From pixels to purchase: a study of value co-creation in AR/VR environments

Leveraging mobile augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), applications (apps) has garnered unparalleled attention in the retail market. Grounded in S-D logic and value co-creation theories within the context of consumer decision-making, this study examines how reality technological attributes influence consumer continuous use intention as well as purchase intention. This research adopts a mixed-methods approach, text analytics and survey, to identify key themes and user concerns regarding immersive technology experiences. An experiment was conducted in a laboratory environment whereby participants were randomly selected to try either the AR IKEA Place or VR Roller Coaster mobile app. Subsequently, a full-scale web-based survey was administered, followed by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and bootstrap-based PLS multigroup analysis to examine the research model. The results show that these attributes influence consumers’ continuous use intention and purchase intention primarily through value co-creation, which serves as a central mechanism linking technology features to behavioral outcomes. Moreover, the findings reveal distinct value co-creation processes across AR and VR contexts: informativeness and interactivity are more influential in AR, whereas virtual quality plays a stronger role in VR. Finally, this study provides practical insights for retailers and reality app developers to enhance consumer wellbeing through emotional satisfaction, improved decision confidence, and personalized experiences tailored to various consumer needs.