Academic Research
Artificial Intelligence Versus Human Service Agents: How Their Presence Shapes Consumer Information Privacy Concerns
Service agents act on behalf of retailers to interact with consumers. Agents’ service delivery requires information from consumers, which may raise consumers’ concerns about their information privacy. While previous research has linked service agents’ presence to perceptions of being watched, little is known about how artificial intelligence (AI) (vs. human) agents’ passive or mere presence affects consumer information privacy concerns—a gap this research aims to address. In a series of experimental studies and drawing on reactance theory, we find that consumers express lesser privacy concerns in the presence of AI (vs. human) service agents, which in turn leads to a greater willingness to share personal information and increased intention to engage with the retailer. To explain this effect, we identify consumers’ perceptions of service agents’ power: consumers perceive AI (vs. human) agents as having less power over them and therefore have lesser privacy concerns. The findings are consistent across various retailer types (e.g., florists, home décor, food, pharmacy) and diverse participant groups. In addition, we identify two boundary conditions of this effect: the trustworthiness of service agents and the timing of their presence (before or after a purchase). Understanding these elements can help retailers effectively manage privacy concerns and strategically determine the presence of different types of service agents.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.03.003
Authors: Stefanie Sohn, Lauren Labrecque, Dominik Siemon, Stefan Morana
ABSTRACT
Service agents act on behalf of retailers to interact with consumers. Agents’ service delivery requires information from consumers, which may raise consumers’ concerns about their information privacy. While previous research has linked service agents’ presence to perceptions of being watched, little is known about how artificial intelligence (AI) (vs. human) agents’ passive or mere presence affects consumer information privacy concerns—a gap this research aims to address. In a series of experimental studies and drawing on reactance theory, we find that consumers express lesser privacy concerns in the presence of AI (vs. human) service agents, which in turn leads to a greater willingness to share personal information and increased intention to engage with the retailer. To explain this effect, we identify consumers’ perceptions of service agents’ power: consumers perceive AI (vs. human) agents as having less power over them and therefore have lesser privacy concerns. The findings are consistent across various retailer types (e.g., florists, home décor, food, pharmacy) and diverse participant groups. In addition, we identify two boundary conditions of this effect: the trustworthiness of service agents and the timing of their presence (before or after a purchase). Understanding these elements can help retailers effectively manage privacy concerns and strategically determine the presence of different types of service agents.
Phygital Products: Effects and Boundaries of Metaverse-First Retail Strategies
The metaverse offers unique opportunities to retail Phygital Products (PPs)—combined physical-digital offerings whose components are linked together using NFTs. Despite their rising popularity and operational efficiencies, PPs pose a number of distribution challenges likely to influence customer valuations of these products. This research investigates how different retail strategies (metaverse-first vs. physical store-first) influence willingness to pay for PPs. Five experimental studies, including one conducted in a simulated metaverse store, show that metaverse-first retail strategies decrease willingness to pay (Studies 1A-1C) due to decreased investment value (Study 2). This valuation penalty can be mitigated by manipulating arousal through in-store atmospherics. Specifically, increasing music tempo reverses the negative effect of metaverse-first retail strategies on investment value and willingness to pay (Study 3). Our findings inform actionable strategies on how to retail PPs in the metaverse to maximize distribution reach while reducing valuation penalties.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.01.002
Authors: Davide C. Orazi, Greg Nyilasy
ABSTRACT
The metaverse offers unique opportunities to retail Phygital Products (PPs)—combined physical-digital offerings whose components are linked together using NFTs. Despite their rising popularity and operational efficiencies, PPs pose a number of distribution challenges likely to influence customer valuations of these products. This research investigates how different retail strategies (metaverse-first vs. physical store-first) influence willingness to pay for PPs. Five experimental studies, including one conducted in a simulated metaverse store, show that metaverse-first retail strategies decrease willingness to pay (Studies 1A-1C) due to decreased investment value (Study 2). This valuation penalty can be mitigated by manipulating arousal through in-store atmospherics. Specifically, increasing music tempo reverses the negative effect of metaverse-first retail strategies on investment value and willingness to pay (Study 3). Our findings inform actionable strategies on how to retail PPs in the metaverse to maximize distribution reach while reducing valuation penalties.
Retailing in Metaverse: Cryptocurrency and Consumer Payment Choices in Virtual Reality Environments
This research explores the nature of customers' payment method choices in virtual reality (VR) and metaverse retail settings. Cryptocurrency has gained momentum as a customer payment method in the metaverse. Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay have become the preferred payment methods across multiple retail channels outside the metaverse. Payments are an important customer touchpoint that can lead to attrition and revenue problems for retailers. Thus, retailers must optimize payment technologies for omnichannel retail settings. We study customer payment preferences among credit cards, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency. Using a VR grocery store and online grocery shopping simulation, we explore the impact of an immersive sensory environment. Over three experiments, we find that customers are more likely to choose digital wallets and credit cards (Study 1) over cryptocurrency across both VR and non-VR retail settings. Next, we show that security assurance as educational nudge positively impacts customer willingness to choose cryptocurrency (Study 2) for a digital product in VR, and this effect is mediated by greater trust in cryptocurrency providers and lower perceived volatility of cryptocurrency (Study 3). From a strategy perspective, we build a case for retailers and other stakeholders to build blockchain-based digital wallet capabilities and explore strategic partnerships as metaverse retail evolves and more traditional consumers join it.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.03.001
Authors: Nandini Nim, Yoonsun Jeong, Jessica Felix Martinez, Leah Smith
ABSTRACT
This research explores the nature of customers' payment method choices in virtual reality (VR) and metaverse retail settings. Cryptocurrency has gained momentum as a customer payment method in the metaverse. Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay have become the preferred payment methods across multiple retail channels outside the metaverse. Payments are an important customer touchpoint that can lead to attrition and revenue problems for retailers. Thus, retailers must optimize payment technologies for omnichannel retail settings. We study customer payment preferences among credit cards, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency. Using a VR grocery store and online grocery shopping simulation, we explore the impact of an immersive sensory environment. Over three experiments, we find that customers are more likely to choose digital wallets and credit cards (Study 1) over cryptocurrency across both VR and non-VR retail settings. Next, we show that security assurance as educational nudge positively impacts customer willingness to choose cryptocurrency (Study 2) for a digital product in VR, and this effect is mediated by greater trust in cryptocurrency providers and lower perceived volatility of cryptocurrency (Study 3). From a strategy perspective, we build a case for retailers and other stakeholders to build blockchain-based digital wallet capabilities and explore strategic partnerships as metaverse retail evolves and more traditional consumers join it.
Editorial: Paving the Way for Responsible Retailing
Why retailers care about responsible retailing
Clearly, engaging in responsible retailing can serve as a competitive advantage in highly competitive settings like the retail industry (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen 2011) and lead to increased firm performance (Atz et al. 2021), as many stakeholders value it. First, 93% of customers worldwide expect companies to take social and environmental actions (Vadakkepatt et al., 2021), and consumer demand for sustainable and healthy products is increasing. Second, employees seek employers that share their…
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.02.006
Authors: Niels Holtrop, Lara Lobschat, Anne ter Braak
ABSTRACT
Why retailers care about responsible retailing
Clearly, engaging in responsible retailing can serve as a competitive advantage in highly competitive settings like the retail industry (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen 2011) and lead to increased firm performance (Atz et al. 2021), as many stakeholders value it. First, 93% of customers worldwide expect companies to take social and environmental actions (Vadakkepatt et al., 2021), and consumer demand for sustainable and healthy products is increasing. Second, employees seek employers that share their…
Challenges on the path to responsibility
Given that responsible retailing is required to retain organizational legitimacy, what explains the differences in the extent of responsible retailing that we observe in the industry? The first challenge that retailers face is how to balance doing good with the economic consequences of their decisions. With the risk of backlash when changes are too severe, responsible retailing initiatives are often incremental rather than radical. For example, to stimulate healthier consumption, manufacturers…
Responsibility on a global and local scale
While we observed that many responsible retail actions remain at the tactical level without strategic consideration, it is not to say that retailers are not concerned about the major global challenges of this age. Retailer initiatives have focused on reducing climate impact, stimulating environmental protection, enhancing nutritional quality, and addressing economic uncertainty, amongst others. For example, Walmart and Lidl have set and reached ambitious CO2 reduction goals throughout their…
A Comprehensive Examination of Digital Retailing: a Text-mining Review and Research Agenda
Digital retailing encompasses all the digital technology–enabled assets and retail activities that a retailer can use to create, capture, communicate, and deliver value throughout the customer journey. This comprehensive topic modeling analysis of 4,730 articles from 35 years of research across multiple disciplines showcases how the research is evolving overtime and within the disciplines. Results reveal 11 topics areas (consisting of 66 subtopics), as well as the prevalence of these topics within each discipline. Results highlight how the topics have evolved overtime. For example, research on consumer motivation to use technology, retail environmental factors, and firm factors is increasing, while research on trust and risk factors is declining. The trends vary across disciplines. Results also highlight the relationship among the topics, and the impact of publications in each of the topic areas by considering citations across time and disciplines. Implications for future research are discussed.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2024.10.001
Authors: Elisa B. Schweiger, Virginia Vannucci, Valentina Mazzoli, Laura Grazzini, Anne L. Roggeveen, Dhruv Grewal, Raffaele Donvito, Gaetano Aiello
ABSTRACT
Digital retailing encompasses all the digital technology–enabled assets and retail activities that a retailer can use to create, capture, communicate, and deliver value throughout the customer journey. This comprehensive topic modeling analysis of 4,730 articles from 35 years of research across multiple disciplines showcases how the research is evolving overtime and within the disciplines. Results reveal 11 topics areas (consisting of 66 subtopics), as well as the prevalence of these topics within each discipline. Results highlight how the topics have evolved overtime. For example, research on consumer motivation to use technology, retail environmental factors, and firm factors is increasing, while research on trust and risk factors is declining. The trends vary across disciplines. Results also highlight the relationship among the topics, and the impact of publications in each of the topic areas by considering citations across time and disciplines. Implications for future research are discussed.
Lessons Learned From the Kroger-Albertsons Merger Case
By synthesizing the findings and supporting evidence from the Kroger-Albertsons merger case—the largest proposed supermarket merger in history—and the Court's preliminary injunction ruling, this paper offers insights into the key drivers of supermarket competition today (circa 2025). We identify and explain the drivers of supermarket competition today using the preliminary injunction ruling as a guide. Supermarket competition has been heavily influenced by information technology and the resulting increases in retailer capabilities and consumers’ digital engagement, in addition to other brand and product factors, not all of which have been well studied. We also highlight changes in the drivers of supermarket competition from previous grocery retail studies, in particular changes that are not yet well documented in academic literature. The article concludes with proposed topics for future research in supermarket competition.
Paper Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435925000120?dgcid=rss_sd_all
Authors: Edward J. Fox, Joe Bourdage, Justin LaTorraca, Laura O'Laughlin, Marcello Santana
ABSTRACT
By synthesizing the findings and supporting evidence from the Kroger-Albertsons merger case—the largest proposed supermarket merger in history—and the Court's preliminary injunction ruling, this paper offers insights into the key drivers of supermarket competition today (circa 2025). We identify and explain the drivers of supermarket competition today using the preliminary injunction ruling as a guide. Supermarket competition has been heavily influenced by information technology and the resulting increases in retailer capabilities and consumers’ digital engagement, in addition to other brand and product factors, not all of which have been well studied. We also highlight changes in the drivers of supermarket competition from previous grocery retail studies, in particular changes that are not yet well documented in academic literature. The article concludes with proposed topics for future research in supermarket competition.