https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8362-4430
The increasing impact of immersive technologies (e.g., Virtual Reality (VE) and Augmented Reality (AR)) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business and society present challenges that deserve attention by academics and practitioners. Immersive technologies may soon allow people to extend themselves using neuro-stimulators and neural implants which may create a much more immersive augmentation of reality and may provide the humans with the power to switch from a real environment to a deeply immersive environment without the need for any external devices. Concomitantly, AI is gradually penetrating in industries and society and interacting with humans through virtual assistants or robot.
This special issue provides the reader with theoretical and empirical research regarding immersive technologies. The first study “VR and Nostalgia: Using animation in theme parks to enhance visitor engagement” conducted by Oh and Kong aimed to understand the effects of adding VR technology to Korean theme park attractions, and to examine how nostalgic attributes of animation content can enhance the immersive visitor experience. The paper proposes a VR immersive experience model for theme parks, ensuring that quality-driven VR content can evoke localized nostalgia and lead to returning visits.
The second study “Travelling the past: Raising Awareness of Cultural Heritage through Virtual Reality” written by Rauscher and Humpe raises the question of whether and how Virtual Reality technology is accepted as a means to communicate cultural heritage. They found that technology acceptance is mainly driven by the level of enjoyment and entertainment that the user experiences.
The third paper “Virtual Reality in the Motion Picture Industry: The Relationship Among Movie Coolness, Sympathy, Empathy, and Word-of-Mouth” by Rodrigues and Loureiro explores whether virtual reality can be more effective that traditional 2 D in influencing empathy, sympathy, movie coolness and word-of-mouth. They conducted an experiment with 145 participants showing the combined effects of technological format and movie genre influence coolness perception. Empathy affects movie coolness and these, in turn, predict word-of-mouth.
The fourth paper “Comparing AI-based and Traditional Prospect Generating Methods” by Stadlmann and Zehetner deals with a comparison of two traditional approaches and one AI based data mining tool to collect and interpret data for prospect generation. Based on a real case, the authors compare effects of these three prospect generation methods. This study provides a fact-based comparison of these approaches. They find that businesses will be better to use a combination of these approaches rather than to relying on a single approach. The time available for research and the complexity of the target market have an influence on the selection of the prospect generation approach.
The fifth paper entitled “The Role of Commitment amongst Tourists and Intelligent Virtual Assistants” by Loureiro and Bilro analyzes attachment and emotional values as antecedents of commitment to intelligent virtual assistants (IVA) and commitment as a driver of loyalty intentions toward the IVA. Findings show relevant role of commitment on loyalty intentions. The final article called “You are only mine: engage with voice assistant while find destinations and accommodations” by Ferreira and others examines the consumer-virtual assistant communication by demonstrating the effect of authenticity and attachment as drivers of engagement via psychological ownership. The results point out that when users view their communication with virtual assistants as authentic, they become engaged. Consumers who are closer to their virtual assistant, thinking, feeling, and using the device to interact with firms and brands are also more related to the information and recommendations given by the device and stablish a stronger interaction.
ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and Business
Research Unit (BRU-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal
https://orcid.org/000-0001-8362-4430
[email protected]