Does a chatbot's location influence consumer attitude and intentions?

Chatbots engage in real-time conversations with customers. Moreover, they can collect data in a digital landscape that is increasingly sensitive to privacy. The objective of this study was to help strategic marketing decision-makers better understand how and where chatbots can be used effectively to gather consumer data. We analyse whether consumers' privacy concerns influence their adoption. Furthermore, we invest if privacy concerns, and subsequently information disclosure, are significantly influenced by the chatbot's location. In an experimental study (N = 398) we compared the (in)direct effects of the same chatbot in two different locations: Facebook and its own retailer's website. Our results show that interacting with a chatbot on Facebook led to significantly lower attitudes towards chatbots and lower intentions to use chatbots. Both relationships are sequentially mediated via higher privacy concerns and less comfort with information disclosure. Companies therefore need to consider where to deploy their chatbots.