Search Results (11)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping customer service, with AI-powered chatbots serving as a critical component in delivering continuous support across sales, marketing, and service domains, thereby enhancing operational efficiency. However, consumer engagement remains suboptimal, as many users favor human interaction due to concerns regarding chatbots’ ability to address complex issues and their perceived lack of empathy, which subsequently reduces satisfaction and sustainable usage. This study examines the determinants of user attitude and identifies factors influencing sustainable chatbot use. Utilizing survey data from 735 Chinese university students who have engaged with AI-powered chatbots, the analysis reveals that four key motivational categories: utilitarian (information acquisition), hedonic (enjoyment and time passing), technology (media appeal), and social (social presence and interaction) significantly influence user attitude toward chatbot services. Conversely, privacy invasion exerts a negative impact on user attitude, suggesting that while chatbots provide certain benefits, privacy issues can significantly undermine user satisfaction. Moreover, the findings suggest that user attitude serves as a pivotal determinant in fostering both user stickiness and sustainable usage of chatbot services. This study advances prior U&G-, TAM-, and ECM-based research by applying these frameworks to AI-powered chatbots in business communication, refining the U&G model with four specific motivations, integrating perceived privacy invasion to bridge gratification theory with risk perception, and directly linking user motivations to business outcomes such as attitude and stickiness. This study underscores that optimizing chatbot functionalities to enhance user gratification while mitigating privacy risks can substantially improve user satisfaction and stickiness, offering valuable implications for businesses aiming to enhance customer loyalty through AI-powered services. Full article

The impact of social media use on student academic achievement is complex and varies across studies, likely due to diverse usage motives and mediating factors. This study investigates the mediating role of daily time usage on the relationship between social media use motives and GPA among 301 Vietnamese university students, guided by the uses and gratifications theory. Following a rigorous validation process, we confirmed the applicability of the Social Networking Usage questionnaire within the Vietnamese context. Our findings revealed a complex relationship between social networking motives and GPA. While entertainment motives demonstrated a directly positive influence on GPA, information-seeking motives showed no significant relationship, either directly or indirectly. Critically, our results suggest that daily time spent on social networking acts as a key mediator in the interplay between academic and socialization motives and GPA. Specifically, we observed opposing effects: while academic motives indirectly benefitted GPA, socialization motives negatively impacted GPA. However, these opposing effects were channeled through daily time usage, suggesting that increasing time spent on social networking, regardless of the initial motive, ultimately detracts from academic performance. Our findings suggest that students need to be mindful of how their SNS usage motives influence their time allocation and, consequently, their academic performance. Universities may employ time management training and encourage academic uses of SNSs while advising students to limit non-academic SNS use, particularly during study periods, to minimize distractions and maximize learning time. Full article

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, AI educators have become a reality. The advancement and increasing applications of AI technology in higher education not only provide more efficient tools for teachers in long-term and focused teaching, but also provide new active and independent spaces for sustainable self-motivated learning for college students. It is of great importance that the effects of AI educator design are understood to ensure the sustainable development and deployment of AI-driven courses at universities. This paper investigates the influences of AI educators’ autonomy design on students’ usage intentions by delving into how the artificial autonomy of AI educators satisfies students’ needs. Drawing on the uses and gratification (U&G) framework, we theoretically elaborate on how AI educator autonomy (i.e., sensing autonomy, thought autonomy, and action autonomy) influences students’ intentions to use an AI educator through the mediating effects of U&G benefits (i.e., information-seeking gratification, social interaction gratification, and entertainment gratification). By conducting an online survey (N = 673) on college students, we found that the sensing autonomy of AI educators is positively associated with usage intention due to the mediating effects of social interaction and entertainment gratifications; the thought autonomy of AI educators is positively related to usage intention, mediated by information-seeking and social interaction gratifications, and the action autonomy of AI educators is positively linked with usage intention through the paths of information-seeking and entertainment gratifications. Our findings provide both theoretical contributions and practical implications. Full article

Despite being recognized as a global entertainment phenomenon, the nature of esports has been a subject of ongoing debate due to its content attributes and the controversial impact it has on individuals’ physical and mental well-being. We contend that the fundamental source of contention lies within the inherent content attributes of esports. Drawing on uses and gratification theory (UG) and cognitive appraisal theory, the purpose of the current study was to explore how esports content attributes and viewers’ individual characteristics (esports involvement) influence the viewer’s experience (flow experience) and well-being (happiness and vitality). The results of a latent moderated structural equations (LMS) modeling analysis using a total of 539 viewers revealed that entertainment, reliability, and diversity significantly influenced flow experience, which in turn influenced viewers’ happiness and vitality. Esports involvement was found to have moderating effects on the relationship between reliability and usefulness attributes and flow experience. The findings of this research provide important contributions to the literature and have implications for sport marketing managers. Full article

After the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional online shopping with pictures and videos has been transformed into livestreaming shopping. Various apps for livestreaming shopping have gained popularity, and TikTok livestreaming (TTL) accounts for more than half of livestreaming shopping in China. Therefore, consumers’ ability to continue shopping is the core factor for the sustainable development of TTL. The purpose of this study was to explore what kinds of gratifications affect the continuous purchase intentions of TTL consumers and to examine the moderating effect of education level. We collected data from 234 TTL consumers in China and then used a structural equation model to analyze, while SPSS23.0 and AMOS24.0 were applied to evaluate and empirically test the research hypotheses. This study confirmed the significant impact of four kinds of satisfaction on consumers’ continuous shopping intentions and also confirmed the differences among consumers with different levels of education. This provides theoretical support for the sustainable development of e-commerce in the future and the maximization of income from live shopping. Full article

This study applies and builds on the Use and Gratification (U&G) theory to explore consumer acceptance of applied artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of Chatbots in online shopping in China. Data were gathered via an anonymous online survey from 540 respondents who self-identified as frequent online shoppers and are familiar with Chatbots. The results of the data analysis provide empirical evidence indicating that utilitarian factors such as the “authenticity of conversation” and “convenience”, as well as hedonic factors such as “perceived enjoyment”, result in users having a positive attitude towards Chatbots. However, privacy issues and the immaturity of technology have had a negative impact on acceptance. This paper provides both theoretical and practical insights into Chinese attitudes toward Chatbots and may be of interest to e-commerce researchers, practitioners, and U&G theorists. Full article

This study employed the Uses and Gratifications Theory to explore the motivations for utilizing a smartphone during trips and satisfactions with travel experience. This study adopted multilevel SEM to explore how U&G motivations affect e-tourist satisfaction when attitude toward smartphone use by tourists serves as a mediator. To this end, data collected from tourists travelling in the US were analyzed using a multilevel approach. The findings are: (1) U&G motivations (social interaction, entertainment, information, and convenience) are determined, (2) valid and reliable scales for all constructs are developed, (3) U&G motivations have a significant effect on tourists’ attitude toward smartphone use, which, in turn, significantly affects e-tourist satisfaction (hedonic, utilitarian, and overall) at the individual level. The results from this study provide practical and theoretical implications for e-tourism communication and tourism marketing. Full article

This study introduces and applies the uses and gratifications theory to travel and tourism, resulting in a classification of U & G motivations (extant items) for this field. Uses and gratifications motivations are important for understanding e-tourist satisfaction. However, a measurement model for examining them has not been developed in the field of travel and tourism. To address this gap, this study develops valid and reliable scales for uses and gratifications motivations for smartphone use by tourists. Multilevel linear modeling (MLM) was used to avoid biases caused by common traits and features within a tourist group and to measure group effects. The scales conceptualized motivations for smartphone use by travelers, i.e., the U & G motivations, as a four-dimensional construct: social interaction, information, entertainment, and convenience. All scales demonstrate the appropriate psychometric properties for evaluating U & G motivations. The scales developed here can serve as an effective tool for future empirical research to better understand the motivations for smartphone use by travelers and to identify the relationships among U & G motivations, attitude, and e-tourist satisfactions in travel and tourism. Full article

Although WeChat has become increasingly popular among Chinese elderly people as a tool to engage with health information, little research has examined their motivations for health purposes and their engagement with health information on the site. By applying the two-stage Use and gratification (U&G) approach, we first conducted in-depth interviews (n = 20) to explore older adults’ distinctive motives. Based on the 22 motives found in the qualitative research, we developed a questionnaire for an online survey (n = 690) to further investigate how these motives affect older adults’ engagement with health information on WeChat. As the result, six motive typologies were identified: information needs, social support, surveillance, social interaction, self-agency building, and technological convenience. Together, these six types of motivations jointly account for 59.9% of the variance in older adults’ engagement with health information (M = 2.71, SD = 0.79, adjusted R² = 0.59, p < 0.001). Social support and information needs were significant predictors, suggesting that the older WeChat users’ active engagement is driven by personal instrumental gratification. This study examines the explanation power of U&G theory in a health context, as well as provides the practical implication for leveraging mobile social media to improve older people’s healthcare management. Full article

WeChat Official Accounts (WOAs)—a feature of WeChat—are thriving. However, studies on travel-related WOAs remain scarce and lack depth. This study aimed to identify the factors that influence usage intentions and travel intentions in regard to travel-related WOAs. Based on the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory, this study developed a theoretical model and examined the model through a web-based questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed through the online survey tool Sojump. After analyzing the obtained data via structural equation modeling, the results revealed that: (1) social, entertainment, and information motivations are the primary factors influencing usage intentions; (2) information and entertainment motivations are important factors influencing travel intentions; and (3) usage intentions positively affect travel intentions and play a mediating role. The findings carry theoretical and practical significance regarding how travel-related WOAs can improve users’ usage and travel intentions, as well as value for the actual management and marketing of WOAs. Full article

Numerous firms operate online brand communities (OBCs) in order to build a close consumer–brand relationship. To succeed in realizing this aim, firms must first sustain members’ brand community engagement. While prior studies have examined a series of drivers of brand community engagement, most of them focused on psychological and social motivations. Limited information is available about the role of product, brand and consumer characteristics in driving brand community engagement. Building on the uses and gratifications (UG) theory, the authors investigate the moderation of product complexity, brand symbolism, and extraversion in the relationship between brand community gratification and brand community engagement. With the collaboration of an online shopping site, 462 validated survey responses were collected to test our hypotheses. The results indicate that product complexity positively moderates the impact of information value on brand community engagement and brand symbolism positively moderates the effect of social value on brand community engagement. Finally, the results show that extraversion positively interacts with social value in enhancing brand community engagement. This study advances the understanding of brand community engagement. Full article