Attractiveness of augmented reality to consumers

ABSTRACT

Augmented reality (AR) may be capable of shaping the competitive advantage of companies by providing various benefits for the consumers. The aim of this article is to assess if AR is attractive to consumers and in which areas it can create the most value. Hence, we have sought to identify the most useful areas of AR applications, as well as factors influencing AR’s attractiveness. Our study finds that consumers regard AR as the most useful in the areas of education, medicine and tourism. Furthermore, we found a gap between the supply and needs of customers in terms of types of AR application offered on the market. We identified advantages and disadvantages of AR applications over their traditional counterparts impacting its adoption. Our research confirms that both hedonic and utilitarian aspects of the user experience are important for AR’s adoption.

KEYWORDS:

• Augmented reality
• competitiveness
• technology adoption
• technology acceptance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Tomasz Grzegorczyk – Assistant Professor in the Department of International Management at Poznan University of Economics and Business. He specialises in consumers’ acceptance of emerging technologies, innovation and intellectual property management.

Rafal Sliwinski – Associate Professor in the Department of International Management at Poznan University of Economics and Business. His main research interest is focused on the issue of strategic management in the context of enterprises’ international competitiveness and also in the context of the new technologies and market trends.

Joanna Kaczmarek – MBA, graduated from Poznan University of Economics, currently employed at Glaxo Smith Kline. Main research interest focused on the issue of Augmented Reality.

ORCID

Rafal Sliwinski http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6650-9764