Browsing by Author "Silva, Susana Cristina Lima da Costa e"
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- It’s on its way: chatbots applied for online food delivery services, social or task-oriented interaction style?Publication . Cicco, Roberta de; Silva, Susana Cristina Lima da Costa e; Alparone, Francesca RomanaResearch has yet to explore the spread of chatbots into the foodservice delivery sector and its impact on the customer’s experience, especially in a moment when the Internet seems to be the tool to meet needs associated with being physically apart. In order to fill this gap, the present study addresses the implications that chatbots’ interaction styles have for younger consumers using this channel for conversational online food delivery (OFD) services. Specifically, this study provides theoretical and practical insights into whether the conversational design of chatbots can influence social, affective, and behavioral intent outcomes. The study adopts an experimental design to investigate the effects of a social- versus task-oriented interaction style chatbot on the level of social presence and trust (social outcomes), perceived enjoyment (affective outcome), and intention to use the conversational OFD service in the future (behavioral intent outcome). Findings from a sample of 171 participants show that the interaction with the chatbot set up with a social-oriented interaction style increased users’ perception of social presence and perceived enjoyment, while it did not have any direct and significant effect on trust and intention to use. The study further supports the role of social presence, trust, and perceived enjoyment as mediators between the chatbot’s interaction style and the intention to use the conversational OFD service.
- Should a chatbot disclose itself? Implications for an online conversational retailerPublication . Cicco, Roberta De; Silva, Susana Cristina Lima da Costa e; Palumbo, RiccardoToday many consumers prefer interactions with companies via chat and instant messaging, however, although in most cases it is now a virtual agent to handle the interactions, many of them feel it would be eerie if a chatbot pretended to be human. The present study aims at disentangling this sort of ambivalence people have for chatbots through an investigation on how the explicit disclosure of the chatbot identity, before the interaction, influences consumers’ perceptions. Specifically, this study compares the effects that the explicit disclosure of the chatbot identity has on social presence trust and users’ attitudes toward the online retailer. Findings from an online experiment with 160 participants show that interacting with the chatbot whose identity has been primed through a disclosure leads to less perceived social presence, trust, and attitude toward the online retailer, compared to interacting with the chatbot whose identity has not been disclosed before the interaction. The study further analyses a causal chain among the variables, proving that social presence and trust mediate the relationship between the chatbot identity disclosure and the attitude toward the online retailer.
- What kind of Chatbot do Millennials prefer to interact with? The role of Communication Style and Avatar in predicting Millennials' Intention to use ChatbotsPublication . Cicco, Roberta De; Silva, Susana Cristina Lima da Costa e; Alparone, Francesca RomanaBeing a relatively new digital platform, perfectly meshing with the way in which young consumers socially interact with the world, chatbots’ perceptions knowledge turns out to be a key factor to address business efforts in enhancing young customers experience with companies’ technologies. This study applies a between-participants factorial design to explore the extent to which the conversational style (social-oriented vs task-oriented) and the visual cue (avatar presence vs avatar absence), influence perceived social presence of the interaction with the chatbot and how this perception, in turn, influences the Millennials’ intention to adopt them. To conduct the study, a survey method was employed, and data were collected from a snowball sample of 193 Millennials. Findings from the study reveal that a social-oriented communication style increases users’ perception of social presence, which in turn predicts the intention to use it via perceived enjoyment and attitude toward the chatbot.