Examining The Influence of Social Augmented Reality Apps on Customer Relationships: The Mediating Role of Shared Social Experience

Abstract

The development of augmented reality (AR) has provided firms with increasing opportunities to improve customer experiences, especially in a shared context where customers are encouraged to communicate with others. This study investigates the effectiveness of social AR in building relationships among customers through a shared social experience, one which includes shared sense of place, social interaction, and social identity. Data was collected from 378 active users of a social AR application and was analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro. Results from this study show that shared sense of place, social interaction, and social identity mediate the influence of social AR past usage on customer-to-customer relationships, which consequently enhance customers’ continuance intention to use the social AR application. Additionally, the results of the moderated mediation analysis reveal that the indirect effect of social AR past usage on continuance intention is positively moderated by extraversion, such that at higher level of extraversion the mediated relationship becomes stronger. These findings offer important contributions to the AR marketing literature and add valuable insights for practitioners to advance the use of AR technology.