Browsing by Author "Chohan, Raeesah"

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    Open Access
    Customer resistance to chatbots in financial services: a social exchange theory perspective
    (2025) Patel, Kayla; Chohan, Raeesah
    Chatbots are becoming the new employees as they are increasingly being used by financial service providers to replace humans in customer interactions. Despite the numerous advantages chatbots offer, overcoming customer resistance remains challenging for firms. This study leaned on social exchange theory by examining customers' perceived benefits and perceived costs of chatbots and how these can be mitigated or exploited to overcome customer resistance to chatbots in the financial services industry. This study had two primary objectives: to ascertain the implications of financial service providers employing chatbots instead of human service employees on customer relationships and to suggest how financial service providers can overcome customer resistance to chatbots to improve customer relationships. The findings were anticipated to assist marketers in improving their use of chatbots to overcome customer resistance thereof and enhance customer relationships. Qualitative research was conducted utilising an exploratory research design and non-probability sampling, comprising online semi-structured interviews with 20 internet banking customers. The interpretation of findings followed a phenomenological analysis, focusing on participants' experiences and providing insight through dense descriptions. This study found that the extent to which a chatbot is humanised can influence its perceived creepiness, as well as customer expectations of the service interaction. This study also found that disclosing a chatbot's identity to customers can have positive effects, specifically relating to increasing perceived transparency and setting reasonable expectations for the interaction. Moreover, it was found that customers' privacy concerns stem from a lack of knowledge about how chatbots work. However, customers' perceptions of increased risk may be reduced by educating customers about chatbots. Based on these findings, this study offers actionable insights for financial service providers on reducing customer resistance to chatbots by maximising benefits and minimising perceived risks. Key strategies include integrating chatbots with human support, enhancing customer education on chatbot capabilities, and ensuring transparency around data privacy. By managing customer expectations and offering personalised, accessible chatbot experiences, financial service providers can increase customer trust and satisfaction, while reducing perceived risk. These insights help practitioners and policymakers advance innovation and the use of chatbots in the financial sector. This study enhances the literature by clarifying how to implement chatbots more effectively in financial services, addressing customer concerns and minimising negative impacts on customer relationships. It offers a unique contribution by applying social exchange theory to examine customer resistance to chatbots in financial services, a context that has received little attention in past literature. Unlike earlier studies that focused on different theories such as uncanny valley or technology acceptance models, this study emphasises customers' perceived costs and benefits, demonstrating the applicability of social exchange theory in AI contexts. This study also contributes new insights into strategies for reducing customer resistance, highlighting how chatbot transparency, education, and anthropomorphism influence customer perceptions. This unique perspective on overcoming resistance enhances the understanding of chatbot use in financial services.
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    Global versus local brands in South Africa: an empirical analysis of consumer perceptions
    (2018) Coetzee, Zandereen; Chohan, Raeesah
    Global brands are increasingly expanding their footprint to developing countries, due to the promising opportunities that these countries hold; and as such, consumers are faced with the decision between global and local brands. In South Africa too, there has been an influx of global brands, which has placed pressure on the local retail landscape. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in perception among millennial consumers in South Africa between a global and a local fashion retail brand. Millennials are considered to be individuals born between the early 1980s and late 1990s. To understand consumers’ decision making process between global and local brands, the signaling theory was applied. The signaling theory is typically used to describe behaviour when multiple parties have access to different information – in this case it relates to consumers having access to the different signals sent out by both global and local brands. In addition to the signaling theory, the brand-analysis model was employed to measure these perceptions relating to brand-specific associations (perceived quality and emotional value), general brand impression (brand awareness and brand image) and brand commitment (brand loyalty and purchase intention). Therefore, the objectives and hypotheses for this study were directly derived from each of the brand-analysis constructs mentioned above. It is understood that researchers have not used the signaling theory and brand analysis model together. This study also considers them independently, however the brand analysis constructs are used as signals between brands and consumers. Using the two retail brands, H&M (global) and Mr Price (local) as stimuli, the data were collected through an online questionnaire. A non-probability sampling technique was implemented, which achieved a total sample size of n=263. The target population consisted of millennial consumers in South Africa, due to the significant spending power of this cohort. The findings were three-fold. Firstly, the hypotheses tests indicated that there are differences in consumer perception relating to each of the brand-analysis constructs, with higher ratings towards the global brand for perceived quality, emotional value, brand image, brand loyalty, and purchase intention. Local brands, however, appear to enjoy higher levels of brand awareness. Secondly, in order to gain deeper insights into these perceptions, this study also compared the difference in perceptions among the demographic subgroups. In contrast to the overall preference for global brands, certain groups, such as those with lower income levels and lower levels of education, had higher ratings for the local brand in terms of perceived quality, emotional value, brand loyalty and purchase intention. Lastly, the strength of the relationships between constructs was measured; and this showed that, for both brands, positive relationships exist among all of the brand-analysis constructs – with varying strength levels. The academic contributions of this study are as follows: In general, brand management literature in developing countries has been neglected. Previous research has shown that there are differences in brand perception between consumers from developed and those from developing countries. This study therefore aimed to add to the literature, not only towards a typical developing country, but towards a hybrid country, namely South Africa. In addition, the brand-analysis model and the signaling theory used in this study, serve as a basis for future research aiming to evaluate consumer choice. Practical contributions include the following: The findings yielded significant insights into the aspects to be emphasised by global and local brands, in order to be successful in capturing and maintaining the desire of consumers to purchase and use their brands. Thus, the findings provide an understanding of the drivers of global and local brand purchases for marketing practitioners – to improve or adjust their marketing strategies. On the basis of these findings, local brands are advised to invest in expanding their presence in other countries, and to advertise this as a signal of quality. Another strategy for local brands is to emphasise their authenticity and pride in the local culture as a signal of a deep connectedness with the local market. Global brands on the other hand, are advised to advertise their worldwide availability and acceptance as a signal of quality and prestige, and to offer an opportunity for consumers to be part of the global-consumer culture.
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    Implicit and explicit attitudes: an examination of the efficacy of anti-sugar public health campaigns
    (2022) Kaplan, Michael; Chohan, Raeesah; Rosenstein, David; Drummond, Mark
    The current obesity epidemic is prevalent, and its potential growth is concerning. Moreover, obesity-inducing food products have become more accessible to consumers, with increases in sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption necessitating SSB-related taxation. The purpose of this study is to examine whether social-marketing efforts, in the form of an anti-sugar public health campaign (PHC), influence consumer attitudes toward SSBs. In this context, one's self-reported attitude (ie, conscious, explicit attitude) may not accurately reflect one's ‘true' attitude (ie, subconscious, implicit attitude). Therefore, the focus of this study concerns consumers' explicit and implicit attitudes toward SSBs. There are three core objectives of this study: to determine whether anti-sugar PHCs influence consumers' (1) explicit and (2) implicit attitudes toward SSBs, and (3) to determine whether changes in explicit attitudes mediate changes in implicit attitudes, and vice-versa. To examine the efficacy of an anti-sugar PHC, this quantitative and causal research adopts a pre- and post-test control group design. Prior to, and following exposure to an anti-sugar PHC, young adult consumers' explicit attitudes were assessed through self-report surveys, and their implicit attitudes assessed using neuromarketing-based evaluative priming tasks (EPTs). Data were analysed using a combination of paired sample t-tests and structural equation modelling (SEM). This study provides evidence that anti-sugar PHCs influence consumers' explicit and implicit attitudes toward SSBs, and that changes in explicit attitudes mediate changes in implicit attitudes, and vice-versa. Specifically, following exposure to the anti-sugar PHC, less favourable explicit and implicit attitudes toward SSBs demonstrates the usefulness of considering explicit and implicit attitudes when designing and implementing PHCs. The study contributes to the Associative-Propositional Evaluation (APE) model, through the lens of dual-process theory (DPT), by bridging the gap between PHC research and implicit consumer cognition. This study contributes to practice by advocating for marketers' application of neuromarketing techniques in evaluating campaign effectiveness, such as implicit attitudinal measures. Further, this study contributes to policymaker practices by highlighting the effectiveness of anti-sugar PHCs as a supplementary or complementary tool in addressing the obesity epidemic and enhancing societal wellbeing and health.
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    Understanding the role of emotion in viral marketing
    (2013) Chohan, Raeesah; Botha, Elsamari
    Using the Internet to share content online is not only a daily activity for many people, yet a means to share their experiences and emotion with others. This study aims to answer why Internet users in South Africa share content online and to better understand the role of emotion in viral marketing. There are three main objectives of this study: to determine what encourages people to share content online, to investigate the role of emotion in sharing content online and to determine whether there is a difference between sharing content that elicits positive emotion versus sharing content that elicits negative emotion. The findings assist marketers in conducting viral marketing campaigns that appeal to consumers. Using a two-stage research design, qualitative and exploratory research was conducted. The first-stage is netnography, which is a derivation of ethnography, and was based on YouTube. The second-stage consisted of semi-structured interviews that included two viral video marketing campaigns. This study found that people share content online when content that appeals to people is relevant. Whether people find content relevant or not can depend on their age and/ or gender. People share content online to be altruistic, for self-benefit and social capital. An additional reason for sharing content online is when the content is emotionally appealing. Particularly, it was found that content that elicits positive emotion is more likely to be shared than content that elicits negative emotion. This study addresses gaps in literature in the following ways. Firstly, viral marketing is a growing concept that requires updated research about to provide an understanding of viral marketing that is consistent with its changes in its practice. Secondly, the model provided in this study defines what sharing means in terms of viral marketing, which no other study has done. Thirdly, where previous authors disagree about the difference between sharing content that elicits positive emotion versus sharing content that elicits negative emotion, this study contains updated findings which show that content which elicits positive emotion is more likely to be shared. Additionally, this study shows how the Social Sharing of Emotion theory can be applied to a viral-marketing and online context. The contribution that this study makes is that literature can benefit by understanding that content is king and relevance is important in encouraging people to share content online. Additionally, marketers should focus on creating content that is useful or makes the sender look good socially. Most importantly, to encourage people to share content online, the content should be emotionally appealing and focus should be placed on ensuring the content elicits positive emotion.