IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v183y2024ics0148296324003059.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘Smart’ Choice? Evaluating AI-Based mobile decision bots for in-store decision-making

Author

Listed:
  • Chattaraman, Veena
  • Kwon, Wi-Suk
  • Ross, Kassandra
  • Sung, Jihyun
  • Alikhademi, Kiana
  • Richardson, Brianna
  • Gilbert, Juan E.

Abstract

To address a research gap on how AI can be leveraged to enhance customers’ in-store journeys, this study evaluates the effectiveness of an AI-powered conversational decision bot (mobile messaging app) employing two laboratory experiments in a simulated store. Study 1 revealed that consumers found in-store shopping to be more enjoyable and effortful with a decision bot than without, demonstrating that these bots reinforce consumers’ in-store hedonic and utilitarian experiences. Study 2 evaluated the effectiveness of two types of decision bots (attribute- vs. alternative-based), revealing that consumers’ perceived usefulness and reuse/recommend intentions for the bot were higher when using an attribute- as compared to an alternative-based bot. When shopping in-store, consumers benefit from a decision bot that retrieves attribute-level information for the product category rather than one that focuses on single product alternatives. This study makes important theoretical contributions to constructive decision theory, the Elaboration Likelihood Model, and language-based adaptive intelligence.

Suggested Citation

  • Chattaraman, Veena & Kwon, Wi-Suk & Ross, Kassandra & Sung, Jihyun & Alikhademi, Kiana & Richardson, Brianna & Gilbert, Juan E., 2024. "‘Smart’ Choice? Evaluating AI-Based mobile decision bots for in-store decision-making," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:183:y:2024:i:c:s0148296324003059
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114801
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296324003059
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114801?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jarrahi, Mohammad Hossein, 2018. "Artificial intelligence and the future of work: Human-AI symbiosis in organizational decision making," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 577-586.
    2. Tilmann Betsch & Anne Lehmann & Marc Jekel & Stefanie Lindow & Andreas Glöckner, 2018. "Children’s application of decision strategies in a compensatory environment," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 13(6), pages 514-528, November.
    3. Babin, Barry J & Darden, William R & Griffin, Mitch, 1994. "Work and/or Fun: Measuring Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Value," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(4), pages 644-656, March.
    4. Kasilingam, Dharun Lingam, 2020. "Understanding the attitude and intention to use smartphone chatbots for shopping," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Zhao, Zhenzhen & Balagué, Christine, 2015. "Designing branded mobile apps: Fundamentals and recommendations," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 305-315.
    6. Bellman, Steven & Potter, Robert F. & Treleaven-Hassard, Shiree & Robinson, Jennifer A. & Varan, Duane, 2011. "The Effectiveness of Branded Mobile Phone Apps," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 191-200.
    7. Peter Todd & Izak Benbasat, 1999. "Evaluating the Impact of DSS, Cognitive Effort, and Incentives on Strategy Selection," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 356-374, December.
    8. McLean, Graeme & Osei-Frimpong, Kofi & Barhorst, Jennifer, 2021. "Alexa, do voice assistants influence consumer brand engagement? – Examining the role of AI powered voice assistants in influencing consumer brand engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 312-328.
    9. Jochen Wirtz & Valarie Zeithaml, 2018. "Cost-effective service excellence," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 59-80, January.
    10. Rese, Alexandra & Ganster, Lena & Baier, Daniel, 2020. "Chatbots in retailers’ customer communication: How to measure their acceptance?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    11. Mariani, Marcello M. & Hashemi, Novin & Wirtz, Jochen, 2023. "Artificial intelligence empowered conversational agents: A systematic literature review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    12. Chen, Lei-Da & Tan, Justin, 2004. "Technology Adaptation in E-commerce:: Key Determinants of Virtual Stores Acceptance," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 74-86, February.
    13. Levin, Irwin P. & Huneke, Mary E. & Jasper, J. D., 2000. "Information Processing at Successive Stages of Decision Making: Need for Cognition and Inclusion-Exclusion Effects," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 171-193, July.
    14. Moore, Simon & Bulmer, Sandy & Elms, Jonathan, 2022. "The social significance of AI in retail on customer experience and shopping practices," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Fernandes, Teresa & Oliveira, Elisabete, 2021. "Understanding consumers’ acceptance of automated technologies in service encounters: Drivers of digital voice assistants adoption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 180-191.
    16. Tran, Anh D. & Pallant, Jason I. & Johnson, Lester W., 2021. "Exploring the impact of chatbots on consumer sentiment and expectations in retail," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    17. Zhenzhen Zhao & Christine Balagué, 2015. "Designing branded mobile apps : fundamentals and recommendations," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-01273668, HAL.
    18. Chuan-Hoo Tan & Hock-Hai Teo & Izak Benbasat, 2010. "Assessing Screening and Evaluation Decision Support Systems: A Resource-Matching Approach," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 305-326, June.
    19. Holdack, Eric & Lurie-Stoyanov, Katja & Fromme, Harro Fabian, 2022. "The role of perceived enjoyment and perceived informativeness in assessing the acceptance of AR wearables," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Zhu, Yimin & Zhang, Jiemin & Wu, Jifei & Liu, Yingyue, 2022. "AI is better when I'm sure: The influence of certainty of needs on consumers' acceptance of AI chatbots," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 642-652.
    21. Eric J. Johnson & John W. Payne, 1985. "Effort and Accuracy in Choice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 395-414, April.
    22. repec:cup:judgdm:v:13:y:2018:i:6:p:514-528 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Bettman, James R & Luce, Mary Frances & Payne, John W, 1998. "Constructive Consumer Choice Processes," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 25(3), pages 187-217, December.
    24. Weiquan Wang & Izak Benbasat, 2013. "Research Note —A Contingency Approach to Investigating the Effects of User-System Interaction Modes of Online Decision Aids," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 861-876, September.
    25. Leung, Chi Hong & Yan Chan, Winslet Ting, 2020. "Retail chatbots: The challenges and opportunities of conversational commerce," Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 8(1), pages 68-84, June.
    26. Pantano, Eleonora & Naccarato, Giuseppe, 2010. "Entertainment in retailing: The influences of advanced technologies," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 200-204.
    27. Peter Stüttgen & Peter Boatwright & Robert T. Monroe, 2012. "A Satisficing Choice Model," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(6), pages 878-899, November.
    28. Ketron, Seth & Spears, Nancy & Dai, Bo, 2016. "Overcoming information overload in retail environments: Imagination and sales promotion in a wine context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 23-32.
    29. Gerald Häubl & Valerie Trifts, 2000. "Consumer Decision Making in Online Shopping Environments: The Effects of Interactive Decision Aids," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 4-21, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Habib, Muhammad Danish & Attri, Rekha & Salam, Mohammad Asif & Yaqub, Muhammad Zafar, 2025. "Retail consumers' conundrum: An in-depth qualitative study navigating the motivations and aversion of chatbots," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Mariani, Marcello M. & Hashemi, Novin & Wirtz, Jochen, 2023. "Artificial intelligence empowered conversational agents: A systematic literature review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    3. Rohit, Kumar & Shankar, Amit & Katiyar, Gagan & Mehrotra, Ankit & Alzeiby, Ebtesam Abdullah, 2024. "Consumer engagement in chatbots and voicebots. A multiple-experiment approach in online retailing context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Jan, Ihsan Ullah & Ji, Seonggoo & Kim, Changju, 2023. "What (de) motivates customers to use AI-powered conversational agents for shopping? The extended behavioral reasoning perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Arce-Urriza, Marta & Chocarro, Raquel & Cortiñas, Mónica & Marcos-Matás, Gustavo, 2025. "From familiarity to acceptance: The impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on consumer adoption of retail chatbots," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Hsu, Sheila Hsuan-Yu & Tsou, Hung-Tai & Chen, Ja-Shen, 2021. "“Yes, we do. Why not use augmented reality?†customer responses to experiential presentations of AR-based applications," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. van Heerde, Harald J. & Dinner, Isaac M. & Neslin, Scott A., 2019. "Engaging the unengaged customer: The value of a retailer mobile app," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 420-438.
    8. Kamoonpuri, Sana Zehra & Sengar, Anita, 2023. "Hi, May AI help you? An analysis of the barriers impeding the implementation and use of artificial intelligence-enabled virtual assistants in retail," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    9. Aslan, Marjan & Keating, Byron W., 2025. "Providing social support in technology-based service encounters: Activating intrinsic motivations to create better outcomes," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Lurie, Nicholas H. & Wen, Na, 2014. "Simple Decision Aids and Consumer Decision Making," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(4), pages 511-523.
    11. Mari, Alex & Mandelli, Andreina & Algesheimer, René, 2024. "Empathic voice assistants: Enhancing consumer responses in voice commerce," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    12. Daria Plotkina & Landisoa Rabeson, 2022. "The role of transactionality of mobile branded apps in brand experience and its impact on loyalty," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(5), pages 470-483, September.
    13. Lara Stocchi & Naser Pourazad & Nina Michaelidou & Arry Tanusondjaja & Paul Harrigan, 2022. "Marketing research on Mobile apps: past, present and future," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 195-225, March.
    14. Chuan-Hoo Tan & Hock-Hai Teo & Izak Benbasat, 2010. "Assessing Screening and Evaluation Decision Support Systems: A Resource-Matching Approach," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 305-326, June.
    15. Sylwia Sobolewska, 2017. "Mobile Applications in the Process of Information Flow between Companies and Customers," Collegium of Economic Analysis Annals, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis, issue 44, pages 99-110.
    16. Maroufkhani, Parisa & Asadi, Shahla & Ghobakhloo, Morteza & Jannesari, Milad T. & Ismail, Wan Khairuzaman Wan, 2022. "How do interactive voice assistants build brands' loyalty?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    17. Alan L. Montgomery & Kartik Hosanagar & Ramayya Krishnan & Karen B. Clay, 2004. "Designing a Better Shopbot," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 189-206, February.
    18. Janarthanan Balakrishnan & Yogesh K. Dwivedi, 2024. "Conversational commerce: entering the next stage of AI-powered digital assistants," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 333(2), pages 653-687, February.
    19. Luis Matosas-López, 2025. "The influence of brand credibility and brand loyalty on customer satisfaction and continued use intention in new voice assistance services based on AI," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 180-201, March.
    20. Mondal, Jalaluddin & Chakrabarti, Somnath, 2021. "The abandonment behaviour of the branded app consumer: A study using interpretive structural modelling approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:183:y:2024:i:c:s0148296324003059. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.