PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots have brought unprecedented business potential. This study aims to explore consumers' trust and response to a text-based chatbot in e-commerce, involving the moderating effects of task complexity and chatbot identity disclosure.Design/methodology/approachA survey method with 299 useable responses was conducted in this research. This study adopted the ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses.FindingsFirst, the consumers' perception of both the empathy and friendliness of the chatbot positively impacts their trust in it. Second, task complexity negatively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Third, disclosure of the text-based chatbot negatively moderates the relationship between empathy and consumers' trust, while it positively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Fourth, consumers' trust in the chatbot increases their reliance on the chatbot and decreases their resistance to the chatbot in future interactions.Research limitations/implicationsAdopting the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework, this study provides important insights on consumers' perception and response to the text-based chatbot. The findings of this research also make suggestions that can increase consumers' positive responses to text-based chatbots.Originality/valueExtant studies have investigated the effects of automated bots' attributes on consumers' perceptions. However, the boundary conditions of these effects are largely ignored. This research is one of the first attempts to provide a deep understanding of consumers' responses to a chatbot.
PurposeThis study aims to elicit the preferences of potential travelers for different property listings' attributes (online review number, positive valence rate of reviews and discount strategy) when selecting hotels and peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation sharing on online booking platforms.Design/methodology/approachA discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted with 291 respondents with accommodation needs. They were asked to choose between pairs of listings.FindingsThe authors found that when booking accommodation online, complex discount strategies were not determinant both in selecting hotels and P2P accommodations. Positive valence rate of reviews has a higher impact on the selection of traditional hotels than P2P accommodations, while the number of online reviews has a higher impact on the selection of P2P accommodations than traditional hotels. The authors further discuss the effect of each attribute on online accommodation selection in terms of price ranges of the property listings.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings provide suggestions for platform operators and product/service providers to improve their marketing strategies and optimize their management efforts.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies that investigate the role of property listings' attributes on the selections between hotels and P2P accommodations. The findings from this research study could be generalized to other online platforms and electronic commerce-related transactions.
Product country-of-origin (COO) is now playing a central role in consumers’ purchase behavior. Previous studies have investigated several factors that impact COO. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of COO on consumers’ product evaluation on Chinese products, especially in the cross-border e-commerce context. Using a multi-methods design, this study first unearthed the antecedents of COO image towards Chinese products from the qualitative data in Study 1 by drawing on the legitimacy theory and then develops a contextual model of consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention, integrating the role of a product with a different level of involvement. Using quantitative survey data from 252 foreign consumers, the study tests the research model in Study 2. The findings provide empirical evidence to support the model and highlight the importance of COO cues on foreign consumers’ purchase intention towards Chinese products. The results also enhance our understanding of consumers’ purchase decision in cross-border e-commerce.
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