Impact of Interactive Recommendation Systems on Shopping Outcomes: the Moderating Role of Trust, Innovativeness and Self-expressiveness

Interactive recommendation systems (IRS) help shoppers decide about what to buy based upon an interactive dialog. Despite their growing popularity, there is a lack of research on the impacts of IRS on final shopping outcomes such as positive word-of-mouth, store revisit and purchase intention in the product category. This study aims at filling the gap. A field experiment with customers of a Belgian grocery retailer allows us to observe high increases in purchase intentions not only for the recommended product but also for the whole product category. Moreover, levels of trust, perceived innovativeness and perceived self- expressiveness customers experience with IRS either reinforce or deteriorate positive word- of-mouth and store revisit intention. This warns retailers about the opportunities but also the threats of using IRS in their customer service strategy.