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The purpose of this paper is to identify the key determinants of the information value of enterprises’ micro-blogs, drawing on the consumer’s perspective. This paper examines the effects of such information value on consumers’ purchase intention through the building of online brand equity. The paper also investigates how perceived usefulness intervenes in the relationship between micro-blog information value and consumer purchase intention.

The proposed research model is examined empirically using a survey of 315 users of the Sina micro-blog. The statistical analysis applies a method based on variance using partial least squares.

The results show that online retailers’ micro-blog posts, which are characterized by informativeness and persuasiveness as perceived by customers, positively impact online retailers’ brand equity, which in turn influences consumer purchase intention. In addition, perceived information usefulness is found to be an important contextual factor that moderates the relationship between perceived persuasiveness and online retailer brand equity.

This work adds significance to the literature by extending the research on micro-blog marketing and also provides practical recommendations for online retailers on the operation of micro-blogs.

Financial services industry is increasingly showing interest in automated financial advisors, or robo-advisors, with the aim of democratizing access to financial advice and stimulating investment behavior among populations that were previously less active and less served. However, the extent to which consumers trust this technology influences the adoption of rob-advisors. The resemblance to a human, or anthropomorphism, can provide a sense of social presence and increase trust.

In this paper, we conduct an experiment (N = 223) to test the effect of anthropomorphism (low vs medium vs high) and gender (male vs female) of the robo-advisor on social presence. This perception, in turn, enables consumers to evaluate personality characteristics of the robo-advisor, such as competence, warmth, and persuasiveness, all of which are related to trust in the robo-advisor. We separately conduct an experimental study (N = 206) testing the effect of gender neutrality on consumer responses to robo-advisory anthropomorphism.

Our results show that consumers prefer human-alike robo-advisors over machinelike or humanoid robo-advisors. This preference is only observed for male robo-advisors and is explained by perceived competence and perceived persuasiveness. Furthermore, highlighting gender neutrality undermines the positive effect of robo-advisor anthropomorphism on trust.

We contribute to the body of knowledge on robo-advisor design by showing the effect of robot’s anthropomorphism and gender on consumer perceptions and trust. Consequently, we offer insightful recommendations to promote the adoption of robo-advisory services in the financial sector.

This paper analyses the interrelationships between emotions, the cognitive information cues of online reviews and intention to follow the advice obtained from digital platforms, paying special attention to the moderating effect of the sequencing of review valence.

The data were collected from 830 Spanish Tripadvisor users. In a two-step approach, a measurement model was estimated and a structural model analysed to test the proposed hypotheses. SmartPLS 3.0 software was used. The moderating effect of sequencing of reviews is tested.

The data analysis showed a bias effect of review sequence on the impact of online information cues and emotions on intention to follow advice obtained from Tripadvisor. When the online reviews of a restaurant begin with positive commentaries, their perceived persuasiveness is a stronger driver of the pleasure and arousal elicited by online reviews than when they begin with negative reviews. On the other hand, the perceived helpfulness of online reviews only triggers arousal when the user reads negative, followed by positive, comments. The impact of pleasure on intention to follow the advice provided in an online travel community is higher with positive-negative than with negative-positive sequences.

While researchers have demonstrated the benefits of customer reviews on company sales, a largely uninvestigated issue is the interplay between emotions and cognitive information cues in the processing of online reviews. This is one of the first studies to examine the moderating effect of conflicting reviews on the impact of emotions and cognitive information cues on consumer intention to follow the advice obtained from digital services.

The purpose of this paper is to explore motivations that drive consumers’ purchase intention in social commerce, and then examine whether social presence can work as a moderator in this process.

A research model was developed based on stimulus-organism-response model by integrating trust, argument quality, social presence and purchase intention. Using the data collected from 288 valid online questionnaires, the proposed model was empirically assessed by partial least square (PLS) SEM.

The results show that trust toward social commerce site and trust toward site members are determinants of purchase intention, and the later one can be triggered by the argument quality of consumer-generated contents (perceived informativeness and perceived persuasiveness). Besides, consumers’ social presence has a moderating effect on the relationship between trust toward site members and purchase intention.

This study indicates a new mechanism of trust based on the context of social commerce. The findings will contribute to social commerce literature by offering a well proven conceptual model that facilitates the understanding of consumers’ purchase decision-making processes.

This study aims to investigate some determinants of impulse buying in online shopping and then indicate the underlying mechanism regarding why consumers have the urge to buy impulsively.

A total of 315 valid data were collected from consumers who had online shopping experience through an online survey. These data were then analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses and proposed model.

The results illustrate that consumers' serendipity, trust and flow experience facilitate impulse buying. Some inner relationships among the three factors have also been illustrated. Finally, antecedents of trust and flow experience were examined from a perspective of perceived information value.

This research provides new insights into existing literature on impulse buying in online shopping by developing a well-organized framework, which emphasizes the role of serendipity in motivating the urge to buy impulsively. Besides, it also extends the understanding of flow experience and trust in the process of online impulse buying.

The recent livestreaming commerce has magnified the role of influencer marketing, where the influencers are partnering with brands for product promotion. This study examines the impact of influencer attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships on impulsive buying in livestreaming commerce.

A survey with 368 livestreaming commerce users was analyzed using the symmetric-thinking approach – partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and asymmetric thinking approach – fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The results of PLS-SEM indicate that influencer trustworthiness, influencer interactivity and self-disclosure determine parasocial relationships, which in turn influence impulsive buying. The fsQCA finding returned three configurations with various combinations of the causal conditions (i.e. influencer attributes, interaction strategies, parasocial relationships, perceived fit uncertainty and perceived quality uncertainty) explaining the formation of impulsive buying.

These findings provide unique linear and nonlinear insights to explain the combinatory effects of influencer attributes, interaction strategies, parasocial relationships, perceived fit uncertainty and perceived quality uncertainty on impulsive buying in livestreaming commerce.

Sponsored social media content is one of the advertising strategies that companies implement so that ads appear as native to the delivery platform without making consumers feel that they are directly targeted. Hence, the current study examines whether prominently featuring corporate information on social media ads affects how consumers perceive them. It also investigates whether an ad's evaluation metrics on Twitter (e.g. number of likes/comments) influence its persuasiveness and consumers' behavioral intentions towards the sponsoring company. Underlying cognitive and affective mechanisms through which sponsored content operates are also investigated.

A 2 (corporate credibility: low vs high) by 2 (bandwagon cues: low vs high) between-subjects experiment was conducted.

The findings showed that corporate credibility and bandwagon cues can influence social media ad effectiveness. Sponsored content from high-credibility companies – evoked more favorable attitudes and behavioral intentions – is perceived as less intrusive, and elicits less anger than equivalent posts from low-credibility companies. Furthermore, it was found that bandwagon cues work via different pathways. For high-credibility corporations, a high number of bandwagon cues improved ad persuasiveness by mitigating consumers' anger towards intrusive sponsored content. Conversely, for low-credibility corporations high bandwagon cues enhanced ad persuasiveness, and this triggered more positive attitudes towards it.

This paper is the first to test corporate credibility and bandwagon effects in social media ads, while also exploring consumers' cognitive and affective responses to sponsored content. Implications for how companies with varying popularity levels should promote products on social media are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how today’s new type of opinion leaders, “Citizen Influencers” (CIs), persuade their followers by exploring which characteristics contribute to their persuasiveness.

Combining theories within opinion leadership, celebrity endorsement, product placement and user-generated content (UGC) five source characteristics – namely, expertise, trustworthiness, likeability, similarity and familiarity – are investigated using fashion as an example. A longitudinal netnographic study of ten CIs and their UGC and six focus groups with followers of specific CIs on Instagram are conducted.

All five characteristics contribute to the persuasiveness of CIs with trustworthiness as the main contributor. CIs persuasiveness lies in their unique ability to encompass two opposing qualities simultaneously: being attainable and relatable like ordinary consumers; being taste leaders with superior, celebrity-like status.

Only qualitative studies within the fashion category have been conducted, wherefore the relative weight between the two qualities cannot be quantified.

When choosing a CI, managers may consider: the amount of followers per CI as an indicator of influence; similarity between follower and CI as it provides the basis for trust; and the CIs personal universe on their Instagram profile as it leverage the meanings associated with the brand.

The key driver of CIs persuasiveness is their trustworthiness which mediates and amplifies the effect of the other four characteristics. CIs’ persuasive power rests upon the balancing act of being relatable and aspirational.

Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the authors examine the influence of perceived professor teaching qualities, as central cues, on online professor ratings. Also, our study investigates how the volume and period of reviews, as peripheral cues, affect online professor ratings.

Leveraging stratified random sampling, the authors collect reviews of 892 Information Systems professors from 250 American universities. The authors employ regression models while conducting robustness tests through multi-level logistic regression and causal inference methods.

Our results suggest that the central route from perceived professor qualities to online professor ratings is significant, including most qualitative pedagogical factors except positive assessment. In addition to course difficulty, the effect of the peripheral route is limited due to deficient diagnosticity.

Our primary concern about the data validity is a lack of a competing and complementary dataset. However, an institutional evaluation survey or an experimental study can corroborate our findings in future research.

Online professor review sites can enhance their perceived diagnosticity and credibility by increasing review vividness and promoting site interactivity. In addition to traditional institutional evaluations, professors can obtain insightful feedback from review sites to improve their teaching effectiveness.

To our best knowledge, this study is the first attempt to employ the ELM and accessibility-diagnosticity theory in explicating the information processing of online professor reviews. It also sheds light on various determinants and routes to persuasion, thus providing a novel theoretical perspective on online professor reviews.

The purpose of this paper is to explore user-centered design possibilities at the intersection of gamification and persuasive technology to foster energy saving behavior.

We performed a large-scale empirical study of 480 participants and analyzed how different HEXAD gamification user types perceive selected persuasive strategies embedded in an energy saving prototype. Furthermore, we investigated the role of existing energy saving behaviors (pro-environmental behavior scale–e.g. regularly turning the lights off) and their effect on the perceived persuasiveness of the proposed persuasive strategies, which may has an impact on the overall design process. Furthermore, we applied partial least squares path modeling and conducted a one-way and repeated measure ANOVA.

Results show that user types play an important role in the design of persuasive systems for energy saving. For instance, people with a high tendency toward the Socializer user type were motivated by almost all of the employed persuasive strategies, whereas Philanthropists and Players only to a limited number of strategies. Furthermore, our study reveals that existing behaviors like the individual level of energy conservation influences the perceived persuasiveness of certain strategies and therefore should be considered in the design of such applications.

Using storyboards to obtain feedback about the perceived persuasiveness of employed strategies has limitations compared to the actual use of a functional prototype. However, to offset that limitation the mock-ups used in the storyboard reflected the actual designs for a real-world prototype.

This is the first study that explores how HEXAD gamification user types can be used to inform the design of persuasive applications for energy saving (RQ1). Furthermore, and in particular, this study draws on the challenges when using user types within gamified persuasive systems by highlighting the impact and the importance of considering existing energy saving behaviors (RQ2), which has not been addressed so far.