Chen Yanhong, Li Xiangxia
School of Information Science, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou 510320, China.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2024 Oct 9;14(10):920. doi: 10.3390/bs14100920.
Virtual streamers, as a typical application of AI-enabled digital humans, are increasingly being utilized in live-streaming commerce due to technological advancements and industry innovations. Although virtual streamers present several benefits, there is potential for adverse effects when they do not align with consumer expectations. Drawing upon expectancy violations theory, this study developed a theoretical model to explore whether and how consumers' expectation violations during human-virtual streamer interactions affect consumers' discontinuance behavior. Through an online questionnaire survey of 307 Chinese consumers with prior experience interacting with virtual streamers, this study used a partial least squares structural equation model to analyze the research model. The empirical results indicated that professionalism expectation violation, empathy expectation violation, and responsiveness expectation violation positively influenced consumers' distrust and dissatisfaction, which subsequently led to discontinuance behavior. This study contributes to the literature on live-streaming commerce, human-AI interaction, and expectancy violation theory. Furthermore, the findings offer valuable insights for practitioners in the field of live-streaming commerce by enabling them to formulate preventive or remedial strategies to mitigate potential negative outcomes when implementing virtual streamers.
虚拟主播作为人工智能驱动的数字人的典型应用，由于技术进步和行业创新，在直播电商中越来越多地被使用。尽管虚拟主播有诸多好处，但当它们不符合消费者期望时，就有可能产生不利影响。本研究借鉴期望违背理论，构建了一个理论模型，以探讨在人与虚拟主播互动过程中，消费者的期望违背是否以及如何影响消费者的停止行为。通过对307名有与虚拟主播互动经验的中国消费者进行在线问卷调查，本研究采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型对研究模型进行分析。实证结果表明，专业期望违背、共情期望违背和响应期望违背对消费者的不信任和不满有正向影响，进而导致停止行为。本研究为直播电商、人机交互和期望违背理论的文献做出了贡献。此外，研究结果为直播电商领域的从业者提供了有价值的见解，使他们能够制定预防或补救策略，以减轻在应用虚拟主播时可能产生的负面结果。
