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Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Singapore Management University

Business and Corporate Communications

2023

Qualitative

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Full-Text Articles in Business

Beyond Anthropomorphism: Unraveling The True Priorities Of Chatbot Usage In Smes, Tamas Makany, Sungjong Roh, Kotaro Hara, Jie Min Hua, Felicia Si Ying Goh, Wilson Yang Jie Teh Jul 2023

Beyond Anthropomorphism: Unraveling The True Priorities Of Chatbot Usage In Smes, Tamas Makany, Sungjong Roh, Kotaro Hara, Jie Min Hua, Felicia Si Ying Goh, Wilson Yang Jie Teh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examined business communication practices with chatbots among various Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) stakeholders in Singapore, including business owners/employees, customers, and developers. Through qualitative interviews and chatbot transcript analysis, we investigated two research questions: (1) How do the expectations of SME stakeholders compare to the conversational design of SME chatbots? and (2) What are the business reasons for SMEs to add human-like features to their chatbots? Our findings revealed that functionality is more crucial than anthropomorphic characteristics, such as personality and name. Stakeholders preferred chatbots that explicitly identified themselves as machines to set appropriate expectations. Customers prioritized efficiency, …