Ching-Jui Keng

Grounded in Social Impact Theory, this study examines the effects of virtual experiences generated by Mere Virtual Presence (MVP), Mere Virtual Presence with Product Experience (MVPE), and pure brand websites on consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Additionally, it explores the moderating roles of Consumers’ Need for Uniqueness (CNFU) and product type (search vs. experience products). This study adopts an experimental design with three brand website types (MVP brand communities, MVPE brand communities, and pure brand websites) and two product types to examine the hypothesis. Specifically, a 3 (brand website type) × 2 (product type) experimental design was implemented to examine the influence of brand website types across different scenarios of online marketing. The findings reveal significant insights into consumer brand marketing. Specifically, consumers with low CNFU exhibited higher brand attitudes and purchase intentions compared to those with high CNFU when engaging with search products in MVPE brand communities Furthermore, fan avatars within a virtual brand community can still influence consumer perceptions even without direct interaction. These insights contribute to the growing body of research on personalized marketing and offer practical strategies for leveraging eWOM to enhance consumer engagement and influence decision-making in the digital landscape.

Drawing upon the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Trust Transfer Theory, this study investigates how AI digital avatars influence consumer trust and purchase intention. Using survey data collected from 378 valid respondents, the proposed model was tested with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that brand awareness and perceived quality significantly affect purchase intention through product trust, while social endorsement cues, anthropomorphism, and interaction quality indirectly influence purchase intention through AI Avatar trust. Furthermore, both AI Avatar trust and product trust have significant direct effects on purchase intention, highlighting the critical role of trust in AI-driven persuasion processes. This study validates the dual-route persuasion mechanism of the ELM in AI marketing contexts and extends the application of trust theory to human–AI interactions, offering valuable insights for future research on AI brand endorsement and consumer psychology.

This research centers on service recovery and seeks to investigate how service recovery influences the experiential value following the social customer shopping journey. A total of 243 valid questionnaires were gathered through online questionnaires and pre-recorded interactive videos of the experiment. Participants were prompted to immerse themselves in the scenario and respond to subsequent inquiries. The research revealed varying experience values of service recovery based on different product types in instances where a smart speaker encounters a service failure.

Podcasts have gained popularity with the advent of sound consumption. Based on the social identity theory and through a dual identification framework, this research investigates why audiences are willing to pay and keep subscriptions to digital podcast platforms. The data are collected from 321 podcast audiences in Taiwan and analyzed via a structural equation model. The results herein find that audiences’ parasocial relationship, self-congruity, and personal self-concept have a direct and positive influence on podcaster identification. At the same time, audiences’ conscious participation and enthusiasm have a direct and positive influence on group identification. Podcaster identification and group identification are positively associated with listeners’ willingness to keep their subscription. Furthermore, companionship partially moderates the impact of identification on continued subscription intentions. Insights from this study extend the social identity theory, podcaster-audience interaction, and subscription behaviors to a new and emerging context as well as help marketers better understand how to engage more effectively with podcast audiences.

Purpose: With the advancements of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years, smart objects (SOs) have been widely applied in the lives of consumers to fulfill a variety of functions. This research aims to explore the new interaction experience between consumers and a smart speaker that can create the effect of customer engagement by enhancing the gendered voice and product smartness.Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject experiment to validate the research model and the hypotheses.Findings: The results indicate that a high level of interaction experience between the users and smart speaker devices increases customer engagement. Smart speaker devices that present female voices have a high product smartness, whereas high levels of interaction experience are more effective in customer engagement. Furthermore, the results also show a moderate effect of gendered voice and product smartness between the interaction experience levels and customer engagement.Originality/value: This study contributes to the assemblage theory and the interaction experience levels between users and smart speaker devices in IoT. Based on the results, suggestions on enhancing the smartness ability and application services of new smart speaker devices are proposed. The findings of this study can promote a more continuous interaction between users and smart speakers.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an extended Push-Pull-Mooring-Habit (PPMH) framework in order to better understand users’ intention of switching from offline to an online real-person English learning platform service. Design/methodology/approach: Based on 301 valid responses collected from an online survey questionnaire, structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model. Findings: The causal model was validated using SmartPLS 3.0, and all study hypotheses were supported. The results show that push effects (learning convenience, service quality and perceived price), pull effects (e-learning motivation, perceived usefulness), mooring effects (learning engagement, switching cost and social presences) and habit effects (relationship inertia) all significantly influence users’ switching intentions from offline to an online real-person English learning platform. Practical implications: The findings should help online English learning service providers and marketers to understand the intention of offline English learning users to switch to an online real-person English learning platform, and develop related theories, services and regulations. Originality/value: The present study extends the prior research of an online real-person English learning platform by providing PPMH as the general framework and demonstrating its efficacy in explaining user switching intentions.

The purpose of this study is to develop a brand authenticity scale by reviewing the relevant literature to identify the factors important for brand authenticity, then developing and testing the discriminant and convergent validity of measurement scales for dimensions of brand authenticity. The research method adopted includes in-depth interview and focus group interview. The procedure for scale development was: item generation, scale purification, and scale validation. This research uses qualitative and empirical methods to identify the six key dimensions of brand authenticity and develop a brand authenticity scale. As a result, a six-dimensional scale containing seventeen items was developed representing distinctive dimensions of brand authenticity: virtue, connection, realism, aesthetics, control, and originality. This research contributes to the branding literature by identifying the dimensions of brand authenticity through the development of a brand authenticity scale. Moreover, the six dimensions represent the most comprehensive understanding of brand authenticity. The brand authenticity scale can be used with confidence to examine relationships with other important constructs of interest in the future. To cite this document: Van-Dat Tran, Ching-Jui Keng, "The Brand Authenticity Scale: Development and Validation", Contemporary Management Research, Vol.14, No.4, pp. 277-291, 2018. Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.7903/cmr.18581