최근 사물 인터넷 기술의 발달로 여러 가지 기기들이 서로 연결되어 소비자들과 상호작용하는 생태계가 형성되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 어셈블리지 이론을 적용하여 Hoffman & Novak(2018)이 제시한 소비자-스마트 객체간 4가지 소비자경험(Self-extension, Self-expansion, Self-restriction, Self-reduction)이 소비자-스마트 객체간 관계에 어떤 영향을 미치는지를 살펴보았고, 이러한 소비자경험과 소비자-스마트 객체간 관계형성의 관계에서 중요한 메커니즘인 소비자통제를 이해하고, 이러한 통제로 인해 소비자-스마트객체간의 관계가 변해가는 현상에 대해 살펴보았다. 이를 위해 extended-self 이론(Belk, 1988)과 소비자 통제 이론(Esmark et al., 2016)에 근거하여 두 번의 실험을 진행하였다. 대학생 182명을 대상으로 한 두 번의 실험 결과 Self-expansion을 경험한 사용자와 Self-extension을 경험한 사용자는 인지통제, 능력통제, 지속사용의도, 만족도 등이 높은 반면, Self-reduction 과 Self-restriction을 경험한 사용자는 인지통제, 능력통제, 지속사용의도, 만족도가 낮았다. 특히, Self-expansion 을 경험한 소비자가 Self-reduction 을 경험했을 때가 Self-expansion 을 경험하지 않고 Self-reduction 을 경험한 소비자보다 인지통제, 능력통제가 모두 낮았다. 본 연구는 최근 새롭게 나타나는 AI-소비자간의 상호작용을 실증분석하여 상호작용 메커니즘을 이해한 논문으로 향후 다양한 스마트 객체와 소비자의 관계를 연구하는데 학문적 기여가 클 것이며, AI 를 활용한 다양한 touchpoint(챗봇, 무인 키오스크, 로봇 등) 를 제공하려는 기업들이 어떻게 효과적으로 고객들의 경험을 창조할 것인가에 대해 실무적 시사점을 제공할 것이다.
As new technologies emerge, various intelligent objects (e.g., AI speakers) have connected and interacted with consumers. Previously unrelated objects are connected and work together as an assemblage (Hoffman & Novak 2018). This study seeks to understand the relationships between consumers and smart objects in an assemblage. We adopt four consumer experiences between consumers and smart objects in assemblage suggested by Hoffman & Novak (2018): self-extension, self-expansion, self-restriction, and self-reduction. Self-extension experience occurs when consumers transfer their capacities into assemblage, whereas in self-expansion experience, consumers treat the assemblage’s capacities as if they are their own. For instance, consumers could allow AI speaker to turn off the light (self-extension), and consumers feel empowered when AI speaker helps consumers’ jobs such as recommending good style for dating (self-expansion). Self-restriction means that consumers limit the assemblage’s capabilities. In the self-reduction experience, consumers’ capability becomes limited by being part of an assemblage. For instance, consumers stop asking AI speaker to turn off lights (self-restriction), or consumers feel a loss of self-esteem when AI speaker does not understand them (self-reduction). In particular, we investigate the critical roles of consumers’ cognitive and behavioral controls in the relationship between consumers’ four experiences in an assemblage. Based on extended-self theory and control theory, we propose 6 hypotheses. The two experiments with 182 participants were conducted in a lab setting. The first experiment is 2 (the presence of self-expansion, the absence of self-expansion) X 2 (the presence of self-reduction, the absence of self-reduction) between-subject experiment. The result of the first experiment indicates that 1) consumers with self-expansion are more likely to show higher cognitive and behavioral control, satisfaction, and intention for continuous use than consumers without self-expansion, 2) consumers with self-reduction are more likely to show lower behavioral control, satisfaction and intention for continuous use than consumers without self-reduction, and 3) consumers who experienced self-expansion first are more likely to show a lower level of cognitive and behavioral control when they subsequently experienced self-reduction than consumers who did not experience self-expansion first. The second experiment is 2 (the presence of self-extension, the absence of self-extension) X 2 (the presence of self-restriction, the absence of self-restriction) between-subject experiments. The results indicate that 1) consumers with self-extension are more likely to show higher cognitive and behavioral control and satisfaction than consumers without self-extension, 2) consumers with self-restriction are more likely to show lower cognitive and behavioral control, satisfaction, and intention for continuous use than consumers without self-restriction, and 3) there is no difference in the level of control, satisfaction, and intention for continuous use between consumers who experience self-extension before they experience self-restriction and consumers who did not experience self-extension before self-restriction experience. The study is the first to quantitatively test the four experiences suggested by Hoffman and Novak (1998) and has many implications for academicians studying the relationship between consumers and various intelligent objects such as robots, self-driving cars, and AI. In addition, this study sheds some light on managing various touchpoints utilizing AI, such as kiosks, robots, and chatbots, and creating meaningful consumer experiences in offline service and e-service encounters.