Public Defence of Justina Šidlauskienė Doctoral Dissertation

“THE ROLE OF ANTHROPOMORPHIC CUES ON CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS AND BEHAVIOR IN CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE”

Date: 11 a.m. on the 18th of May 2023

Location: ISM University of Management and Economics, room 102. Gediminas av. 7, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Supervisors:

Prof. Dr. Viltė Auruškevičienė (ISM University of Management and Economics, Social Sciences, Management, S 003);
Prof. Dr. Yannick Joye (ISM University of Management and Economics, Social Sciences, Management, S 003).

About Doctoral Dissertation:

Conversational commerce is an emerging trend in retail, characterized by the increasing use of conversational agents in e-commerce transactions. As these agents gradually replace human interactions and exhibit unique features, it is crucial to investigate the anthropomorphic cues utilized by conversational agents and how and under which conditions these cues impact consumer shopping attitudes, interaction perceptions, and behaviour in conversational commerce settings. This dissertation investigates drivers for intelligent agent adoption from the consumer perspective and anthropomorphic cues used in conversational agents. The empirical research employs online experiments and computerized text analysis of the chat scenarios and uses AI-based conversational agents as stimulus material. The first part of the empirical research explores conversational agent characteristics such as conversational agent responsiveness and the utilization of computer-mediated cues. The research findings demonstrate that incorporating specific verbal cues used in human interactions enhances the perceived responsiveness of conversational agents. Moreover, conversational agents that exhibit responsive behaviour and use CMC cues significantly impact users' perceptions of social presence, hedonic value, satisfaction, and emotional connection while encouraging greater personal information disclosure. The second part of the empirical research investigates anthropomorphic verbal cues. The research findings indicate that conversational agent anthropomorphism has a causal impact on perceived product personalization and price, especially for individuals experiencing situational loneliness. This dissertation contributes to the anthropomorphism in conversational agents and consumer behaviour research. Additionally, it illuminates the role of situational loneliness as a moderating factor in consumer decision-making processes.

Defense board members

Chairperson:

Prof. Dr. Ilona Bučiūnienė (ISM University of Management and Economics, Social Sciences, Management – S 003)

Members:

Prof. Dr. Jannis Angelis (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, Social Sciences, Management – S 003)
Prof. dr. James Reardon (University of Northern Colorado, USA, Social Sciences, Management – S 003)
Prof. dr. Žaneta Gravelines (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Management – S 003)
Prof.dr. Vida Škudienė (ISM University of Management and Economics, Social Sciences, Management – S 003)

Annotation

The dissertation is available at the Martynas Mažvydas National library and the Library of ISM University of Management and Economics.