Nicolas Pontes

This study investigates how anthropomorphic language and chatbot schema (a customer’s cognitive framework for understanding and interacting with a chatbot) jointly influence customer electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Across two experiments, we examine how anthropomorphic language (such as empathetic language and emojis) impacts customers’ engagement with chatbots. Study 1 provides directional evidence suggesting that anthropomorphic language is associated with greater eWOM when a chatbot schema was active, but not when it is inactive. Study 2 demonstrates that the effects of anthropomorphic language on authenticity and eWOM are contingent on the chatbot’s competence. Together, these findings suggest that linguistic cues may improve chatbot interactions, beyond their visual appearance. This research has implications for marketing practitioners, helping them to formulate effective strategies based on chatbot disclosure and competence.

Purpose: This study aims to examine how service agent type (human vs. robot) influences customers’ emotional responses to preferential treatment. While service robots are increasingly deployed in frontline roles, it remains unclear whether they can effectively deliver relational benefits that rely on perceived intentionality and social meaning. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on social appraisal theory, the authors propose that customers’ responses to preferential treatment depend on the perceived moral agency of the service agent and the extent to which the interaction validates their status. Across o3ne qualitative study and four experiments in diverse service contexts (e.g., hospitality, airlines, and restaurants), the authors examine how service agent type affects perceptions of moral agency, status and gratitude, and test key boundary conditions including treatment type (earned vs. unearned), loyalty tier, benefit type (functional vs symbolic) and perceived negative impact on other customers. Findings: Results show that human agents elicit stronger gratitude and status perceptions than service robots, particularly when preferential treatment is earned or when benefits are functional. These effects are driven by higher perceived moral agency attributed to human agents. However, when preferential treatment is perceived to negatively impact other customers, service robots can generate more favourable emotional responses, as their lack of moral agency reduces moral discomfort. Research limitations/implications: Given the varying degrees of anthropomorphism in service robots, the scope of this study may need to be extended to enhance the generalisability of the findings across different robotic platforms and service contexts. Future research should further examine the underlying appraisal mechanisms identified here, particularly how variations in robot design shape perceived moral agency and, in turn, influence status perceptions and gratitude. The role of customer demographics and psychographics also warrants deeper investigation, as these factors may condition how customers interpret agent intentionality and social meaning, with downstream effects on loyalty and trust. Continued research is also needed given the rapid evolution of robot capabilities. Practical implications: Preferential treatment is central to relationship marketing, but its effectiveness depends not only on what is delivered, but on how customers interpret the intentionality behind it. The findings show that human agents are more likely to be perceived as intentional and morally grounded, thereby enhancing customers’ sense of status and eliciting stronger gratitude. In contrast, robot-delivered treatment may be perceived as more procedural, attenuating these relational benefits. Accordingly, service organisations should adopt a task-contingent approach. Robots are well-suited for routine, transactional interactions requiring low emotional labour, while human agents should be reserved for interactions where preferential treatment is intended to signal recognition, confer status and strengthen relational bonds. Originality/value: This research advances the service robot literature by identifying moral agency as a key mechanism underlying customer responses in relational service contexts. It extends relationship marketing theory by conceptualising status as an interactional outcome shaped by the service agent and contributes to moral psychology by demonstrating the context-dependent role of perceived agency. More broadly, the findings show that service interactions are not agent-neutral: the effectiveness of automation depends not only on what is delivered, but on how and by whom it is delivered.

Purpose: This research examines empirically the concept of master–servant relationships in human–robot collaboration (HRC). Drawing on leader–member exchange and intergroup threat theories, this paper develops and tests a novel research model that links the working relationships between human frontline staff and humanoid social robots (HSRs) to customers’ perceptions of realistic threat and trust, and, consequently, their intention to use service robots in retail stores. In addition, the paper tests the moderating role of speciesism. Design/methodology/approach: This paper consists of four online experiments studying the effects of master–servant roles in HRC in frontline retail. Data for the studies was collected from US participants and members of Prolific. Multiple moderated mediation models using SPSS v29 PROCESS 4.0 were used in the analyses to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings: The role of master–servant relationships between human retail staff and HSRs influences customer perceptions of realistic threat and trust toward HSRs. Speciesism increases the negative mediating effects of realistic threat and reduces the positive mediating effects of trust, ultimately affecting consumers’ intention to use retail robots when they perform a master (vs. servant) role during HRC in frontline retail encounters. Originality/value: The present research examines the likely working relationships between human frontline staff as subordinates (i.e. servants) and HSRs as their immediate supervisors (i.e. masters), as well as the spillover effects on customers’ perceptions in hybrid service encounters. The results contribute to recent research in which job titles of AI agents can influence customers’ perceptions of those agents (e.g. Jeon, 2022). In addition, this research showcases how speciesism moderates these effects.

Influencers' personal stories on social media can shape consumer behavior. Yet little is known about how intimacy, valence, and topic of self‐disclosure affect perceptions of credibility. In two studies, results reveal that intimate (vs. non‐intimate) self‐disclosure reduces perceived message appropriateness and influencer credibility, while positive (vs. negative) self‐disclosure enhances it. Furthermore, the effect of positive intimate self‐disclosure on appropriateness is stronger for topics related to mental health (vs. relationships). This research broadens the theoretical understanding of how consumers perceive influencer credibility by analyzing various dimensions of self‐disclosure, providing practical insights for integrating self‐disclosure into social media recommendations.

This article examines the influence of framing a brand's concept as functional versus symbolic in the advertising of a new vertical line extension. In this research, we carried out two online experiments and collected data from 415 participants recruited from MTurk to investigate the moderating role of believability on the effect of brand concept framing on consumers' purchase intentions of vertical line extensions. The results indicate that (i) consumers evaluate a vertical extension advertising message more positively when it is framed in a consistent manner with the targeted price/quality segment and not with its parent brand or existing product line and that (ii) this effect is moderated by consumer believability such that an advertising framing effect is found for high, but not low, in believability. Perceptions of category fit mediate the relationship between framing brand concept and the evaluation of the extension. This study contributes to the advertising and marketing literature by exploring how consumers can interpret brand concept framing in advertising messages of vertical line extensions differently depending on their level of believability and, in turn, influence their purchase intentions.

The foodservice industry demands high levels of positive emotional behavior from all workers, especially those who interact directly with consumers. For this reason, emotional intelligence is an area of interest for foodservice. The objective of the study was to analyse the emotional intelligence (EI) of workers in foodservice companies in the cities of Itajaí and Balneário Camboriú, in southern Brazil. To that end, a survey was carried out with a sample of 284 respondents. The data collection instrument was based on the WLEIS scale. Analyses were performed using SPSS and SmartPLS software. As a result, it was seen that employees in the foodservice sector demonstrate how to use their emotions, but have difficulties in managing them. The use of emotion was the EI dimension that obtained the best results, and the emotion regulation dimension was the one that obtained the lowest averages. It is considered that EI is influenced by variables linked to gender, educational level and work position. The information gathered can assist in the subsidy of training and development programs to help employees in the foodservice sector.