Adopting Voice Assistants in Online Shopping: Examining the Role of Social Presence, Performance Risk, and Machine Heuristic

Abstract

Although voice commerce using voice assistants (VA) in shopping is burgeoning, little is known about the effect of the manner of interaction with VAs in shopping. To fill this gap, this study applied the concept of message interactivity by investigating the key factors that influence intention to use VAs embedded in smart speakers for online shopping. Specifically, we analyzed consumers’ responses to the adoption of VAs with the mediating variable, such as social presence and performance risk as well as the moderating variable, machine heuristic using a lab experiment (N = 62). Our results showed that individuals who experienced contingent conversations with Alexa reported greater feelings of social presence, and less perceptions of performance risk. Moreover, these social presence and performance risk mediated the effect of message interactivity on perceived usefulness, which in turn, predicted the intention to use a VA for an online commerce platform. These results also suggested that voice commerce platforms can increase the positive impact of message interactivity by amplifying machine heuristic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Sangwook Lee

Sangwook Lee is a doctoral student in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. As a doctoral student at Penn State, he studies human-computer interaction and computer-mediated communication. He presented his studies at a few conferences including International Communication Association and Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Jeeyun Oh

Jeeyun Oh is an assistant professor of the School of Advertising & Public Relations at the University of Texas at Austin. She investigates the psychology of media technology in the contexts of human-computer interaction, UX/UI, health communication, and environmental communication.

Won-Ki Moon

Won-Ki Moon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations at The University of Texas at Austin. His primary research involves the impacts of emerging media on decision making and judgment in terms of advertising and consumer behavior.