Antecedents and moderators of consumer adoption toward AR‐enhanced virtual try‐on technology: A stimulus‐organism‐response approach

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate consumers’ adoption intention toward augmented reality (AR)‐enhanced virtual try‐ons (VTOs) by examining the effects of consumers’ evaluations of technology attributes on their immersive experiences, perceived value, and adoption intention based on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework. To explain variations in consumers’ evaluations and adoption of AR‐enhanced VTOs, two important personality traits that pertain to the use of AR‐enhanced VTOs, sensation‐seeking tendency and technology anxiety, were incorporated into the model as moderators. Data for this study were collected via a self‐administered survey of students enrolled in 13 classes of a southeastern university in the United States. A total of 398 respondents were recruited to participate in this study via a convenience sampling approach. A sample of 352 was retained for data analysis. Structural equation modeling and multigroup comparisons were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. The finding revealed that the two salient technology attributes of AR‐enhanced VTOs exerted significant positive influences on telepresence, which, in turn, influenced consumers’ perceived values and adoption intention toward AR‐enhanced VTOs. Also, the two personality traits moderated the proposed relationships among technology attributes, perceived values, and adoption intentions. The findings add to empirical support for the relationship proposed in the SOR framework. Further, the results of this study provide insights that can guide companies in improving and marketing VTOs.

Augmented reality's perceived immersion effect on the customer shopping process: decision-making quality and privacy concerns

“…As discussed in the "Hypothesis development" section, perceived immersion can explain the effect of AR-enabled shopping on customers' purchase intention from both cognitive and effective schemes (Huang and Liao, 2015;Javornik, 2016;Scholz and Duffy, 2018;Yim and Park, 2019). Customers' increased immersion can improve their involvement (Daassi and Debbabi, 2021), flow (Wang et al, 2021) and peak experiences (Yim et al, 2017;Lee et al, 2022) in their shopping activities. As a result, a higher level of customers' perceived immersion may lead to a higher purchase intention.…”

“…This model describes sequential events starting with exposure to environmental cues (S) that cause changes to the user's internal state (O), which then lead to behavioural reactions (R) (Vieira, 2013). The relevant literature (Zhang et al, 2014;Daassi and Debbabi, 2021;Han et al, 2021;Lee et al, 2022;Nikhashemi et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021) confirms that the SOR model is appropriate for investigating the interaction between factors which include system features, user experience, and the outcomes of AR-based tool use.…”

“…Organism (O) in the SOR model refers to the internal processes and structures that mediate between stimuli external to the customers and their final actions, reactions, and/or responses, "which consist of perceptual, physiological, feeling, and thinking activities" (Bagozzi, 1986, p. 46). In the AR context, the literature has investigated customers' perceived functional and hedonic benefits (Nikhashemi et al, 2021), perceived quality (Chiu et al, 2021), mental imagery (Heller et al, 2019;Hilken et al, 2022), augmentation quality (Poushneh, 2018), telepresence (Lee et al, 2022) and perceived immersion (Yim et al, 2017;Daassi and Debbabi, 2021;Han et al, 2021). This study focusses on perceived immersion as it is the key component of an ARenabled customer experience (Kim, 2013;Liao, 2015;Pantano and Servidio, 2012;Daassi and Debbabi, 2021).…”

“…However, most existing studies that use the SOR model focus on the customers' response of adopting AR and their intention to re-use it (e.g. Zhang et al, 2014;Nikhashemi et al, 2021;Daassi and Debbabi, 2021;Lee et al, 2022). Although a few studies (e.g.…”

“…Third, immersion creates a sense of disconnectedness from the real world and presents customers with magical moments (peak experiences) (Schouten et al, 2007;Heeter, 1995). As a result, increased perceived immersion leads to higher enjoyment and hedonic values for customers (Yim et al, 2017;Lee et al, 2022). In sum, immersion as a positive affective and cognitive state will increase purchase intention through the mechanisms of increased involvement, improved flow experiences, and created peak experiences.…”