• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.45-58
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the chatbot's characteristics (ease of use, social presence, playfulness, usefulness) on service value, customer satisfaction and reuse intention when consumers purchased fashion products in the mobile shopping environments. Research design, data, and methodology - Data were collected from Korean consumers from ages 20 to 59 who have experienced using chatbot in a mobile shopping for fashion products. After a pilot survey to 53 customers, the preliminary questionnaire was revised for the final test, and the final questionnaire was administered to 1500 customers. Out of these, 300 were collected. After deleting 48 incomplete ones, 252 questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. Frequency analysis and exploratory factor analysis using SPSS 23.0 and confirmatory factor analysis and structure equation analysis using AMOS 18.0 were employed for data analyses. Results - First, four factors were extracted for the chatbot's characteristics: ease of use, social presence, playfulness and usefulness. Second, regarding the effect of chatbot's characteristics on service value when purchasing fashion products in the mobile shopping environment, ease of use, playfulness and usefulness of chatbot significantly affected service value. Social presence did not have significant effects on service value. Third, in terms of the effect of the chatbot's characteristics on customer satisfaction when purchasing fashion products in the mobile shopping environment, social presence, playfulness and usefulness of chatbot significantly had an effect on customer satisfaction. Ease of use did not have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. Fourth, service value of chatbot when purchasing fashion products in mobile shopping environment was found to have an effect on customer satisfaction with chatbot. Fifth, service value of chatbot on reuse intention when purchasing fashion products in the mobile shopping environment was found to have an effect on reuse intention of chatbot. Sixth, customer satisfaction with chatbot had a significant impact on the reuse intention of the chatbot when purchasing fashion products in the mobile shopping environment. Conclusions - The present study provide dimensions on the chatbot's characteristics and these may provide helpful data for further studies in this area and for marketers as well.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2022

This study aims to understand the consumers' negative responses to communication failure of chatbots caused by their imperfections. Specifically, this study examines 1) the relationship among chatbot's communication failure, dissatisfaction, negative behavior (complaint, negative word-of-mouth (nWOM), and inertia); 2) the moderating effect of technostress on the relationship between chatbot's communication failure and dissatisfaction; 3) the differences in the negative responses between the generation MZ and the previous generations. Data were collected via an online survey. First, the participants interacted with the chatbot developed for this survey, to experience the chatbot's communication failure. Thereafter, they responded to a questionnaire. PLS-SEM was conducted using the R software environment to test the hypotheses. This study empirically identified that chatbot's communication failure positively affected dissatisfaction. In addition, the customers who were more dissatisfied with the chatbot's communication failures were more likely to complain than engage in nWOM. Compared to the generation MZ, chatbot's communication failure caused a higher level of dissatisfaction in previous generations. The results suggest that online shopping malls should carefully introduce an improved chatbot service after minimizing its communication failure rate. The chatbot developers of online shopping malls targeting middle-aged and elderly consumers should strive to develop and implement strategies to further alleviate consumers' dissatisfaction in the situation of chatbot's communication failure.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.29-38
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the effect of chatbot service quality, chatbot trust, and chatbot satisfaction on chatbot reuse intention and store reuse intention. Research design, data, and methodology: We reviewed the literature on domestic and international chatbots, established hypotheses, and analyzed them. We empirically analyzed the process model in which chatbot service quality (interaction quality, information quality) has a positive effect on chatbot trust and chatbot satisfaction, and that chatbot trust and satisfaction positively affect chatbot reuse intention and store reuse intention. A survey was conducted on 212 people who had used shopping mall chatbots and financial service chatbots after demonstrating the shopping mall chatbot video. Structural equation modeling was conducted by using AMOS 24.0 to test the proposed relationships. Results: As a result of the empirical analysis, the effects of interaction quality on chatbot trust and information quality on chatbot satisfaction were not supported, but the rest of the hypotheses were statistically significant. It was found that the information quality of chatbot service had a positive effect on chatbot trust, but did not significantly affect chatbot satisfaction. In addition, the interaction quality of the chatbot positively affects the satisfaction of the chatbot, but it does not significantly affect the trust of the chatbot. Chatbot trust was found to have a positive effect on chatbot satisfaction. Chatbot trust and chatbot satisfaction were found to have a positive influence on the intention to reuse the chatbot. And, chatbot trust and chatbot satisfaction were found to have a positive influence on store reuse intention. Conclusions: The findings of this study offer significant theoretical and managerial contributions in the context of chatbot. Chatbots should enhance customer contact quality management from the perspective of total customer experience management rather than partial function. When providing a chatbot service, it is more desirable to give priority to providing accurate information to increase trust, and at the same time to improve customer satisfaction by increasing the quality of interaction. And in order to increase the competitive advantage of companies, the purpose of introducing chatbots should be clarified and approached strategically.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.79-91
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• 2021

Currently, chatbot, a conversational platform based on artificial intelligence, is drawing attention as a new marketing channel. This study attempted to verify the effect of the anthropomorphism, message type, and media self-efficacy level on purchase intention. The experimental design of this study was a 2 (anthropomorphism level of shopping chatbot: low vs. high) × 2 (message type: factual vs. evaluative) × 2 (media self-efficacy: low vs. high) three-way mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA). This study conducted a survey by the convenience sampling method of 402 women in their 20s and 30s living in Seoul and the Gyeonggi area who were aware of chatbot services. For the final analysis, 388 questionnaires were used. Data were analyzed with the SPSS 23 program and three-way ANOVA. Simple main effects analysis was conducted. The results of this study were as follows. First, there were statistically significant differences in purchase intention according to anthropomorphism level, message type, and media self-efficacy. Second, message type and media self-efficacy showed statistically significant interaction effects on purchase intention. Lastly, anthropomorphism and the media self-efficacy level and the message type of the shopping chatbots showed significant three-way interaction effects on purchase intention.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.573-593
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• 2020

This study analyzes consumers' responses toward chatbot services in a fashion retail context. Anthropomorphism and personalization of chatbots are proposed as critical features of a chatbot service that attract positive behavioral intentions from consumers. Social presence, trust, and enjoyment are expected to mediate associations among chatbot characteristics and consumers' acceptance of the service. The experiment was conducted in a controlled laboratory; participants were instructed to engage with a virtual shopping chatbot service via their cell phone and complete a questionnaire online. A total of 189 participants participated in this study along with and four experimental groups of 2 (anthropomorphism: high / low) × 2 (personalization: high / low) were formed with between-subject design. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and SPSS PROCESS Macro programs. The results show that the effect of anthropomorphism and personalization of chatbots on consumers' service acceptance intention when using fashion shopping chatbot service were mediated sequentially by social presence, trust, social presence and enjoyment. This study provides meaningful evidence on the effects of chatbots characterized by anthropomorphism and personalization on consumer responses, acceptance intention and associated psychological mechanisms by expanding the field of consumer behavior into chatbot services.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.136-148
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• 2022

This study aims to examine the effects of customer experience on the relationship between brand trust and customer experience. The survey was conducted on consumers who experienced chatbot service through internet shopping mall, and the research hypothesis was verified by analyzing the final 299 questionnaires. The results of the study showed that the customer experience using chatbot service had a positive effect on chatbot trust, had a positive effect on shopping mall trust, seller trust and brand trust through the mediating role of chatbot trust, and the social presence of chatbot had a moderating effect in the trust transfer. This study provides a theoretical basis that customer experience of chatbot service has positive effect on brand trust through chatbot trust, and suggests implications in that chatbot service can be an important means of marketing. In future studies, various studies related to chatbot trust are needed.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.71-81
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• 2019

As AI technology develops, its application has been extended to diverse fields. In particular, AI-enabled Chatbot services have garnered growing attention and such services are more important as a tool of communication in mobile shopping. However, research on chatbots is in its early stage and the understanding of chatbots in the context of mobile commerce is very limited. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate consumer responses to a shopping chatbot with a focus on the effects of chatbot agent types and message types. Specifically, a $2{\times}2$ between-subjects experimental design, with the agent type (secretary/friend) and the message type (factual/evaluative) as the independent variables, was employed. The results show that although main effects of chatbot agent and message types are not found, interaction effects between chatbot agents and message types on consumer responses are significant. Specifically, when the agent type was a secretary, consumer responses to product recommendation with a factual message were more positive. On the other hand, in the case of the friend agent, the evaluative message led to more positive responses. The findings suggest that communication elements are important in the understanding of consumer responses to chatbots in mobile shopping and effective strategies for utilizing chatbots for mobile commerce should be considered.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.464-480
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• 2022

With the steady development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), online stores are adopting chatbot services as virtual shopping assistants. This study proposes the concept of para-social presence to explore the undiscovered role of fashion chatbots' emotional and relational characteristics on service acceptance. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study investigates the effect of a chatbot's para-social presence on service acceptance intention through consumers' beliefs. The web-based experiment was conducted on adult consumers who experienced chatbot services in an online shopping situation. A total of 247 responses were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and multi-group SEM by AMOS 21.0 and SPSS 23.0. The findings illustrate that the chatbot's intimacy positively influenced consumers' perceived enjoyment, while the chatbot's understanding had a significant effect on perceived usefulness and ease of use. The chatbot's involvement had a positive effect on all consumer beliefs. Moreover, perceived ease of use had a positive influence on usefulness. A greater level of perceived usefulness and enjoyment positively heightened consumers' service acceptance intention. This study also verifies the moderating role of a need for human interaction. Consumers with a high need for human interaction have a relatively low tendency to perceive chatbot services as useful.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.103-113
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• 2024

This study applies the UTAUT theory to examine the intention to use online shopping mall chatbot services and to elucidate the mediating effect of anthropomorphism in their relationship. For this purpose, a sample of students from A University in Gyeongnam was surveyed online using Google Docs from the first to the second week of May 2024, and after excluding 5 insincere respondents, 245 were used for the final analysis. The key findings are as follows. First, among the UTAUT factors for online shopping mall chatbot services, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and social influence were found to have a significant positive impact on anthropomorphism. The relative impact appeared in the order of performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and effort expectancy. Second, anthropomorphism in online shopping mall chatbot services had a significant positive impact on usage intention. Third, the UTAUT factors of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and social influence had a significant positive impact on usage intention, with the relative impact appearing in the order of facilitating conditions, social influence, performance expectancy, and effort expectancy. Fourth, the mediating effect of anthropomorphism was confirmed in the relationship between UTAUT factors and usage intention for online shopping mall chatbot services. This study is limited to students from A University in Gyeongnam, which may restrict the generalizability of the results. Future research should select a broader sample considering regional and demographic diversity and use diverse data collection methods to enhance the reliability and validity of the data.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.99-110
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• 2023

Chatbot services have become an essential communication tool for interacting with consumers in e-commerce. To understand consumer behavior in the context of chatbot services, we apply the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to analyze continuance intention to use and additional predictors to explain behavioral intention. An analysis of data collected from 300 digital shopping users who had experienced chatbot services revealed that an extended TPB model holds for the continuous use of chatbot services, driven by both interaction and information quality. Accordingly, these ndings provide a better understanding of consumer behavior toward chatbot services and valuable insights into digital customer relationship management.