The Influence of a Robot Recommender System on Impulse Buying Tendency

Abstract

The present study examines the influences of a robot recommender system on human impulse buying tendency in online e-commerce contexts. An empirical user study was conducted, where different marketing strategies (limited quantity vs. discount rate) were applied to the products and intimate designs were utilized for the robotic agent. An electroencephalogram (EEG) headset was used to capture users' brain activities, which allowed us to investigate participants' real-time cognitive perceptions toward different experimental conditions (i.e., marketing plans and robotic agents). Our preliminary results reveal that marketing strategies and robot recommender applications can trigger impulsive buying behavior and contribute to different cognitive activities.