Users’ Interdependence with Online Virtual Advisors: Antecedents and Consequences

Anchored in the view that users’ interaction with IT artifacts as social and interpersonal, this study introduces, defines, and examines the effects and consequences of perceived interdependence. This relational variable captures users’ perceptions of how they and the artifact influence each other’s experiences. The results of an experimental study reveal that users’ perceptions of their interdependence with a virtual advisor affect their intentions to reuse it as well as their willingness to disclose personal information to it. To understand how perceptions of interdependence can be cued via the advisor’s design, the study examines and supports the significant effects of the design-based construct of rapport on perceived interdependence. Perceived rapport, a multidimensional belief, is cued through the use of explanations and expressive speech acts.