Influence of social augmented reality app usage on customer relationships and continuance intention: The role of shared social experience

Abstract

Drawing on augmented reality (AR) and social networks literatures, this study investigates social AR’s influence in building relationships among customers through a shared social experience that includes shared sense of place, social interaction, and social identity. The study recruited 528 active users of a social AR application and used the Structural Equation Modeling (with AMOS 27) for hypothesis testing. Results show that shared sense of place, social interaction, and social identity mediate the influence of social AR usage on customer-to-customer relationships, which consequently enhance customers’ continued intention to use the social AR application. Additionally, the moderated mediation analysis result revealed that the indirect effect of social AR usage on customer-to-customer relationship is positively moderated by extraversion, such that the mediated relationship becomes stronger at a higher level of extraversion. These findings offer important contributions to the social media marketing and AR marketing literature and add valuable insights for practitioners to advance the use of AR technology.