I will be with you Alexa! The impact of intelligent virtual assistant's authenticity and personalization on user reusage intentions

Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) such as Amazon Alexa have evolved from conversational agents (CAs) and grown tremendously in popularity and market size due to their ability to converse naturally with users and perform various tasks and services. Through relationship marketing and human-computer interaction theory and guided by Stimulus-Organism-Response theory, this paper explores the impact of authenticity and personalization of IVAs on trust, commitment, and usage intentions. Moreover, we explore the mediating influence of user involvement and connection with the IVA on the relationship between trust, commitment, and reusage intentions. The findings provide evidence for a positive effect for both perceived authenticity and personalization on commitment as well as trust. The findings also show that user involvement and connection with the IVA mediate the relationship between trust, commitment and reusage intentions. The outcome of this study provides theoretical and practical implications for improving user reusage intentions for IVAs and offer future research directions. •Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) enable effective service provider - customer interactions.•Perceived authenticity and personalization of the IVA are positively associated with trust, commitment.•Commitment and trust are positively associated with user involvement and self-brand connection.•User involvement and self-brand connection are positively associated with reusage intention.