Series EditorsBernhard Swoboda, Trier, GermanyThomas Foscht, Graz, AustriaHanna Schramm-Klein, Siegen, Germany

Handel und Internationales Marketing Retailing and International Marketing

Die Schriftenreihe fördert die Themengebiete Handel und Internationales Marketing. Diese charakterisieren – jedes für sich, aber auch in inhaltlicher Kombination – die Forschungsschwerpunkte der Herausgeber. Beide Themengebiete werden grundsätz-lich breit aufgefasst; die Reihe bietet sowohl Dissertationen und Habilitationen als auch Tagungs- und Sammelbänden mit unterschiedlicher inhaltlicher und metho-discher Ausrichtung ein Forum. Die inhaltliche Breite ist sowohl im Sinne eines konsumentenorientierten Marketings wie auch einer marktorientierten Unterneh-mensführung zu verstehen. Neben den Arbeiten, die von den Herausgebern für die Schriftenreihe vorgeschlagen werden, steht die Reihe auch externen wissenschaftli-chen Arbeiten offen. Diese können bei den Herausgebern eingereicht und nach einer positiven Begutachtung publiziert werden.

The book series focuses on the fields of Retailing and International Marketing. These two areas represent the research fields of the editors—each of them as a single research area, but also in combination. Both of these research areas are widely understood. Consequently, the series provides a platform for the publi-cation of doctoral theses and habilitations, conference proceedings and edited books, as well as related methodological issues that encompass the focus of the series. The series is broad in the sense that it covers academic works in the area of consumer-oriented marketing as well as the area of marketoriented management. In addition to academic works recommended by the editors, the book series also welcomes other academic contributions. These may be submitted to the editors and will be published in the book series after a positive assessment.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/12697

Frederic Nimmermann

Congruency, Expectations and Consumer Behavior in Digital Environments

Frederic NimmermannUniversity of Siegen Siegen, Germany

ISSN 2626-3327 ISSN 2626-3335 (electronic)Handel und Internationales Marketing Retailing and International Marketing ISBN 978-3-658-28420-6 ISBN 978-3-658-28421-3 (eBook)

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Dissertation, University of Siegen, 2019

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28421-3

Acknowledgments: A letter to myself.

Dear Future Me,

what a surprise that you are reading again your dissertation. I hope you will always remember the people around you, who contributed during this time to your work and life. No matter if colleagues, superiors, friends, family or especially your better half: they all shaped memories regarding a more than important stage of your life and contributed considerably to the success of your doctorate. So please always remember...

... your supervisor, Prof. Dr. Hanna Schramm-Klein, who always gave you important impulses for your scientific work and a corresponding freedom to shape your research as you wanted, who gave you constructive criticism, but who also knew when she had to encourage you, who opened new perspectives for your professional life and who helped you to discover a little more of this world,

... the advisory committee members of your dissertation, Prof. Dr. Marcus Schweitzer, who supported the final preparation of this dissertation with meaningful ideas in the run-up to completion and, above all, showed a considerable degree of flexibility in terms of his time and also Prof. Dr. Arndt Werner, who was available at short notice for your disputation and took over the chairmanship of the associated committee,

... Carmen Richter, who has always been the good soul at the chair and has supported you in your tasks in everyday university madness, who was your no. 1 proofreader and who was always available for a good “cup of coffee-chat”,

... your colleagues (and partially co-authors) at that time, Florian Neus, Robér Rollin, Florentine Frentz, Theresia Mennekes, Anne Fota, Katja Wagner, Tobias Röding and especially your scientific mentors PD Dr. Sascha Steinmann, Dr. Gerhard Wagner and Dr. Gunnar Mau, for the exciting lunchtime roundtables, the joint adventures at conferences and the support in professional as well as private life questions,

... to your parents, Fabienne and Wilhelm Nimmermann, who always kept your back free for your studies, put their own wishes aside to support you and found the right words even in difficult moments,

... and especially your fiancée, Jana Freund, for her continuous support in the last years: her patience, especially in difficult times, her encouragement, her willingness for discussions and feedback on your research and also her endless support in the years before that led to the dissertation in the first place. Be grateful for every moment with her. Right now, you are.

VI Acknowledgments: A letter to myself.

Your connection to people in your life and their contribution to your work and private life always only make sense in retrospect. Hence, future me and everybody else reading these lines, stay open for new things, behave in a way that creates new possibilities and as someone famous once said: “stay hungry, stay foolish”.

Siegen, Frederic Nimmermann

Contents

Acknowledgments: A letter to myself. ................................................................................................. V Tables .................................................................................................................................................... IX Figures .................................................................................................................................................. XI List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................ XIII 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Empirical Relevance of Digital Environments ....................................................................... 1 1.2 Central Domains and Theoretical Foundation in the Context of Digital Environments .......................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Research Gaps in Central Domains of Digital Environments ................................................. 5

2 Structure and Content of the Essays .......................................................................................... 13 2.1 Focus of the Essays ............................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Essay 1 - Does Mental Construal Influence the Perception of Incongruent Advertisement? The Role of Psychological Distance in Ad Processing .............................. 14 2.3 Essay 2 - Vividness of Product Images in Online Stores: The Role of Delivery Time ........ 16 2.4 Essay 3 - Is It Human? The Role of Anthropomorphism as a Driver for the Successful

Acceptance of Digital Voice Assistants ................................................................................ 18 2.5 Essay 4 - Online Complaints in the Eye of the Beholder: Optimal Handling of Consumer Complaints on the Internet .................................................................................. 21 2.6 Essay 5 - Differences and Similarities in Motivation for Offline and Online eSports Event Consumption ............................................................................................................... 23 2.7 Essay 6 - The Need for a Community: The Impact of Social Features on Video Game

Success .................................................................................................................................. 25 2.8 Overview of Essays and Related Research Characteristics .................................................. 28

3 Essays ............................................................................................................................................ 29 3.1 Does Mental Construal Influence the Perception of Incongruent Advertisement? The Role of Psychological Distance in Ad Processing ......................................................... 29

3.1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 29 3.1.2 Literature Review and Hypotheses Development ........................................................ 31 3.1.3 Experiments ................................................................................................................. 36

3.1.3.1 Study 1 ........................................................................................................... 36 3.1.3.2 Study 2 ........................................................................................................... 40 3.1.3.3 Study 3 ........................................................................................................... 46

3.1.4 General Discussion ..................................................................................................... 54 3.1.5 Appendix ...................................................................................................................... 58

3.2 Vividness of Product Images in Online Stores: The Role of Delivery Time ........................ 60 3.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 60 3.2.2 Literature Review and Hypotheses .............................................................................. 63 3.2.3 Empirical Studies ......................................................................................................... 70

3.2.3.1 Study 1 ........................................................................................................... 71 3.2.3.2 Study 2 ........................................................................................................... 78

3.2.4 Discussion and Conclusions ........................................................................................ 88 3.2.5 Appendix ...................................................................................................................... 93

VIII Contents

3.3 Is It Human? The Role of Anthropomorphism as a Driver for the Successful Acceptance of Digital Voice Assistants ................................................................................ 95

3.3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 95 3.3.2 Conceptual framework and hypotheses development .................................................. 97 3.3.3 Impact of the anthropomorphism on digital voice assistants ...................................... 98 3.3.4 Technological acceptance drivers for digital voice assistants .................................. 101 3.3.5 Method ....................................................................................................................... 104 3.3.6 Results ........................................................................................................................ 106 3.3.7 General Discussion and Implications ....................................................................... 109 3.3.8 Appendix .................................................................................................................... 112

3.4 Online Complaints in the Eye of the Beholder: Optimal Handling of Consumer Complaints on the Internet .................................................................................................. 115

3.4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 115 3.4.2 Framework ................................................................................................................ 116 3.4.3 Method ....................................................................................................................... 118 3.4.4 Results and Implications ............................................................................................ 119 3.4.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 124 3.4.6 Appendix .................................................................................................................... 126

3.5 Differences and Similarities in Motivation for Offline and Online eSports Event Consumption ....................................................................................................................... 128 3.5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 128 3.5.2 Literature review and hypothesis development ......................................................... 130 3.5.3 The empirical study ................................................................................................... 140 3.5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 144 3.5.5 Appendix .................................................................................................................... 146

3.6 The Need for a Community: The Impact of Social Features on Video Game Success ...... 148 3.6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 148 3.6.2 Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses Development ............................................ 150 3.6.3 Impact of the product features ................................................................................... 153 3.6.4 Impact of social features ........................................................................................... 155 3.6.5 Method, Research Design and Sample ...................................................................... 157 3.6.6 Results ........................................................................................................................ 159 3.6.7 Discussion and Conclusion ....................................................................................... 163

4 General Discussion and Conclusion ......................................................................................... 169 4.1 Core Results and Conclusions ............................................................................................. 169 4.2 Research and Theoretical Implications ............................................................................... 175 4.3 Managerial Implications ..................................................................................................... 178 4.4 Directions for Future Research ........................................................................................... 182

References ........................................................................................................................................... 187

Tables

Table 1.3-1. General Research Goals ....................................................................................................... 6

Table 2.1-1. Essay Overview .................................................................................................................. 13

Table 2.8-1. Summary of Essays and Research Characteristics ............................................................. 28

Table 3.1-1. ANOVA Results (DV = Congruence) ............................................................................... 39

Table 3.1-2. MANOVA Results – Pre-Experiment Brand and Advertising congruence ....................... 43

Table 3.1-3. MANOVA Results (DV = Congruence) ............................................................................ 44

Table 3.1-4. ANOVA Results (DV = Advertising Congruence post experiment) ................................. 50

Table 3.1-5. ANOVA Results (DV = Implementation, Attitude and Credibility) ................................. 51

Table 3.1-6. ANOVA Results (DV = Interest in more Information) ..................................................... 52

Table 3.1-7. Overview Constructs Essay 1 ............................................................................................ 58

Table 3.2-1. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Mental Imagery) .................................... 74

Table 3.2-2. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Attitude towards the Presented Product) ................................................................. 75

Table 3.2-3. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Purchase Intention) ................................ 75

Table 3.2-4. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Construal Level) .................................... 76

Table 3.2-5. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Attitude towards the Presented Product) ................................................................. 77

Table 3.2-6. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Purchase Intention) ................................ 77

Table 3.2-7. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Attitude towards product -utilitarian and hedonic) ................................................. 83

Table 3.2-8. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Purchase Intention) ................................ 84

Table 3.2-9. Results of Hypotheses Testing ANOVA (DV = Ownership and Consumption Imagery) . 85

Table 3.2-10. Overview Constructs Essay 2 .......................................................................................... 93

Table 3.3-1. Results of PLS-SEM ........................................................................................................ 106

Table 3.3-2. Overview Constructs Essay 3 .......................................................................................... 112

Table 3.3-3. Correlations, Squared Correlations and Average Variance Extracted ............................. 114

Table 3.4-1. Types of organizational response to a public complaint .................................................. 116

Table 3.4-2. Main effects of organizational response on observer’s behavior ..................................... 119

Table 3.4-3. Mean values of behavioral variables across different types of organizational response . 120

Table 3.4-4. Mediating Effects ............................................................................................................. 123

Table 3.4-5. Overview Constructs Essay 4 .......................................................................................... 126

X Tables

Table 3.5-1. Hypothesis testing ............................................................................................................ 142

Table 3.5-2. Overview Constructs Essay 5 .......................................................................................... 146

Table 3.6-1. Variable operationalization .............................................................................................. 158

Table 3.6-2. Report of the results ......................................................................................................... 161

Figures Figure 1.2-1. General Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................... 5

Figure 3.1-1. Conceptual Model ............................................................................................................. 31

Figure 3.1-2. Inner-condition Differences of Advertising Congruence Perception, CG = congruence, CL = construal level ........................................................................... 40

Figure 3.1-3. Schematic flow of the video prime in study 2 .................................................................. 41

Figure 3.1-4. Delta-Congruence-Perception, CG = congruence, PD = psychological distance ............. 45

Figure 3.1-5. Schematic flow of the video-prime in experiment 3 ........................................................ 47

Figure 3.2-1. Conceptual Model ............................................................................................................. 63

Figure 3.2-2. Manipulation of Vividness in Study 1 .............................................................................. 71

Figure 3.2-3. Product page with coffee machine in low vividness and high vividness conditions ........ 79

Figure 3.2-4. Moderating effects of mental imagery ability on the interaction of delivery time and vividness for purchase intention ................................................................................ 87

Figure 3.3-1. Conceptual Framework ..................................................................................................... 98

Figure 3.4-1. Organizational responses to public complaints and their impact on behavior of an observer of public complaint handling .................................................................. 117

Figure 3.5-1. Conceptual Model ........................................................................................................... 130

Figure 3.6-1. Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................... 152

List of Abbreviations Ad ............................................. advertisement

AI .............................................. artificial intelligence

ANCOVA ................................. analysis of covariance

ANOVA .................................... Analysis of variance

AP ............................................. average playtime

app ............................................ application

AVE .......................................... average variance extracted

B ............................................... regression coefficient

BIF ............................................ Behavior Identification Form

CASA ....................................... Computers Are Social Actors

CG ............................................. congruency

CL ............................................. construal level

CLT ........................................... construal level theory

DLC .......................................... downloadable content

DV ............................................ dependent variable

ECA .......................................... embodied conversational agents

ECT ........................................... expectation-confirmation theory

ESL ........................................... Electronic Sports League

eSports ...................................... electronic sports

EU LCS .................................... European League of Legends Championship Series

F ................................................ F-statistic

GPS ........................................... Global Positioning System

H ............................................... hypothesis

HCI ........................................... Human Computer Interaction

IPA ............................................ intelligent personal assistants

LLCI ......................................... lower level of confidence interval

M ............................................... mean

MANCOVA ............................. multivariate analysis of covariance

MANOVA ................................ multivariate analysis of variance

MIA .......................................... mental imagery ability

MS ............................................ mean squares

MSSC ....................................... motivation scale for sports consumption

N ............................................... number of sample size

XIV List of Abbreviations

n ................................................ number of sub-sample size

η² ............................................... Eta-squared

n.s. ............................................. not significant

(Ne)WOM ................................. (negative electronic) Word of Mouth

NFI ............................................ normed fit index

NOV ......................................... number of owners of the video game

p ................................................ p-value

p. ............................................... page

PAD .......................................... Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance

PD ............................................. psychological distance

PLS ........................................... partial least squares

PR ............................................. price

R ............................................... Pearson’s r (correlation coefficient)

R2 .............................................. R-squared (coefficient of determination)

RQ ............................................. research question

SD ............................................ standard deviation

SEM .......................................... structural equation model

sig. ............................................ significance level

SPSS ......................................... Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

SRMR ....................................... standardized root mean square residual

t ................................................. t-statistic

ULCI ......................................... upper level of confidence interval

UTAUT2 ................................... unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2

VIF ............................................ variance inflation factor

VVIQ ........................................ Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire

α ................................................ Cronbach’s alpha

β ................................................ beta (standardized coefficient)