“How mAy I help you today?” The use of AI chatbots in small family businesses and the moderating role of customer affective commitment

Rizomyliotis, Ioannis; Kastanakis, Minas N.; Giovanis, Apostolos; Konstantoulaki, Kleopatra; Kostopoulos, Ioannis

doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.08.035

Cited by 28 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 166 publications

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“…These attributes include a casual or informal greeting, and referring to students by name, to enhance the social presence of the chatbot. A student would open the chatbot, read the responses personally directed towards them and potentially connect with the chatbot on a social and psychological level (Rizomyliotis et al, 2022 ). This is followed by emoticons and expressions to, other than to emphasize the approachable nature of the chatbot, introduce textual variety.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The implementation of chatbot-mediated immediacy for synchronous communication in an online chemistry course

Jasin

Atmosukarto

et al. 2023

Educ Inf Technol

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Low student engagement and motivation in online classes are well-known issues many universities face, especially with distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The online environment makes it even harder for teachers to connect with their students through traditional verbal and nonverbal behaviours, further decreasing engagement. Yet, addressing such problems with 24/7 synchronous communication is overly demanding for faculty. This paper details an automated Question-Answering chatbot system trained in synchronous communication and instructor immediacy techniques to determine its suitability and effectiveness in attending to students undergoing an online Chemistry course. The chatbot is part of a new wave of affective focused chatbots that can benefit students’ learning process by connecting with them on a relatively more humanlike level. As part of the pilot study in the development of this chatbot, qualitative interviews and self-report data capturing student-chatbot interactions, experiences and opinions have been collected from 12 students in a Singaporean university. Thematic analysis was then employed to consolidate these findings. The results support the chatbot’s ability to display several communication immediacy techniques well, on top of responding to students at any time of the day. Having a private conversation with the chatbot also meant that the students could fully focus their attention and ask more questions to aid their learning. Improvements were suggested, in relation to the chatbot’s word detection and accuracy, accompanied by a framework to develop communication immediacy mechanics in future chatbots. Our findings support the potential of this chatbot, once modified, to be used in a similar online setting. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-023-11602-1.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The implementation of chatbot-mediated immediacy for synchronous communication in an online chemistry course

Jasin

Atmosukarto

et al. 2023

Educ Inf Technol

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“…The social response of individuals where, the higher (vs. lower) the anthropomorphism they perceive within a chatbot, the greater (vs. lesser) they will perceive the chatbot as a social actor. As emojis are proposed to increase the authenticity (Kull et al, 2021) and perceived competence (Rizomyliotis et al, 2022) of a chatbot, we argue that higher (vs. lower) anthropomorphic cues (such as text and visuals) will have different effects as mediated by authenticity and perceived competence. Consequently, we propose the following hypothesis.…”

Section: Chatbot Anthropomorphism and Customer Engagementmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…These specific elements of chatbots are to simulate social presence, which leads to better customer experience (Rizomyliotis et al, 2022) and is a good predictor of chatbot usage continuance (Jin & Youn, 2022).…”

Section: Chatbots and Current Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Text‐based elements often focus on using schemas to determine what is the most effective way to anthropomorphize chatbot–customer interactions (Pizzi et al, 2021), such as the use of humor (Shin et al, 2023) or warmth (Roy & Naidoo, 2021) to reduce customers uncertainty when interacting with a nonhuman entity (Yu et al, 2022). These specific elements of chatbots are to simulate social presence, which leads to better customer experience (Rizomyliotis et al, 2022) and is a good predictor of chatbot usage continuance (Jin & Youn, 2022).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While performed in a human service employee setting, Li et al (2019) found the use of emoji by human agents was perceived as less competent in most conditions. Contrastingly, the use of emotional expression, such as emojis, in chatbots may be perceived as enhancing competence (Rizomyliotis et al, 2022). Interestingly, the future (vs. present) time orientation of individuals reported higher levels of brand attitude and purchase intentions based on the perceived competence of a chatbot (Roy & Naidoo, 2021).…”

Section: Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Chatbots in frontline services and customer experience: An anthropomorphism perspective

Nguyen

Ferm

Quach

et al. 2023

Psychology and Marketing

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This study measures the effects of chatbot anthropomorphic language on customers' perception of chatbot competence and authenticity on customer engagement while taking into consideration the moderating roles of humanlike appearance and brand credibility. We conducted two experimental studies to examine the conceptual framework. Study 1 tests the moderating effect of a chatbot's anthropomorphic appearance on the relationship between chatbots' language and customer engagement. Study 2 tests the moderating effect of brand credibility on the relationship between a chatbot's anthropomorphic language and customer engagement. The findings confirm that the interaction between humanlike appearance via the use of avatars and anthropomorphic language, such as using emojis, in conversations with customers influences customer engagement, and that this effect is mediated by perceived chatbot competence and authenticity. Further, the positive effect of anthropomorphic language on perceived competence, and subsequently on authenticity and engagement, is only significant when the brand credibility was low (vs. high). This study offers insights into the effect of chatbots' anthropomorphic language and provides suggestions on how to devise efficient strategies for engaging customers using chatbots.

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Cognitive Computing in Smart Cities and Healthcare

Dave Mahadevprasad,

Rudhra,

Singh

2024

Cognitive Analytics and Reinforcement Learning

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“How mAy I help you today?” The use of AI chatbots in small family businesses and the moderating role of customer affective commitment

Cited by 28 publications

References 166 publications

The implementation of chatbot-mediated immediacy for synchronous communication in an online chemistry course

The implementation of chatbot-mediated immediacy for synchronous communication in an online chemistry course

Chatbots in frontline services and customer experience: An anthropomorphism perspective

Cognitive Computing in Smart Cities and Healthcare

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