• 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.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.445-455
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• 2022

Financial service chatbots are hindering user experience with conversational errors and machine-like responses. This study aims to examine the effect of self-disclosure and emotional expression of an anthropomorphic chatbot on user experience before conversation errors occur in financial services. In financial inquiries, scenarios were designed based on self-disclosure type (positive vs. negative) and emotional expression level(high confident vs. low confident), and online experiments were conducted. The result revealed that when anthropomorphic chatbot provided self-disclosure and emotional expression, the main effect has been shown on trust, annoyance, service recovery, and intention to continuous use. In addition, interaction effects were significant in trust and annoyance. In conclusion, this paper demonstrated that anthropomorphic chatbot's positive self-disclosure and confident emotional expression influenced trust and annoyance.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.119-149
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• 2024

This study investigates the antecedents and mechanisms influencing trust and behavioral intentions formation towards new AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, as travel information searching services. Analyzing the roles of variables such as familiarity, novelty, personal innovativeness, information quality and perceived anthropomorphism, the research elucidates the impact of these factors on users' cognitive and affective trust, ultimately affecting their intention to adopt information and sustain the use of the AI chatbot. Results indicate that perceived familiarity and information quality positively influence both cognitive and affective trust, whereas perceived novelty contributes positively only to cognitive trust. Additionally, the personal innovativeness of new AI chatbot users was found to weaken the effect of familiarity on perceived trust, while the perceived level of anthropomorphism of the chatbot amplified the effects of novelty and familiarity on cognitive trust. These findings underscore the importance of considering factors such as familiarity, personal innovativeness, information quality and anthropomorphism in the design and implementation of AI chatbots, affecting trust and behavioral intention.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.297-307
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• 2022

This study examined whether there was a difference in the attitude toward the recommended product and the effect on the choice deferral according to information sources. Experiment 1 examined the relationship between trust in information and product attitude, and between uncertainty and choice deferral according to information sources (AI chatbot vs. human). Experiment 2 examined the impact of social presence, perceived personalization, and choice deferral according to whether anthropomorphism of AI chatbots or not. The research results are as follows. First, consumers were found to have a more positive attitude toward products recommended by AI chatbots (vs. human). Second, consumers were more choice deferral whether to purchase products recommended by AI chatbots (vs. human). Third, it was found that consumers' selection of products recommended by anthropomorphic AI chatbots (vs. impersonated AI chatbots) increased. Also, the implications of this study and future research directions were discussed.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.79
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• pp.70-103
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• 2016

In the face of crisis in the news media industry, many people prospect that new technology can save it. But there is no discussion about how new technology works and what is its limitations and which direction of development is needed. In view of media, this article analyzed 'news chatbot' as new technology. Firstly, this article defined bot and discussed bot's agency based on actor network theory. Secondly, it analysed bots which are acting as media and discussed features of the messenger platform as a communication tool. Thirdly, it presents examples of news chatbot and analyzed how they work. Finally, it predicts the future of news chatbot and discussed the possibility of journalism.

• 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 Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.149-162
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• 2020

This paper applied components of experience-based communication in terms of experience theory of Burnd H. Schmitt and context-based communication in the messenger platform environment through the scenario-based survey method, in order to study the influence of individual experiences, shared experiences, ubiquitous connectivity, and contextual usefulness on the perceived value and use intention of chatbot. Through this, the study is to provide companies in various service industries with practical approaches to further promote the use of chatbot. The implications of this study are as follows. First, as most chatbots still do not exceed the human planning level of designing them, it is necessary to consider how to design individual experience elements functionally according to the customer's intention to speak when developing the chatbot. Second, the chatbot should be designed not only from the perspective of completing specific tasks at any real time in anywhere, but also from the overall perspective of enhancing the quality of interaction, including the situation to which the customer belongs. Third, since the chatbot is likely to be anthropomorphized by users, it is important to be cautious about determining the chatbot's 'persona' and 'tone and manner' when developing the chatbot. Customer satisfaction is the most important criterion for the success of chatbot development. In other words, the quality of planning and data rather than the quality of artificial intelligence algorithms determines the utilization of chatbot. This is why companies are trying to make interactions with chatbot as close as possible to human interactions.

• 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.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.18 no.12
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• pp.118-129
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• 2018

In AI chatbot service via a messenger, a profile image of the chatbot is the first thing that users see to communicate with the chatbot. This profile image not only manages an impression about the profile owner in SNS on followers, but also makes an important impression about chatbot services on users. Thus motivated, this study investigates proper profile images tailored for the types of chatbot services and users. Specifically, I reviewed the preferred images and expressions of chatbots for each purpose of chatbot service. Then, in a case study, I collected and analyzed the representative chatbot profile images for the purpose of fun and counseling. The profile images are categorized as robot, human, animal, and abstract images. Based on these categories, I surveyed the preferred profile image of the chatbot service in either the text type or image type alternatives. For the purpose of fun, in the text version, I found that both men and women preferred a human image to others. However, in the image version, men preferred woman and robot images while women preferred cute animation character and robot images. For counseling services, both men and women preferred woman and animal images most, which is similar to the results of the text version of questionnaires as well. While both genders consistently preferred real photo images, women tend to like abstract images more than men do. I expect that the results of this study would be useful to develop the proper profile images of AI chatbot for each service purpose.