK is more driven by both rational thinking and emotional thinking than sharing-only driven by emotional thinking. Adoption and sharing both contribute to health-related product purchase intention, but the female’s intention is more related to rational adoption than the male, which is only related to emotional sharing.

This paper is arguably the first study to examine how short videos impact the mechanisms of M&IHK adoption, sharing and health-related products' purchase intention. It’s perhaps the first study to integrate empathy theory into health knowledge management.

Given the popularity of online health communities (OHCs) and medical question-and-answer (Q&A) services, it is increasingly important to understand what constitutes useful answers and user-adopted standards in healthcare domain. However, few studies provide insights into how health information characteristics, provider characteristics and recipient characteristics jointly influence user information adoption decisions. To fill this research gap, this study examines the combined effects of physicians' certainty tone as information characteristics, seniority as provider characteristics and disease severity as recipient characteristics on patients' health information adoption.

Drawing on dual-process theory and information adoption model, an extended information adoption model is established in this study to examine the effect of attitude certainty on patients' health information adoption, and the moderating effects of online seniority and offline seniority, as well as patient motivation level—disease severity. Utilizing logit regression models, the authors empirically tested the hypotheses based on 4,224 Q&A records from a popular Chinese OHC.

The results show that (1) attitude certainty has a significant positive impact on patients' health information adoption, (2) the relationship between attitude certainty and information adoption is negatively moderated by physicians' online seniority, but is positively moderated by offline seniority; (3) there is a negative three-way interaction effect of attitude certainty, online seniority and disease severity on patients' health information adoption.

This study extends the information adoption model to examine the two-way interaction between argument quality and source reliability, as well as the three-way interaction with user motivation level, especially for health information adoption in the healthcare field. These findings also provide direct practical applications for knowledge contributors and OHCs.

To understand how three features of online consumer reviews - the strength of persuasiveness in online consumer reviews (argument quality), the number of online consumer reviews (volume of reviews), and source credibility – are related to the behavioural intentions in the movie consumption context. Besides, the present study aims to explore intergenerational differences (X, Y, and Z) in the patterns of association between three characteristics of online consumer reviews (argument quality, volume of reviews, and source credibility) and an individual’s choice of a movie intended to be watched.

The study sample (n = 518) was recruited from a population of users of IMDb living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis were used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results revealed that argument quality, the volume of reviews, and source credibility of movie-related online consumer reviews are positively related to the intention to watch a movie for all three generational cohorts (X, Y, and Z). Regarding biases in processing information cues, our findings indicate that movie viewers from all three generations (X, Y, and Z) make inferences between source credibility and argument quality. However, biases in the relation between the volume of reviews and the argument quality were found only among X-ers and Y-ers but not among Z-ers.

The present study contributes to the eWOM research stream by examining the role of different characteristics of online consumer reviews (argument quality, the volume of reviews, and the source credibility) in movie consumption. Moreover, it sheds light on how argument quality, the volume reviews and the source credibility interact with the behavioural intentions of different generations and whether these interactions exhibit similarities or differences across three distinct generation cohorts: X-ers, Y-ers, and Z-ers.

This paper examines the moderating effects of online reviews on the relationship between country image, product image, and purchase intention of products from two developed countries in Vietnam.

This current research used a cross-sectional design. Data was collected via questionnaires, and 305 responses were left after refining. The collected data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and multi-group analysis methods.

Affective country images do not directly affect purchase intention when online review quality and positivity are high. Cognitive country images still directly affect purchase intention when online review positiveness is low. However, online review quantity does not moderate the effects of country images on product images and purchase intention.

Cognitive country image consistently affects purchase intention through the central route independent of online reviews. In contrast, the affective country image will likely affect purchase intention through the peripheral route when online reviews are insufficient for customers.

Firms can mitigate the adverse effects of country image, especially cognitive country image, in foreign markets by improving online review quality and positiveness.

Our study extended existing literature by providing a better understanding of the nature of country image and the roles of country image dimensions in shaping product image and purchase intention in the context of the increasing popularity of online reviews.

This study aims to examine the underlying antecedents and psychological mechanisms through which brand's communication of sustainable business practices in social media influences consumers' responsible consumption behaviour and brand relationship outcomes.

Data were collected using two surveys, from a sample of WhatsApp users (N = 632), and a sample of Facebook users (N = 471), and were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling.

The results suggest that systematic and heuristic processing of message cues about sustainable business practices communicated by the brand through online social networks influence consumers' perceptions of brand warmth and competence. These perceptions, in turn, direct consumers' responsible consumption behaviours and strengthen brand relationships. The impact of these cues is moderated by consumers' perception of the brand's motives for engaging in sustainable business practices.

The study insights can help brand managers to enhance consumers' brand-related perceptions, responsible consumption and consumer-brand relationships.

In the dynamic landscape of the digital economy, companies are increasingly adopting omnichannel integration strategies to enhance customer experiences. However, the interplay between this strategy and digitalisation in fostering brand trust remains uncharted. Drawing on the social exchange and psychological reactance theories, this study ventures into unexplored territory by examining the impact of omnichannel integration and digital value on brand trust building. It also delves into the boundary roles of customers’ psychological perceptions, both positive (customer empowerment) and negative (privacy concerns and perceived deception), in this process.

This study conducted an online survey of 595 omnichannel users in China and validated the model using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

This study’s results have significant implications for businesses. They show that customer perception of omnichannel integration and perceived digital value are critical drivers of omnichannel brand trust, with customer empowerment playing a mediating role. Notably, the study also reveals that customers’ negative psychological perceptions can have different moderating effects, highlighting the need for businesses to address these concerns in their omnichannel strategies.

This study breaks new ground in marketing research by highlighting the benefits of omnichannel integration and incorporating digital perspectives. It demonstrates the positive impact of blending customer perception of omnichannel integration and perceived digital value on brand trust formation. Furthermore, it explores the boundary roles of customers’ psychological perceptions in this process, offering a unique and comprehensive perspective.