Abstract:

This article present perception of social presence and competence play a critical role in developing strong trust beliefs. In this way, more evidence is provided that social presence and perceived are indeed paramount determinants of trust in an interaction with a virtual assistant. Moreover, beyond the significant effect on trust, both empirical studies support the applicability of perceived competence as a determinant of positive consumer responses, particularly service encounter satisfaction, purchase intentions and patronage intentions. The first part consists of a review of the importance of chatbots in customer  service. We present our conceptual model and elaborate on the research hypotheses. By placing the Social Information Processing Theory, Media Equation Theory and CASA Paradigm at the heart of our conceptualization, we developed a model which proposes anthropomorphic design cues as a determinant of both social presence and perceived competence, which in turn will have a positive influence on the trusting beliefs. The latter was also hypothesized to positively influence consumer responses. Third, we present the development of the research methodology for the two empirical studies. Then, we empirically test the research hypotheses and conclude with a general discussion. The results of two online experiments provided empirical support for the effects of social cues on warmth perceptions in an online retail context. In addition, we also provided consistent evidence for the significant negative effect of erroneous virtual assistants on perceived competence; trust, as well as, positive consumer responses. Our findings advance existing marketing knowledge about leveraging intelligent virtual assistants in an online retail context and provide important implications on how practitioners can harness their potential in order to develop strong emotional bonds with the customers.