Retail Growth with Service Innovations: Artificial Intelligence as Mediator?

Abstract

: Innovations are necessary to acquire a competitive edge in a market that is becoming increasingly difficult. We have arrived at the stage when competitive advantage will be derived from the ability to collect, analyze, and apply personalized customer data at scale, as well as from the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to comprehend, shape, customize, and optimize the customer purchase process. The objective of the present discourse is to identify the impact of AI as a mediator on the relationships between service innovations and efficient business model factors. The present study is also interested in furthering the analysis to establish the relationship between the efficient business model and brand evangelism through a moderated influence of brand trust in retail industry. A conceptual model was suggested to determine the variables influencing the efficient retail business model and the role of efficient retail business model to brand evangelism with brand trust as the moderating variable. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the relationship between suggested factors using a sample of 389 across five metro cities of India. The outcomes of this study showed that, except three relationships between service innovation components and AI components, all other constructs significantly affected efficient retail business model. The positive influence of efficient retail business model to brand evangelism was also moderated by brand trust.