Sara Quach

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 examines the role of customer-focused technology affordances in value creation and destruction throughout the patient journey in telehealth services. Using the DART-E framework and affordance theory, the research identifies key technology affordances, including connectivity, personalization, exploration, visibility and evaluative affordances and investigates their impact on service co-creation. By analyzing user-generated content, this study provides insights into how these affordances shape the customer experience in telehealth, contributing to a more patient-centric healthcare approach and addressing gaps in existing service research by considering both value creation and value destruction simultaneously. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs sentiment analysis on customer reviews and tweets from X (formerly Twitter), Trustpilot, Whitecoat and RateMDs. A total of 11,757 tweets and 10,922 online reviews were collected, categorized and analyzed to assess sentiment polarity as a proxy for value creation and destruction. The study applies an ensemble sentiment analysis method using TextBlob, Vader and BERT Sentiment to enhance classification accuracy. Qualitative content was further analyzed using template analysis, identifying key technology affordances and their influence on service co-creation across pre-consultation, in-consultation and post-consultation stages. Findings: The results indicate that technology affordances shape value co-creation and destruction at different stages of the patient journey. Connectivity, personalization and exploration affordances significantly impact the pre-consultation phase, while visibility and personalization affordances enhance the in-consultation experience. Evaluative affordance plays a key role in the post-consultation phase. Sentiment analysis shows that positive interactions improve emotional well-being (value creation), whereas technical issues, lack of transparency and poor execution contribute to negative experiences (value destruction). The study highlights spill-over effects, where experiences in one phase influence the next, emphasizing the need for seamless digital service integration. Originality/value: This research contributes to service co-creation theory by integrating affordance theory and the DART-E framework to examine both value creation and destruction in telehealth services. Unlike prior studies that focus on firm-oriented affordances, this study adopts a customer-centric perspective, emphasizing the role of patient technology affordances in shaping healthcare experiences. The triangulation of sentiment analysis and template analysis offers a novel methodological approach to understanding user-generated content in healthcare. Findings provide practical guidance for healthcare providers to enhance patient engagement, optimize digital service design and improve telehealth implementation strategies for better service outcomes.

The deregulation of the Australian dairy industry in 2000 triggered profound structural, economic, and social changes, leaving many farmers struggling to adapt. This study investigates how social capital shapes the resilience of the South East Queensland dairy industry in a challenging post-deregulation context. Adopting a situated resilience approach, we move beyond generic “resilience thinking” to ground our analysis in the lived experiences and perspectives of dairy farmers, recognizing that resilience is shaped by and experienced differently within specific social, political, and economic contexts. This perspective allows us to capture how power relations, industry structures, and local networks influence both the capacity to adapt and the distribution of benefits and burdens. Using a qualitative case study design, we conducted in-depth interviews to map the types and quality of farmers’ social capital (i.e. bonding, bridging, and linking) and assess how these networks influence their ability to withstand shocks, innovate, and sustain their livelihoods. Findings reveal that strong bonding capital continues to provide critical peer support, bridging capital fuels innovation and market diversification, while linking capital has eroded due to power imbalances and declining trust in institutions. By integrating social capital into a context-specific resilience framework, this research advances resilience theory and offers actionable strategies for policymakers, industry bodies, and communities to rebuild weakened networks and strengthen the long-term viability of the industry.

This review critically synthesizes and extends the influencer marketing literature by exploring how relational, psychological, and contextual mechanisms shape consumers' behavioral responses in digital environments. Adopting a multi‐method research approach, Study 1 presents an extensive TCCM (Theory, Context, Characteristics, and Methodology)–guided systematic literature review of 172 articles to identify key theoretical foundations, empirical trends, methodological approaches, and research themes. Study 2 complements this with 18 in‐depth interviews with academic experts and industry practitioners, offering deeper interpretive insights and contextual relevance of the findings. Together, these studies uncover central thematic drivers, including content and narrative strategies, psychological mechanisms, platform dynamics, and sponsorship disclosure. The findings imply that relational, narrative, and identity‐based mechanisms have a greater influence on consumers' behavioral outcomes, including engagement behavior, psychological reaction, and symbolic alignment than rational and informational appeals. Therefore, this review advances the field by integrating affective, symbolic, and contextual variables into an overarching framework and suggests a future research agenda to address current theoretical and methodological deficiencies. The study offers a robust foundation for influencer marketing scholarship that is both contextually adaptable and psychologically grounded.

Purpose: This research explores the effectiveness of luxury brand avatar marketing in virtual gaming environments, examining how social presence and avatar anthropomorphism influence consumer engagement. It investigates whether the symbolic appeal of luxury brands translates into virtual settings and enhances brand engagement under varying contextual conditions. Design/methodology/approach: Three experimental studies were conducted using custom-designed video games to test the effects of luxury versus non-luxury avatar marketing. Study 1 examines the interaction between brand type and social presence in solo versus multiplayer gaming. Study 2 introduces avatar anthropomorphism as a moderator in low social presence settings. Study 3 replicates these findings with an alternative game design. Findings: Luxury brand avatar marketing significantly enhances consumer engagement in high social presence environments (e.g. multiplayer games). In low social presence settings (e.g. solo games), luxury brands only outperform non-luxury brands when avatars are anthropomorphic, as human-like avatars simulate social interaction. Game immersion mediates this relationship, highlighting the importance of social dynamics and avatar design in virtual luxury branding. Originality/value: This study advances signaling theory by demonstrating that luxury brand effectiveness in gaming environments depends on social presence and avatar anthropomorphism. It challenges assumptions that luxury branding seamlessly translates to digital spaces and contributes to brand gamification literature by emphasizing the role of virtual product design and multiplayer interaction. The findings provide actionable insights for luxury brands and game developers to strategically integrate avatar marketing and enhance brand engagement in virtual worlds.

This study explores how phygital profiling and dynamic personas enhance personalized customer experiences across the evolving customer journey. Drawing on Foursquare data from 27,148 users and over 2 million check-ins across four global cities, we construct digital twins using location-based social network graphs. We compare the effectiveness of phygital versus digital profiling and dynamic versus static personas in two key tasks: point-of-interest (POI) recommendation and social connection mapping. Results show that phygital profiling significantly outperforms digital profiling, and dynamic personas yield more accurate, real-time personalization than static approaches. These findings underscore the value of integrating physical and digital data in capturing the complexity of modern consumer behavior. The study offers theoretical and practical insights for advancing adaptive personalization and customer engagement strategies in increasingly hybrid consumption environments.

When consumers visit a store, they often find themselves interacting with fellow shoppers they do not know. These social exchanges—defined as stranger interactions—can impact consumers' shopping experiences by eliciting positive or negative emotions that can ultimately influence buying behavior. The primary objective of this article is to investigate: (1) What factors lead to stranger interactions in physical retail environments? (2) What are the potential positive and negative outcomes of these interactions? And (3) Why do positive interactions with strangers, in particular, tend to increase consumers' purchase intentions? Study 1 identifies three primary drivers of stranger interactions: store characteristics, the traits of fellow shoppers, and the traits of the focal consumer. Study 1 also highlights both the negative and positive outcomes of these interactions. Negative outcomes include upward social comparisons, competitive behaviors, unsolicited advice, and crowding—each of which may lead consumers to leave the store without making a purchase. However, Studies 1, 2a, 2b, and 2c show that when consumers enjoy the company of strangers, they are more likely to engage in social exchanges, including receiving purchase‐related advice. This advice induces feelings of reassurance about their buying decisions, eventually increasing the likelihood of making a purchase. The practical implication of these findings is that, by creating environments that foster stranger interactions, managers can improve front‐end store operations and enhance consumers' overall social experience.