A comparison of conversational chatbots and the internet for consumer information search.
This study compares consumer perceptions of conversational chatbots and the internet for information search. While the internet is a mature platform, conversational chatbots represent an emerging technology, and insight into how consumers view them in relation to the internet for information search...
| Publicado en: | Behaviour & Information Technology Vol. 45; no. 2; pp. 314 - 332 |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Feb2026
|
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191178593&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191178593 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 0144929X B6Q jtl: Behaviour & Information Technology issn: 0144929X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Feb2026 vid: 45 iid: 2 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 191178593 185856860 191178593 191178593 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2517215 191178593 ppf: 314 ppct: 18 formats: tig: atl: A comparison of conversational chatbots and the internet for consumer information search. aug: au: Tafesse, Wondwesen Mamo, Yoseph affil: Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, College of Business and Economics, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates sug: subj: Consumers Psychosocial Factors Consumer Attitudes Chatbot Internet Internet Searching Trust Human Communications Media Paired T-Tests Consumer Health Information Needs Assessment Analysis of Variance Communication Adaptation, Psychological Crowdsourcing Software Surveys Descriptive Statistics Male Female Adult Middle Age Aged Cross Sectional Studies Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Aged: 65+ years Male Female ab: This study compares consumer perceptions of conversational chatbots and the internet for information search. While the internet is a mature platform, conversational chatbots represent an emerging technology, and insight into how consumers view them in relation to the internet for information search is lacking. Drawing on the information source utility perspective, the study builds a comparative model based on four key dimensions: information currency, information customisation, information trustworthiness, and media richness. Additionally, the study investigates consumers' prior experience with conversational chatbots as a moderating factor. Data was collected from 191 respondents recruited through MTurk. Paired sample t-tests assessed mean differences between the internet and conversational chatbots along the four dimensions of information source utility, while ANOVA assessed the effect of prior experience on the mean differences. The findings show that the internet is perceived as a superior platform across all four dimensions. Perceived gaps were wider for the information currency and media richness dimensions, but were narrower for the information customisation and information trustworthiness dimensions. Furthermore, consumers with greater prior chatbot experience perceived narrower gaps between the internet and conversational chatbots across all four dimensions than those with less experience. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|