As chatbots have become increasingly popular over the past years, most social networking sites have recognized their far-reaching potential for commercial purposes. Their rapid and widespread usage warrants a better understanding. This study examines the effectiveness of chatbots on Facebook for brands. The study proposes and tests a model based on the Consumer Acceptance of Technology model (CAT-model) including three cognitive (i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, and perceived helpfulness) and three affective (pleasure, arousal, and dominance; PAD-dimensions) determinants that potentially influence consumers' attitude toward brands providing a chatbot, and hence, their likelihood to use and recommend the chatbot (i.e., patronage intention). Structural equation modeling analyses show that two cognitive (i.e., perceived usefulness and perceived helpfulness) and all three affective predictors are positively related to consumers' attitude toward the chatbot brand. The findings further indicate that attitude toward the brand explained a significant amount of variation in consumers' patronage intention. Finally, all the significant determinants also have an indirect effect on patronage intention, mediated through attitude toward the brand. In conclusion, our findings hold valuable practical implications, as well as relevant suggestions for future research.

Chatbots on social networking sites are a recent innovation in computer-mediated marketing communication. In this study, 245 Facebook users between 18 and 35 years of age (M age = 25.97, SD = 4.92) were asked to order tickets for the movies through Cinebot, a Facebook chatbot specifically built for the study. Afterwards, they were asked to evaluate their experiences via an online survey. The first purpose of this article was to investigate whether and how perceived helpfulness and usefulness of a chatbot consulted on the Facebook Messenger platform affected perceived intrusiveness of chatbot-initiated advertising in a later stage. In a second analysis, the relation between perceived intrusiveness and patronage intentions (i.e. purchase and recommendation intention of the product) was investigated. In addition, the role of message acceptance as a mediator and perceived message relevance as a moderator in this latter model were explored. As, to the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate chatbot advertising, our research findings may hold important managerial implications.

A large part of research conducted on privacy concern and protection on social networking sites (SNSs) concentrates on children and adolescents. Individuals in these developmental stages are often described as vulnerable Internet users. But how vulnerable are adults in terms of online informational privacy? This study applied a privacy boundary management approach and investigated Facebook use, privacy concern, and the application of privacy settings on Facebook by linking the results to Erikson's three stages of adulthood: emerging, young, and middle adulthood. An online survey was distributed among 18-to 65-year-old Dutch-speaking adults (N = 508, 51.8% females). Analyses revealed clear differences between the three adult age groups in terms of privacy concern, Facebook use, and privacy protection. Results indicated that respondents in young adulthood and middle adulthood were more vulnerable in terms of privacy protection than emerging adults. Clear discrepancies were found between privacy concern and protection for these age groups. More particularly, the middle adulthood group was more concerned about their privacy in comparison to the emerging adulthood and young adulthood group. Yet, they reported to use privacy settings less frequently than the younger age groups. Emerging adults were found to be pragmatic and privacy conscious SNS users. Young adults occupied the intermediate position, suggesting a developmental shift. The impact of generational differences is discussed, as well as implications for education and governmental action.

Increasingly, personal data posted by users of social network sites (SNSs) can be used to personalize advertising. The present study investigates how adolescents respond to personalized ads in terms of attitude toward the ad, brand engagement and intention to forward, and whether privacy concerns moderate their responses. According to pretest results, a medium level of personalization was expected to be optimal in terms of advertising effectiveness. A within-subjects experiment involving 40 participants aged 14-18 years was performed. Three conditions of personalized advertising were designed with, respectively, low, medium, and high levels of personalization. The study found that the highest personalization condition generated the most positive response and that privacy concerns did not moderate the effects of personalization. The privacy paradox is discussed as an alternative explanation, along with other implications of the results.

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