Should a luxury Brand's Chatbot use emoticons? Impact on brand status

Luxury brands are increasingly adopting chatbots for online customer service. But, little is known about the role of adding design features such as emoticons on customers' luxury experience. This study fills this research gap by exploring the influence of a luxury brand chatbot's adoption of emoticons on status perception and its underlying mechanisms. Results from two experiments suggest that luxury brands might be better off not using emoticons in chatbot communications because it dampens the brand status perception due to perceived unexpectedness, which in turn decreases the perception of the appropriateness of the interaction with chatbots. However, this negative effect of luxury brand's use of emoticons in chatbot communication only exists for traditional luxury brands, not for masstige brands. This study advances the literature on AI, particularly regarding luxury brand-specific chatbot applications. It also offers insights for luxury brand managers that they should be cautious in adopting emoticons in chatbot communication given the risk of ruining the brand status, especially when the brand is a traditional luxury brand as opposed to a masstige brand.     

How do friendship artificial intelligence chatbots (FAIC) benefit the continuance using intention and customer engagement?

Although there have been many AI chatbots in industry service, social media, and e-commerce platforms, research on AI chatbots such as Replika, neglected the effects of human-like traits on users' continuance using intention. This article aims to explore the main effects of human-like traits (perceived warmth vs. perceived competence) of friendship AI chatbots (FAIC) on continuance using intention and customer engagement, and the moderating effects of the need to belong and information sensitivity. Three studies are conducted to collect data (N_total = 1420). Our findings of Study 1 demonstrate that perceived warmth and perceived competence can increase the continuance using intention to FAIC and customer engagement, and perceived usefulness plays a mediating role in our conceptual model. Additionally, consumers' need to belong (high vs. low) (Study 2) and information sensitivity (high vs. low) (Study 3) related to chat contents moderate the main effects significantly. This article contributes to the literature on the relationship between FAIC and consumers by presenting the influence of perceived warmth and perceived competence and establishing the underlying process. Analogously, the findings can be beneficial for marketers and firms in designing and developing the coding program of FAIC to promote consumers' continuance using intention and customer engagement.     

多级语义量词对心理测量适合度的调查分析

为研究适合心理测量使用的语义量词等级数目而进行了本实验。实验采用自编《词义理解简明量表》,通过180名士兵对多级语义量词的区间赋值和点赋值,对不同等级语义量词模糊度进行了比较性研究。结果发现：(1)区间赋值范围与点赋值95％、99％可信区间无显著差异;(2)语义量词内序列蓑系与自然语言的序列关系基本一致,但词与词赋值区间并不完全等距;(3)三级与六级、七级语义量词的模糊度差异显著,六、七级语义量词模糊度高,在一定程度上不适合用于士兵心理测量。     

中小学生及其教师、家长的"可交流集体责任"观的研究

以小学5年级和初中3年级的71名学生、他们的78名家长和71名教师为对象,以“声誉损害”、“财物损坏”、“人身伤害”三类内容为故事刺激材料。设置“不知道犯过者”、“不揭发犯过者”两种背景,从公正判断和理解判断两方面比较考察了他们的可交流集体责任观。结果表明,在可交流集体责任的公正判断上教师明显较少;在可交流集体责任的理解判断上教师和学生更为能够理解接受;两种背景和三类内容对可交流集体责任观会有一定的影响。