IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v78y2024ics0969698924000110.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From human to virtual: Unmasking consumer switching intentions to virtual influencers by an integrated fsQCA and NCA method

Author

Listed:
  • Shao, Zhucheng

Abstract

The growing prominence of Human-Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence has propelled the popularity of virtual influencers in social media. Nevertheless, the widespread adoption of the trend hinges on a thorough comprehension of consumers' switching intention from traditional human influencers to virtual influencers as viable alternatives. Given that past studies have primarily concentrated on assessing the overall impact of determinants without delving into the intricacies of behaviours, this study endeavours to develop and substantiate an asymmetric framework incorporating AI technology-like (here, hedonic motivation, expected performance and privacy disclosure concern), human-like (here, anthropomorphism and perceived intelligence), social attributes (here, social influence) and consumer personalities (here, extroversion, introversion and open-mindedness) shedding light on consumers' switching intention to virtual influencers. An online questionnaire was conducted in the United Kingdom and was analysed using an integrated approach that combines fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and Necessary Conditions Analysis. The results unveiled six configurations of arrangements, each characterised by a unique combination of causation. This study contributes value to virtual influencers and endorsement literature by developing an innovative research method for uncovering the intricacies associated with the switching intention. Furthermore, it provides practical recommendations for social media practitioners on how to optimise the balance between AI technology-like, human-like and social attributes based on consumer personalities, thus enhancing the successful implementation of virtual influencers.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:78:y:2024:i:c:s0969698924000110
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103715
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698924000110
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103715?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. 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).
    2. Hew, Jun-Jie & Lee, Voon-Hsien & Leong, Lai-Ying, 2023. "Why do mobile consumers resist mobile commerce applications? A hybrid fsQCA-ANN analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Li, Huajun & Lei, Yueqiu & Zhou, Qi & Yuan, Hong, 2023. "Can you sense without being human? Comparing virtual and human influencers endorsement effectiveness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. Sukhov, Alexandre & Friman, Margareta & Olsson, Lars E., 2023. "Unlocking potential: An integrated approach using PLS-SEM, NCA, and fsQCA for informed decision making," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Chang, Yu-Ting & Yu, Hueiju & Lu, Hsi-Peng, 2015. "Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and message diffusion in social media marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 777-782.
    6. Pappas, Ilias O. & Papavlasopoulou, Sofia & Mikalef, Patrick & Giannakos, Michail N., 2020. "Identifying the combinations of motivations and emotions for creating satisfied users in SNSs: An fsQCA approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    7. Woodside, Arch G., 2014. "Embrace•perform•model: Complexity theory, contrarian case analysis, and multiple realities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2495-2503.
    8. Loh, Xiu-Ming & Lee, Voon-Hsien & Leong, Lai-Ying & Aw, Eugene Cheng-Xi & Cham, Tat-Huei & Tang, Yun-Chia & Hew, Jun-Jie, 2023. "Understanding consumers’ resistance to pay with cryptocurrency in the sharing economy: A hybrid SEM-fsQCA approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    9. Yinan Yu & Liangfei Qiu & Hailiang Chen & Benjamin Yen, 2023. "Movie fit uncertainty and interplay between traditional advertising and social media marketing," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 429-448, September.
    10. Wu, Daoyou & Guo, Kun & He, Qiuyan & Zhang, Ju, 2023. "The impact of live streamers' improvisational responses to unexpected events on their entrepreneurial performance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. Gao, Wei & Jiang, Ning & Guo, Qingqing, 2023. "How do virtual streamers affect purchase intention in the live streaming context? A presence perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    12. Jabeen, Fauzia & Kaur, Puneet & Talwar, Shalini & Malodia, Suresh & Dhir, Amandeep, 2022. "I love you, but you let me down! How hate and retaliation damage customer-brand relationship," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    13. Pappas, Ilias O. & Woodside, Arch G., 2021. "Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA): Guidelines for research practice in Information Systems and marketing," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    14. Kevin Lane Keller, 2023. "Looking forward, looking back: developing a narrative of the past, present and future of a brand," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 30(1), pages 1-8, January.
    15. Sham, Rohana & Chong, Han Xi & Cheng-Xi Aw, Eugene & Bibi Tkm Thangal, Thahira & Abdamia, Noranita binti, 2023. "Switching up the delivery game: Understanding switching intention to retail drone delivery services," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    16. Gutierrez, Anabel & Punjaisri, Khanyapuss & Desai, Bhavini & Syed Alwi, Sharifah Faridah & O'Leary, Simon & Chaiyasoonthorn, Wornchanok & Chaveesuk, Singha, 2023. "Retailers, don't ignore me on social media! The importance of consumer-brand interactions in raising purchase intention - Privacy the Achilles heel," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    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. Bigerna, Simona & D'Errico, Maria Chiara & Polinori, Paolo, 2022. "Understanding the green-growth: which pathways cities undertake in their climate programs," MPRA Paper 114156, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Abbasi, Ghazanfar Ali & Sandran, Thiviya & Ganesan, Yuvaraj & Iranmanesh, Mohammad, 2022. "Go cashless! Determinants of continuance intention to use E-wallet apps: A hybrid approach using PLS-SEM and fsQCA," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. López-Cabarcos, M. Ángeles & Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & Quiñoá-Piñeiro, Lara & López-Pérez, M. Luisa, 2024. "Water and waste management strategies as drivers of the financial performance of food companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Emily Bacon & Michael D. Williams & Gareth H. Davies, 2023. "On the Combinatory Nature of Knowledge Transfer Conditions: A Mixed Method Assessment," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 1039-1061, June.
    5. Kyrdoda, Yuliia & Balzano, Marco & Marzi, Giacomo, 2023. "Learn to survive crises: The role of firm resilience, innovation capabilities and environmental dynamism," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Song, Shijie & Yao, Xinlin & Zhao, Yuxiang Chris & Ba, Zhichao, 2024. "Get inspired and pay for the goods: An investigation of customer inspiration and purchase intention in livestream shopping," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Navarro-García, Antonio & Ledesma-Chaves, Pablo & Gil-Cordero, Eloy & De-Juan-Vigaray, María Dolores, 2024. "Intangible resources, static and dynamic capabilities and perceived competitive advantage in exporting firms. A PLS-SEM/fsQCA approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    8. Yanan Li & Sid Terason, 2023. "Configuring the Pattern of Sustainable Tourism Development as Affected by the Construction of a High-Speed Railway System," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    9. Hanne Knight & Mohamed Yacine Haddoud & Phil Megicks, 2022. "Determinants of corporate sustainability message sharing on social media: A configuration approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 633-647, February.
    10. Jang, Hyunmi & Haddoud, Mohamed Yacine & Roh, Saeyeon & Onjewu, Adah-Kole Emmanuel & Choi, Taeeun, 2023. "Implementing smart factory: A fuzzy-set analysis to uncover successful paths," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    11. Mohammad Alamgir Hossain & Md. Maruf Hossan Chowdhury & Ilias O. Pappas & Bhimaraya Metri & Laurie Hughes & Yogesh K. Dwivedi, 2023. "Fake news on Facebook and their impact on supply chain disruption during COVID-19," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 327(2), pages 683-711, August.
    12. Krishen, Anjala S. & Berezan, Orie & Agarwal, Shaurya & Kachen, Sheen, 2023. "Affective commitment recipes for wine clubs: Value goes beyond the vine," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    13. Vasist, Pramukh Nanjundaswamy & Krishnan, Satish, 2024. "Powered by innovation, derailed by disinformation: A multi-country analysis of the influence of online political disinformation on nations' innovation performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    14. Gligor, David & Russo, Ivan & Maloni, Michael J., 2022. "Understanding gender differences in logistics innovation: A complexity theory perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    15. Gabay-Mariani, Laetitia & Paillé, Pascal & Valéau, Patrick, 2023. "The long-term persistence among nascent entrepreneurs: An fsQCA analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    16. Yu, Tiffany Hui-Kuang & Huarng, Kun-Huang, 2023. "Configural analysis of GII’s internal structure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    17. Remo-Diez, Nieves & Mendaña-Cuervo, Cristina & Arenas-Parra, Mar, 2023. "Exploring the asymmetric impact of sustainability reporting on financial performance in the utilities sector: A longitudinal comparative analysis," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    18. Laouiti, Rahma & Haddoud, Mohamed Yacine & Nakara, Walid Adam & Onjewu, Adah-Kole Emmanuel, 2022. "A gender-based approach to the influence of personality traits on entrepreneurial intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 819-829.
    19. Dedeoglu, Bekir Bora & Boğan, Erhan & Kucukergin, Kemal Gurkan & Birinci, Muhammet Cenk, 2023. "Are tourists afraid of the unknown? Examining the role of travel constraints and tourist xenophobia with symmetric and asymmetric perspectives," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    20. Chen, Xiayu & Shen, Junya & Wei, Shaobo, 2023. "What reduces product uncertainty in live streaming e-commerce? From a signal consistency perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(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:joreco:v:78:y:2024:i:c:s0969698924000110. 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.