Virtual agents in e-commerce: Representational characteristics for seniors

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing

Volumn 5, Issue 4, 2011, Pages 276-297

  Chattaraman, Veena ^a   Kwon, Wi Suk ^a   Gilbert, Juan E ^b   Shim, Soo In ^a  

^a AUBURN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Clemson University   (United States)

Author keywords

Aging; Consumer behaviour; E commerce; Interaction; Internet; Modality; Older consumers; Representation; Virtual agents; Web sites

Indexed keywords

EID: 81055125067     PISSN: 20407122     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/17505931111191492     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Abernathy, L.T. and Adams-Price, C.E. (2006), "Memory and comprehension of magazine-based prescription drug advertisements among young and old adults" in Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 1-13.
2. André, E., Rist, T. and Müller, J. (1998), "WebPersona: a lifelike presentation agent for the world-wide web" in Knowledge-Based Systems, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 25-36.
3. Bashore, T.R., Ridderinkhof, K.R. and Van Der Molen, M.W. (1997), "The decline of cognitive processing speed in old age" in Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 6, No. 6, pp. 163-9.
4. Baylor, A.L. and Ryu, J. (2003), "The effects of image and animation in enhancing pedagogical agent persona" in Journal of Educational Computing Research, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 373-94.
5. Bickmore, T. and Cassell, J. (2001), "Relational agents: a model and implementation of building user trust" in Proceedings of CHI 2001, New Orleans, LA, USA, pp. 396-403.
6. Bickmore, T. and Cassell, J. (2005), "Social dialog with embodied conversational agents" in Kuppevelt, J.C.V., Dybkjaer, L. and Bersen, N.O. (Eds.), Advances in Natural Multimodal Dialog Systems, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 23-54.
7. Cassell, J. and Thorisson, K.R. (1999), "The power of a nod and a glance: envelope vs. emotional feedback in animated conversational agents" in Applied Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 13, Nos 4/5, pp. 519-38.
8. Cassell, J., Bickmore, T., Campbell, L., Vilhjalmsson, H. and Yan, H. (2001), "More than just a pretty face: conversational protocols and the affordances of embodiment" in Knowledge-Based Systems, Vol. 14, Nos 1/2, pp. 55-64.
9. Chattaraman, V., Kwon, W.-S. and Gilbert, J.E. (2009), "Social presence in online stores: building social support and trust among older consumers", paper presented at the Ninth Triennial AMS/ACRA Retailing Conference, The Academy of Marketing Science and the American Collegiate Retailing Association, New Orleans, LA.
10. Czaja, S.J. and Lee, C.C. (2007), "The impact of aging on access to technology" in Universal Access Information Society, Vol. 5, pp. 341-9.
11. Dehn, D.M. and Van Mulken, S. (2000), "The impact of animated interface agents: a review of empirical research" in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 1-22.
12. Gulz, A. and Haake, M. (2006), "Design of animated pedagogical agents - a look at their look" in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Vol. 64, No. 4, pp. 322-39.
13. Hilt, M.L. and Lipschultz, J.H. (2004), "Elderly Americans and the internet: e-mail, TV news, information and entertainment websites" in Educational Gerontology, Vol. 30, pp. 57-72.
14. Horrigan, J.B. (2008), "Online shopping", available at: www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2008/PIP_Online%20Shopping.pdf (accessed 15 January 2010).
15. Jin, S.-a.A. (2009), "The roles of modality richness and involvement in shopping behavior in 3D virtual stores" in Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 234-46.
16. Joseph, N. and Stone, B. (2005), "Diagnosis: internet phobia" in Newsweek, April, p. 74.
17. Kartiko, I., Kavakli, M. and Cheng, K. (2010), "Learning science in a virtual reality application: the impacts of animated-virtual actors' visual complexity" in Computers & Education, Vol. 55, No. 2, pp. 881-91.
18. Keeling, K., Mcgoldrick, P. and Beatty, S. (2010), "Avatars as salespeople: communication style, trust, and intentions" in Journal of Business Research, Vol. 63, No. 8, pp. 793-800.
19. Kim, Y. and Baylor, A.L. (2006), "Pedagogical agents as learning companions: the role of agent competency and type of interaction" in Educational Technology Research and Development, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 223-43.
20. King, W.J. and Ohya, J. (1996), "The representation of agents: anthropomorphism, agency, and intelligence" Bilger, R., Guest, S. and Tauber, M.J. (Eds.), Human Factors in Computing Systems: CHI+96 Electronic Conference Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, Vancouver, Canada.
21. Klie, L. (2010), "Are consumers more responsive to male or female voices?", available at: www.speechtechmag.com/Articles/Editorial/FYI/Are-Consumers-More-Responsive-to-Male-or-Female-Voices-66816.aspx (accessed 15 September 2010).
22. Koda, T. and Maes, P. (1996), "Agents with faces: the effect of personification" in 5th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Communication, Tsukuba, pp. 189-94.
23. Krämer, N.C., Bente, G., Eschenburg, F. and Troitzsch, H. (2009), "Embodied conversational agents: research prospects for social psychology and an exemplary study" in Social Psychology, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 26-36.
24. Kwon, W.-S., Chattaraman, V. and Gilbert, J.E. (2010), "Effects of conversational agents in retail websites on aging consumers' interactivity and perceived benefits", paper presented at CHI 2010: Workshop on Senior Friendly Technologies: Interaction Design for the Elderly, Atlanta, GA.
25. Lambert-Pandraud, R., Laurent, G. and Lapersonne, E. (2005), "Repeat purchasing of new automobiles by older consumers: empirical evidence and interpretations" in Journal of Marketing, Vol. 69, pp. 97-113.
26. Lee, E.-J. (2008), "Flattery may get computers somewhere, sometimes: the moderating role of output modality, computer gender, and user gender" in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Vol. 66, No. 11, pp. 789-800.
27. Lester, J.C., Converse, S.A., Kahler, S.E., Barlow, S.T., Stone, B.A. and Bhoga, R.S. (1997), "The persona effect: affective impact of animated pedagogical agents" in Pemberton, S. (Ed.), Human Factors in Computing Systems: CHI+97 Conference Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, Atlanta, GA, USA, pp. 359-66.
28. McCloskey, D.W. and Leppel, K. (2010), "The impact of age on electronic commerce participation: an exploratory model" in Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 41-60.
29. Nass, C. and Lee, K.M. (2001), "Does computer-synthesized speech manifest personality? Experimental tests of recognition, similarity-attraction, and consistency-attraction" in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 171-81.
30. Nass, C. and Moon, Y. (2000), "Machines and mindlessness: social responses to computers" in Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 56, No. 1, p. 81.
31. Nass, C., Moon, Y. and Green, N. (1997), "Are machines gender neutral? Gender-stereotypic responses to computers with voices" in Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 27, No. 10, pp. 864-76.
32. Pansky, A., Goldsmith, M., Koriat, A. and Pearlman-Avnion, S. (2009), "Memory accuracy in old age: cognitive, metacognitive, and neurocognitive determinants" in European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 21, Nos 2/3, pp. 303-29.
33. Poggi, I. and Pelachaud, C. (2000), "Performative facial expressions in animated faces" in Cassell, J., Sullivan, J., Prevost, S. and Churchill, E. (Eds.), Embodied Conversational Agents, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 155-88.
34. Pontelli, E. and Son, T.E. (2003), "Designing intelligent agents to support universal accessibility of e-commerce services" in Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 147-61.
35. Reisenwitz, T., Iyer, R., Kuhlmeier, D.B. and Eastman, J.K. (2007), "The elderly's internet usage: an updated look" in Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 24, No. 7, pp. 406-18.
36. Rickel, J. and Johnson, W.L. (2000), "Task-oriented collaboration with embodied agents in virtual worlds" in Cassell, J., Cassell, J., Sullivan, J., Prevost, S. and Churchill, E.F. (Eds.), Embodied Conversational Agents, MIT Press, Boston, pp. 95-122.
37. Rosenberg-Kima, R.B., Baylor, A.L., Plant, E.A. and Doerr, C.E. (2008), "Interface agents as social models for female students: the effects of agent visual presence and appearance on female students' attitudes and beliefs" in Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 2741-56.
38. Sproull, L., Subramani, M., Kiesler, S., Walker, J.H. and Waters, K. (1996), "When the interface is a face" in Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 97-124.
39. Thompson, L.A. (1995), "Encoding and memory for visible speech and gestures: a comparison between young and older adults" in Psychology and Aging, Vol. 10, pp. 215-28.
40. Thompson, L.A. and Malloy, D. (2004), "Attention resources and visible speech encoding in older and younger adults" in Experimental Aging Research, Vol. 30, pp. 1-12.
41. Trocchia, P.J. and Janda, S. (2000), "A phenomenological investigation of internet usage among older individuals" in Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 17, No. 7, pp. 605-16.
42. Ziefle, M. and Bay, S. (2005), "How older adults meet complexity: aging effects on the usability of different mobile phones" in Behaviour & Information Technology, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp. 375-89.