Decoding Gen Z: AI's influence on brand trust and purchasing behavior

This study focuses on the role of AI in shaping Generation Z's consumer behaviors across fashion, technology, beauty, and education sectors. Analyzing responses from 224 participants, our findings reveal that AI exposure, attitude toward AI, and AI accuracy perception significantly enhance brand trust, which in turn positively impacts purchasing decisions. Notably, flow experience acts as a mediator between brand trust and purchasing decisions. These insights underscore the critical role of AI in developing brand trust and influencing purchasing choices among Generation Z, offering valuable implications for marketers in an increasingly digital landscape.

Understanding the Determinants of Customer Intention to Use Mobile Payment

Previous studies on the intention to use mobile payment were mainly conducted using traditional technology acceptance models, which focus on positive factors and ignore negative factors influencing the intention to use mobile payment in both developed and developing countries. This study is conducted in a newly emerging country, Vietnam – a trusted destination for multinational companies to do business and reposition their global supply chains. With the integration of positive and negative factors into an extended research model to examine their influence on the intention to use mobile payment, the results show that perceived privacy and perceived security contribute to overall perceived risk. Moreover, perceived risk and perceived compatibility are two determinants of intention to use mobile payment. Theoretical and managerial implications are drawn and directions for future research are outlined.

Frustration and Anger Mitigation After Service Failure: The Effect of Other Consumer's Explanation and Employee's Explanation on Frustration and Anger After the Service Failure

Purpose

Based on the attribution and appraisal theories of emotion, this study investigates whether a consumer's frustration and anger after a service failure reduces in different ways after hearing explanations from different sources (other customer vs employee vs none) under different blame attribution circumstances (situational vs service provider), and its subsequent influence on complaining intention.

Methods

In Study 1, valid data from 239 participants (46.9% female, M_age=35.6 years) were used to test the interaction effect of the explanation source and blame attribution on frustration and anger. In Study 2, using valid answers from 253 students at Korea University (57.9% female, M_age=20.9 years), Study 1 was replicated and, in addition, tested the moderated mediating impact on complaining intention. The overall theoretical model was tested with ANOVA and Hayes process model 8.

Results

When blame attribution was situational, the employee's explanation did not mitigate either frustration or anger, whereas the other customer's explanation mitigated frustration but not anger. In contrast, when blame attribution was towards the service provider, the employee's explanation mitigated both frustration and anger, whereas the other customer's explanation mitigated only frustration. In addition, the mitigation of frustration and anger by other customers subsequently led to a decrease in complaining intention, which was stronger and only significant when blame attribution was situational. However, only anger acted as a mediator between the employee's explanation and complaining intention, which did not vary according to blame attribution.

Conclusion

The results of the study advance the current knowledge on informational support as a service recovery process by suggesting the crucial role of other consumers in mitigating the target customer's frustration, especially under situational service failure, which successively leads to a decrease in complaining intention, whereas the employee's explanation decreases complaining intention only through the mitigation of anger.

The Effects of Power on Consumer Decision Strategies: The Mediating Role of Behavioral Approach-Inhibition Tendency and the Moderating Role of Gender

Purpose

Previous studies on consumer decision strategies have focused on the process or outcomes of decision-making using different decision strategies. Relatively little is known about the factors (especially decision makers' characteristics) influencing the use of different decision strategies. This study examined the effects of power on consumer decision strategies and the underlying mechanisms.

Methods

Studies 1 (N = 128) and 2 (N = 130) examined multiple- and binary-option situations, respectively. Participants' power was manipulated with a writing task and their consumer decision strategies were assessed through the selection tasks of restaurants and beach resorts. Study 3 (N = 326) further explored the mediator of approach-inhibition tendency and the moderator of gender in the relationship between power and consumer decision strategies. Participants' chronic sense of power, approach-inhibition tendency, and purchasing strategies were measured using questionnaires.

Results

Powerful (vs powerless) individuals prefer to use a direct selection (vs exclusion) strategy, regardless of whether they face multiple or binary choices. An increased approach (vs inhibition) tendency explains why elevated power promotes the use of the direct selection strategy. Moreover, gender plays a moderating role. Specifically, the mediation effect of approach (vs inhibition) tendency on the relationship between power and the preference for the direct selection (vs exclusion) strategy is stronger for males than for females.

Conclusion

This study extends previous research on power and consumer decision strategies by clarifying that the effects of power on consumer decision strategies are primarily driven by high power (but not by low power). Furthermore, by examining the mediator of approach-inhibition tendency and the moderator of gender, this study promotes a deeper understanding of how power affects consumer decision strategies and for whom the effect is more salient. Besides, the present research has contributions to the approach-inhibition theory of power and the literature on gender differences in consumer behavior, and has practical implications for business marketing.