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Hey, Alexa! What attributes of Skills affect firm value?

  • Original Empirical Research
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Abstract

Anthropomorphic voice assistants (e.g., Amazon Alexa) enable users to use natural-language voice commands to control “smart” objects and access the internet for information, shopping, and entertainment. Most manufacturers of voice assistants allow other firms to develop software (i.e., voice assistant functions, VAFs) related to their products and services that add new capabilities to voice assistants. To measure the value of different types of capabilities of VAFs, we empirically study the impact of announcements of VAFs on firm value. We show that informational capabilities and VAFs announced by product firms have a positive moderating effect on firm value. On the other hand, object-control capabilities have no moderating impact on firm value, while transactional capabilities have a negative impact. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. Additionally, necessary avenues for future research within the voice assistant domain are proposed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Nooshin L. Warren for her helpful feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 3202 N Maryland Ave, Milwaukee, WI, 53202, USA

    Navid Bahmani & Amit Bhatnagar

  2. Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Dinesh Gauri

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  1. Navid Bahmani
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Correspondence to Navid Bahmani.

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Bahmani, N., Bhatnagar, A. & Gauri, D. Hey, Alexa! What attributes of Skills affect firm value?. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 50, 1219–1235 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-022-00851-0

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