Social media influencers and immersive technologies for dynamic consumer behavior

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, the development of digital technology has significantly impacted business operations and how consumers interact, acquire information, and make purchases (e.g., Ambika et al., 2023; Behl et al., 2024; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2023; Sağkaya Güngör & Ozansoy Çadırcı, 2022). Businesses employ digital technology extensively, even if they frequently fall under traditional tools. According to Pascucci et al. (2023), businesses are more “digitalized” than “digitally transformed.” Because of the massive increase in the use of social media platforms over the past 10 years, marketers are bombarding consumers worldwide with messages about new products and service options (e.g., Jamil et al., 2022; Upadhyay et al., 2022). As of January 2023, Facebook was the marketer's most broadly utilized virtual entertainment network. A worldwide overview found that 89% of online entertainment advertisers who answered used the organization, and 80% utilized Instagram to advance their organizations (Dencheva, 2023). A consumer's attention may shift in response to new possibilities, regardless of how good or bad they are. Furthermore, little is known about the socio-psychological reasons why customers follow social media influencers (SMIs) and how their choices impact the products and services they prefer, even though these influencers are widely used and have specific value for marketers (Zheng et al., 2024). In the ever-changing digital age, consumer behavior has taken the center stage for businesses looking to stay relevant and competitive (e.g., Barbosa, 2024). When discussing how consumer behavior has changed in the digital age, companies need to take a customer-centric stance and use IT to better understand their customers' needs and preferences. Personalized messaging and content, content marketing, influencer marketing, and other strategies are effective. “Dynamic” in the consumer behavior literature refers to the shifting preferences of consumers and has compelled marketers to innovate, which has become a survival strategy for many businesses (Wang et al., 2021). Customer loyalty is “fluid,” meaning marketers do not need to do much to get them to rethink their offerings. Companies who can afford to invest heavily in marketing will do so because, once people get behind a product, the business could reap substantial rewards. Customers quickly change their minds and behave differently regarding a particular good or service. Because of this, the phrase “consumer behavior is dynamic” implies that people who purchase goods and services can choose and do so regularly. In the ever-evolving digital landscape, businesses grapple with deciphering dynamic consumer behavior (Musiolik et al., 2024). To better understand how customers behave when they shop, augmented and virtual reality (VR)—two immersive technologies—are becoming increasingly popular in the consumer market (e.g., Colamatteo et al., 2024; Tom Dieck & Han, 2022; Trivedi et al., 2022). Compared with online shopping, it might significantly alter how consumers make decisions (e.g., Meißner et al., 2020). Retailers incorporate immersive technology into marketing and sales methods to enhance the consumer journey (e.g., Lin & Huang, 2024). However, value co-creation between service and product engagements is increasingly essential in today's consumer market (e.g., Colamatteo et al., 2024; Tom Dieck & Han, 2022). Multistakeholder participation in value co-creation is flourishing in various industries, from retail to tourism and education, as technological improvements change the management dynamic from businesses to customers. Immersive technologies such as augmented reality, VR, and mixed reality are expanding consumer perceptions and enabling new experiences. Review articles in the consumer behavior literature (e.g., Ambika et al., 2023) record how these advances change from a peculiar oddity into an omnipresent utility for buyers and examine the drives of the past 20 years of ex