• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.229-240
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• 2022

This study explores the effect of anthropomorphism on fashion chatbot reliability, mediated by perceived intelligence and cognitive evaluation. The moderating effects of individuals' need for human interaction between chatbot anthropomorphism and perceived intelligence, cognitive evaluation, and chatbot reliability are also explored. Participants, who were recruited through the online research firm, responded to questions after watching a video clip showing a conversation with a fashion chatbot on a mobile screen. The data were collected through Mturk, a crowdsourcing platform with an online research panel. All responses (N = 212) were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 for the descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and PROCESS procedure. The results demonstrate that chatbot anthropomorphism increases chatbot reliability, and this is mediated by chatbot intelligence. Although chatbot anthropomorphism increases cognitive evaluation, the effect of cognitive evaluation on chatbot reliability is not significant; thereby, the effect of chatbot anthropomorphism on chatbot reliability is not mediated by the cognitive evaluation. The direct effect of anthropomorphism on chatbot reliability is also moderated by individuals' need for human interaction. For participants with a high need for human interaction, chatbot anthropomorphism increases chatbot reliability; however, anthropomorphism does not significantly affect chatbot reliability for participants with a low need for human interaction. The study's findings contribute to expanding the literature on consumers' new technology acceptance by testing the antecedents affecting service reliability.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.119-130
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• 2021

This study investigated the effects of the chatbot's level of anthropomorphism - closeness to the human form - and its self-disclosure - delivery of emotional exchange with the chatbot through its facial expressions and chatting message on the user's intention to accept the service. A 2 (anthropomorphism: High vs. Low) × 2 (self-disclosure through facial expressions: High vs. Low) × 2 (self-disclosure through conversation: High vs. Low) between-subject factorial design was employed for this study. An online survey was conducted and a total of 234 questionnaires were used in the analysis. The results showed that consumers used chatbot service more when emotions were disclosed through facial expressions, than when it disclosed fewer facial expressions. There was statistically significant interaction effect, indicating the relationship between chatbot's self-disclosure through facial expression and the consumers' intention to use chatbot service differs depending on the extent of anthropomorphism. In the case of "robot chatbots" with low anthropomorphism levels, there was no difference in intention to use chatbot service depending on the level of self-disclosure through facial expression. When the "human-like chatbot" with high anthropomorphism levels discloses itself more through facial expressions, consumer's intention to use the chatbot service increased much more than when the human-like chatbot disclosed fewer facial expressions. The findings suggest that chatbots' self-disclosure plays an important role in the formation of consumer perception.

• 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.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.211-229
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• 2022

In this study, we aimed to define the effects of anthropomorphism and conversational relevance of chatbots on user experience. In specific, the chatbot designed for this study was an online shopping assistant that recommends items for consumers. Levels of anthropomorphism was manipulated by the name, profile picture, word choices, and emojis, while conversational relevance was adjusted by the depth and accuracy of the recommendation. Three categories of user experience were measured: psychological distance, usability, and purchase intentions. The results implied a significant main effect of conversational relevance on all variables for the high anthropomorphized conditions, while all but psychological distance was significant for low anthropomorphized conditions. Although there was no significant main effect of anthropomorphism observed for the variables, the main effect of anthropomorphism on responsibility was marginally significant for a specific item. The results of this study may function as a guidance for future studies regarding usage of chatbots within a marketing setting.

• 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.

• 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 pacific journal of information systems
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.1058-1092
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• 2023

This study investigates the perception and adoption of ChatGPT (a large language model (LLM)-based chatbot created by OpenAI) among Korean users and assesses its potential as the next disruptive innovation. Drawing on previous literature, the study proposes perceived intelligence and perceived anthropomorphism as key differentiating factors of ChatGPT from earlier AI-based chatbots. Four individual motives (i.e., perceived usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, and trust) and two societal motives (social influence and AI anxiety) were identified as antecedents of ChatGPT acceptance. A survey was conducted within two Korean online communities related to artificial intelligence, the findings of which confirm that ChatGPT is being used for both utilitarian and hedonic purposes, and that perceived usefulness and enjoyment positively impact the behavioral intention to adopt the chatbot. However, unlike prior expectations, perceived ease-of-use was not shown to exert significant influence on behavioral intention. Moreover, trust was not found to be a significant influencer to behavioral intention, and while social influence played a substantial role in adoption intention and perceived usefulness, AI anxiety did not show a significant effect. The study confirmed that perceived intelligence and perceived anthropomorphism are constructs that influence the individual factors that influence behavioral intention to adopt and highlights the need for future research to deconstruct and explore the factors that make ChatGPT "enjoyable" and "easy to use" and to better understand its potential as a disruptive technology. Service developers and LLM providers are advised to design user-centric applications, focus on user-friendliness, acknowledge that building trust takes time, and recognize the role of social influence in adoption.

• 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 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.