Maria Mårtensson

This study examines one specific form of presentation content for digital service agents, self-promotion. It is frequently occurring among humans in various settings and it is likely to be richly represented in the training material for digital agents. Two experiments, in which customer satisfaction was the dependent variable, were conducted to manipulate a digital agent’s level of self-promotion (relatively low vs. relatively high) in initial service encounters with potential users. The results show that a relatively high level of self-promotion attenuated customer satisfaction, and that the agent’s perceived self-focus, warmth, and competence mediated this negative impact.