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A study has been carried out on the relationship between the composition, poling condition and piezoelectric properties of thick film layers. Pastes based on lead‐titanate‐zirconate (PZT) powders, with either PbO or a lead‐alumina‐silicate glass frit as binder, were prepared. Microstructure, electrical and mechanical properties were analysed. Processing and poling conditions modify these properties; then a wide latitude of opportunities is offered in the choice of ferroelectric/piezoelectric characteristics of the layers used as sensing elements for sensors. A pressure sensor was realised where a circular diaphragm of alumina supports two piezoelectric layers obtained by screen printing and firing a PZT/PbO‐based ferroelectric paste. The design and the performance characteristics are described.

The rapid evolution in artificial intelligence (AI) has redefined the customer experience and created huge opportunities for companies to interact with customers using chatbots. This study explores the role of AI chatbots in influencing the online customer experience and customer satisfaction in e-retailing.

A research model based on the technology acceptance model and information system success model is proposed to describe the interrelationships among chatbot adoption, online customer experience and customer satisfaction. Personality is a moderator in the model. The authors used a quantitative approach to collect 425 useable online questionnaires and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) and SmartPLS to analyze the measurement model and proposed hypotheses.

The usability of the chatbot had a positive influence on extrinsic values of customer experience, whereas the responsiveness of the chatbot had a positive impact on intrinsic values of customer experience. Furthermore, online customer experience had a positive relationship with customer satisfaction, and personality influenced the relationship between the usability of the chatbot and extrinsic values of customer experience.

This research extends understanding of the online customer experience with chatbots in e-retailing and provides empirical evidence by showing that extrinsic and intrinsic values of online customer experience are enhanced by chatbot adoption.

Chatbots represent an undeniable player between online retailers and customers as they boost operational efficiency and bring cost savings to businesses while offering convenience for customers in terms of timing and immediacy. However, as chatbots represent a new-born online touchpoint in retailing, especially when it comes to online pre-purchase and purchase experience, this study examines whether and how effort expectation, facilitating condition, performance expectancy, social influence, trust, perceived risk and flow affect consumers' intention to use chatbots for online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

A total of 226 respondents participated in an online survey. Participants were asked to try a new online service and interact with a chatbot designed using Chatfuel, a platform within the Facebook Messenger setting. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed research model regarding the intention to use chatbots.

This study discusses the importance of offering useful and trustworthy conversational agents for online shopping and argues and explains the insignificant paths amongst other studied factors and intention to use chatbots concluding with the need to explore more drivers for such contemporary technologies. Moreover, the findings indicate that trust turns out to be an important predictor of behavioural intention towards chatbots, in addition to its role in mitigating perceived risk and enhancing flow experience.

Given the lack of empirical evidence related to chatbots applied for business purposes, this paper fills a gap in this research field and provides a deeper understanding of what leverages consumers' intention to use chatbots for online shopping.

The outbreak of Covid-19 increased the average time spent on social media (SM). This led to a transformation in how companies manage their digital marketing channels and created additional pressure for business-to-business (B2B) and family businesses, which tend to focus more on personal relationships with customers and stakeholders than on the implementation of digital marketing strategies on SM. The present research examines the case study of a Facebook advertising campaign created to promote the products and business values of an Italian family firm specialising in the production and commercialisation of biostimulants for agriculture.

The research aims to combine digital marketing avenues (i.e. a Facebook advertising campaign) with established psychological and behavioural theories, such as the dual process theories, by comparing the effects of two promotional videos (emotional vs functional).

The results suggest that emotional videos generate more passive behaviours, such as views, as well as active behaviours in the form of likes, comments and shares, while functional videos induce people to search for more information about the advertised products.

This is the first study to validate the role of Facebook advertising campaigns in developing an information-based approach to B2B family firms by testing the effectiveness of a targeted campaign comparing the impact of emotional and functional cues on increasing users' engagement while optimising the circulation of video content. The study helps to reduce the academic–practice gap by investigating the example of a fruitful integration between academic research and management practice.

This article draws on a reasoned action perspective and the two fundamental dimensions (i.e. warmth and competence) of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) to analyze customers' chatbot-related attitudes and usage intentions in service retailing. The authors investigate how chatbot, customer, and contextual characteristics, along with perceptions of chatbot warmth and competence, shape customers' chatbot-related attitudes. Furthermore, the authors analyze whether the customer generation or the service context moderates the relationship between chatbot-related attitudes and usage intentions.

The results are based on two studies (N = 807). Study 1 relies on a 2 (chatbot communication style: high vs low social orientation) × 2 (customer generation: generation X [GenX] vs generation Z [GenZ]) × 2 (service context: restaurant vs medical) between-subjects design. Study 2 relies on a similar number of respondents from GenX and GenZ who answered questions on scheduling a service with either the dentist or the favorite restaurant of the respondents.

GenZ shows more positive attitudes toward chatbots than GenX, due to higher perceptions of warmth and competence. While GenZ has similar attitudes toward chatbots with a communication style that is high or low in social orientation, GenX perceives chatbots with a high social orientation as warmer and has more favorable attitudes toward chatbots. Furthermore, the positive effect of chatbot-related attitudes on usage intentions is stronger for GenX than GenZ. These effects do not significantly differ between the considered contexts.

This research formulates future directions to stimulate debate on factors that service retailers should consider when employing chatbots.

This paper aims to explore the recognition and success of different ways of branding native advertising in influencer marketing.

The data are evaluated using statistical tests, correlation and cluster analysis.

It was found that the higher the recognition rate of a post tagged in a particular way, the better the tagging method for influencer marketing on Instagram. Based on the findings of this study, word tag is recommended first because it is flexible and has one of the highest recognition rates.

The generalizability of the results across different regional settings requires further investigation.

Good labeling of native advertising leads to greater success.

This study can be used by marketing managers, advertisers and influencers to gain insight into the issue, as well as to better select the appropriate labeling method for their advertising content.

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo explorar el reconocimiento y el éxito de diferentes formas de branding de publicidad nativa en el marketing de influencers.

Los datos se evalúan mediante pruebas estadísticas, correlación y análisis de conglomerados.

Se encontró que cuanto mayor es la tasa de reconocimiento de un post etiquetado de una manera particular, mejor es el método de etiquetado para el marketing de influencers en Instagram. Basándose en los resultados de este estudio, se recomienda en primer lugar el etiquetado por palabras porque es flexible y tiene una de las tasas de reconocimiento más altas.

Un buen etiquetado de la publicidad nativa conduce a un mayor éxito.

Este estudio puede ser utilizado por directores de marketing, anunciantes e influencers para obtener información sobre el tema, así como para seleccionar mejor el método de etiquetado adecuado para su contenido publicitario.

La generalizabilidad de los resultados en diferentes entornos regionales requiere más investigación.

本文旨在探讨影响者营销中不同方式的品牌原生广告的识别和成功。

使用统计测试、相关性和聚类分析对数据进行评估。

研究发现, 以特定方式标记的帖子的识别率越高, Instagram上影响者营销的标记方式就越好。基于这项研究的结果, 首先推荐单词标签, 因为它很灵活, 而且有最高的识别率之一。

对原生广告进行良好的标注会带来更大的成功。

本研究可供营销经理、广告商和影响者使用, 以深入了解这一问题, 并更好地为其广告内容选择合适的标签方法。

研究结果在不同地区环境中的普适性需要进一步调查。

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.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of gravity on the general model of the equations of generalized magneto‐thermo‐microstretch for a homogeneous isotropic elastic half‐space solid whose surface is subjected to a mode‐I crack. The problem is in the context of the Green and Naghdi theory of both types (II and III).

The normal mode analysis is used to obtain the expressions for the displacement components, the force stresses, the temperature, the couple stress and the microstress distribution.

The variations in variables against distance components are given graphically in 2D and 3D.

The linear theory of elasticity is of paramount importance in the stress analysis of steel, which is the commonest engineering structural material. To a lesser extent, the linear elasticity describes the mechanical behavior of the other common solid materials, e.g. concrete, wood and coal. However, the theory does not apply to the behavior of many of the newly synthetic materials of the elastomer and polymer type, e.g. polymethyl‐methacrylate (Perspex), polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.

Comparisons are made with the results in the presence and absence of gravity and initially applied magnetic field with two cases: the first for the generalized micropolar thermoelasticity elastic medium (without stretch constants) between both types (II, III); and the second for the generalized magneto‐thermoelastic medium with stretch (without micropolar constants) between both types (II, III).

This study aims to investigate the influence of different virtual fashion styles on attitude and satisfaction within virtual reality (VR) tourism experiences. The investigation considers the mediating effect of perceived attractiveness, popularity, novelty and weirdness, as well as the moderating role of self-congruence with avatar clothing and the desire for unique products.

This research uses a quantitative experimental approach. Initially, a three-step pilot study (N = 201) was conducted to select avatar fashion styles for the main investigation. In the primary study, participants (N = 326) engaged with one out of four fashion style conditions to select attire for their avatars and then completed a self-administered survey. Data analysis involved paired-sample t-tests, multivariate analysis of variance and Hayes’ PROCESS Models.

The results show that presenting fantasy avatar fashion styles leads to a decrease in perceived attractiveness and popularity, while concurrently increasing perceptions of novelty and weirdness which in turn exert a negative influence on attitude and satisfaction with the virtual fitting room (VFR). However, these relationships change when considering the moderating role of self-congruence with avatar clothing and the desire for unique products.

VR tourism experience providers and designers can use research findings to bolster positive attitude and enhance satisfaction with VFR; an important first step that strongly affects the rest of the VR tourist journey.

This study contributes to tourism research by exploring the intersection of immersive technologies and virtual fashion. It emphasizes the enhancement of critical touchpoints like the VFR, moving beyond a sole focus on VR adoption, to improve the overall virtual tourist experience.