IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v76y2024ics0969698923003119.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Artificial intelligence-generated virtual influencer: Examining the effects of emotional display on user engagement

Author

Listed:
  • Yu, Joanne
  • Dickinger, Astrid
  • So, Kevin Kam Fung
  • Egger, Roman

Abstract

Focusing on the application of artificial intelligence, this study investigates the impact of emotional display on user engagement with computer-generated imagery influencers through the lens of the computers are social actors (CASA) framework. It breaks down emotions into individual muscle movements (i.e., facial action units). By using facial recognition based on 1,028 pictures shared by Lil Miquela, the findings disclose the significance of happiness, sadness, disgust, and surprise in triggering user engagement when promoting diverse products with visually captivating content. The findings highlight the importance of balancing the intensity of muscle movement to streamline the interplay between technology, human behaviour, and digital communication.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu, Joanne & Dickinger, Astrid & So, Kevin Kam Fung & Egger, Roman, 2024. "Artificial intelligence-generated virtual influencer: Examining the effects of emotional display on user engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:76:y:2024:i:c:s0969698923003119
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103560
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698923003119
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103560?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. McShane, Lindsay & Pancer, Ethan & Poole, Maxwell & Deng, Qi, 2021. "Emoji, Playfulness, and Brand Engagement on Twitter," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 96-110.
    2. Labrecque, Lauren I., 2014. "Fostering Consumer–Brand Relationships in Social Media Environments: The Role of Parasocial Interaction," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 134-148.
    3. Shengliang Zhang & Xinfeng Lin & Xiaodong Li & Ai Ren, 2022. "Service robots’ anthropomorphism: dimensions, factors and internal relationships," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(1), pages 277-295, March.
    4. Yu, Joanne & Egger, Roman, 2021. "Color and engagement in touristic Instagram pictures: A machine learning approach," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Deng, Fengyi & Jiang, Xia, 2023. "Effects of human versus virtual human influencers on the appearance anxiety of social media users," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Fine F. Leung & Flora F. Gu & Robert W. Palmatier, 2022. "Online influencer marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 226-251, March.
    7. Rahman, Muhammad Sabbir & Bag, Surajit & Hossain, Md Afnan & Abdel Fattah, Fadi Abdel Muniem & Gani, Mohammad Osman & Rana, Nripendra P., 2023. "The new wave of AI-powered luxury brands online shopping experience: The role of digital multisensory cues and customers’ engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    8. Elodie Gentina & Jan Kratzer, 2020. "An integrative model of the influence of self-esteem on adolescents’ consumer innovativeness: the mediating role of social network position and need for uniqueness," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(10), pages 1110-1132, November.
    9. Zecong Ma & Sergio Palacios, 2021. "Image-mining: exploring the impact of video content on the success of crowdfunding," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(4), pages 265-285, December.
    10. Stefan Stremersch & Jorge Gonzalez & Albert Valenti & Julian Villanueva, 2023. "The value of context-specific studies for marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 50-65, January.
    11. Liubov Skavronskaya & Brent Moyle & Noel Scott & Anna Kralj, 2020. "The psychology of novelty in memorable tourism experiences," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(21), pages 2683-2698, November.
    12. Sands, Sean & Ferraro, Carla & Demsar, Vlad & Chandler, Garreth, 2022. "False idols: Unpacking the opportunities and challenges of falsity in the context of virtual influencers," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 777-788.
    13. Chuah, Stephanie Hui-Wen & Yu, Joanne, 2021. "The future of service: The power of emotion in human-robot interaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    14. Henrique Fátima Boyol Ngan & Chung-En Yu, 2019. "To smile or not to smile – an eye-tracking study on service recovery," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(19), pages 2327-2332, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Markovitch, Dmitri G. & Stough, Rusty A. & Huang, Dongling, 2024. "Consumer reactions to chatbot versus human service: An investigation in the role of outcome valence and perceived empathy," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Yao, Ruiqi & Qi, Guijie & Wu, Zhiqiang & Sun, Hua & Sheng, Dongfang, 2024. "Digital human calls you dear: How do customers respond to virtual streamers’ social-oriented language in e-commerce livestreaming? A stereotyping perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Akhtar, Naeem & Hameed, Zahid & Islam, Tahir & Pant, Manoj Kumar & Sharma, Anshuman & Rather, Raouf Ahmad & Kuzior, Aleksandra, 2024. "Avatars of influence: Understanding how virtual influencers trigger consumer engagement on online booking platforms," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Xie, Jifei & Wu, Haoyu & Liu, Kexi & Cui, Yunce & Zhang, Xiaofei, 2024. "Is virtual streamer useful? Effect of streamer type on consumer brand forgiveness when streamers make inappropriate remarks," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Shao, Zhucheng, 2024. "From human to virtual: Unmasking consumer switching intentions to virtual influencers by an integrated fsQCA and NCA method," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Cheah, Chee Wei & Koay, Kian Yeik & Lim, Weng Marc, 2024. "Social media influencer over-endorsement: Implications from a moderated-mediation analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Yang, Defeng & Zhang, Jiaen & Sun, Yu & Huang, Zan, 2024. "Showing usage behavior or not? The effect of virtual influencers’ product usage behavior on consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    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. Zhou, Qi & Li, Bin & Li, Huajun & Lei, Yueqiu, 2024. "Mere copycat? The effects of human versus human-like virtual influencers on brand endorsement effectiveness: A moderated serial-mediation model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Alboqami, Hassan, 2023. "Trust me, I'm an influencer! - Causal recipes for customer trust in artificial intelligence influencers in the retail industry," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Jiang, Kan & Zheng, Junyuan & Luo, Shaohua, 2024. "Green power of virtual influencer: The role of virtual influencer image, emotional appeal, and product involvement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Liyanaarachchi, Gajendra & Mifsud, Matthieu & Viglia, Giampaolo, 2024. "Virtual influencers and data privacy: Introducing the multi-privacy paradox," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    5. Shamim, Komal & Azam, Muhammad & Islam, Tahir, 2024. "How do social media influencers induce the urge to buy impulsively? Social commerce context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Rosengren, Sara & Campbell, Colin & Rapp Farrell, Justine, 2024. "Tricks of the trade: Understanding and utilizing influencer tactics to improve retailer performance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Dabiran, Ehsan & Farivar, Samira & Wang, Fang & Grant, Gerald, 2024. "Virtually human: anthropomorphism in virtual influencer marketing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Mehrotra, Ankit & Agarwal, Reeti & Khalil, Ashraf & Alzeiby, Ebtesam Abdullah & Agarwal, Vaishali, 2024. "Nitty-gritties of customer experience in metaverse retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Wang, Ping & Li, Kunyang & Du, Qinglong & Wang, Jianqiong, 2024. "Customer experience in AI-enabled products: Scale development and validation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Penttinen, Valeria, 2023. "Hi, I’m taking over this account! Leveraging social media takeovers in fostering consumer-brand relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    11. Allal-Chérif, Oihab & Puertas, Rosa & Carracedo, Patricia, 2024. "Intelligent influencer marketing: how AI-powered virtual influencers outperform human influencers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    12. Maggie Wang, Yazhu & Matook, Sabine & Dennis, Alan R., 2024. "Unintended consequences of humanoid service robots: A case study of public service organizations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    13. Kirillova, Ksenia, 2023. "A review of aesthetics research in tourism:," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    14. S. Venus Jin & Aziz Muqaddam, 2019. "Product placement 2.0: “Do Brands Need Influencers, or Do Influencers Need Brands?”," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(5), pages 522-537, September.
    15. Zhang, Chu-Bing & Zhang, Zhuo-Ping & Chang, Ying & Li, Tian-Ge & Hou, Ru-Jing, 2022. "Effect of WeChat interaction on brand evaluation: A moderated mediation model of para-social interaction and affiliative tendency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    16. Coelho, Pedro Simões & Rita, Paulo & Santos, Zélia Raposo, 2018. "On the relationship between consumer-brand identification, brand community, and brand loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 101-110.
    17. Ki, Chung-Wha (Chloe) & Cuevas, Leslie M. & Chong, Sze Man & Lim, Heejin, 2020. "Influencer marketing: Social media influencers as human brands attaching to followers and yielding positive marketing results by fulfilling needs," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    18. Song, Christina Soyoung & Kim, Youn-Kyung, 2022. "The role of the human-robot interaction in consumers’ acceptance of humanoid retail service robots," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 489-503.
    19. Edwards, Chase J. & Bendickson, Joshua S. & Baker, Brent L. & Solomon, Shelby J., 2020. "Entrepreneurship within the history of marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 259-267.
    20. Gerrath, Maximilian H.E.E. & Usrey, Bryan, 2021. "The impact of influencer motives and commonness perceptions on follower reactions toward incentivized reviews," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 531-548.

    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:joreco:v:76:y:2024:i:c:s0969698923003119. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    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.