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Author(s): Barry J. Babin [sup.1] , Nina Krey [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.251313.7, 0000 0001 2169 2489, University of Mississippi, , 38655, University, MS, USA (2) grid.262671.6, 0000 0000 8828 [...]

This research examines customer engagement in social media (CESM) using a meta-analytic model of 814 effect sizes across 97 studies involving 161,059 respondents. Findings reveal that customer engagement is driven by satisfaction, positive emotions, and trust, but not by commitment. Satisfaction is a stronger predictor of customer engagement in high (vs. low) convenience, B2B (vs. B2C), and Twitter (vs. Facebook and Blogs). Twitter appears twice as likely as other social media platforms to improve customer engagement via satisfaction and positive emotions. Customer engagement is also found to have substantial value for companies, directly impacting firm performance, behavioral intention, and word-of-mouth. Moreover, hedonic consumption yields nearly three times stronger customer engagement to firm performance effects vis-à-vis utilitarian consumption. However, contrary to conventional managerial wisdom, word-of-mouth does not improve firm performance nor does it mediate customer engagement effects on firm performance. Contributions to customer engagement theory, including an embellishment of the customer engagement mechanics definition, and practical implications for managers are discussed., Author(s): Fernando de Oliveira Santini [sup.1] , Wagner Junior Ladeira [sup.1] , Diego Costa Pinto [sup.2] , Márcia Maurer Herter [sup.3] , Claudio Hoffmann Sampaio [sup.4] , Barry J. Babin [...]

Artificial intelligence enables modern robots to serve as service and sales assistants. Today's robotic shopping assistants (RSAs) can appear either humanoid or non‐humanoid and possess utilitarian and/or hedonic attributes. However, many questions remain unexplored regarding an effective customer‐centric RSA design. Do customers prefer a humanoid or non‐humanoid RSA with hedonic or utilitarian attributes? To answer those questions, the research deploys a mixed‐method approach involving a survey of customers who have interacted with the Pepper Robot, a humanoid robot (Study 1), and follow‐up experiments examining customer responses to a humanoid/non‐humanoid RSA with hedonic/utilitarian attributes (Studies 2 and 3). The research employs an innovative approach that analyzes both unstructured and structured data simultaneously. Study results suggest that customers prefer humanoid RSAs with utilitarian attributes over those with hedonic attributes. The research contributes to the literature by proposing hedonic (vs. utilitarian) attributes of RSAs as new drivers of anthropomorphic perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]