Enterprise GenAI deployment, environmental externalities, and consumer accountability responses: attribution of blame and reduced intention to transact

Abstract

Purpose This research examines whether disclosing the environmental externalities of a customer-facing GenAI assistant reduces consumers’ intention to transact by increasing blame attributed to the adopting firm, and whether user-choice architecture moderates this process. Design/methodology/approach Three between-subjects experiments used fictitious online retailers deploying customer-facing GenAI assistants. Study 1 (N = 160) tested the effect of environmental-externality disclosure on intention to transact. Study 2 (N = 200) tested attribution of blame to the adopting firm as a mediator. Study 3 (N = 640) used a 2 × 2 design crossing information type with user-choice architecture, comparing default-integrated and user-opt-in access. Findings Environmental-externality disclosure reduced intention to transact. Disclosure also increased blame attributed to the adopting firm, which mediated this reduction. The attributional pathway, including the negative indirect effect on intention to transact, was stronger under default integration than under user opt-in. Practical implications Online retailers should treat environmental-externality disclosure and user-choice architecture as governance issues. Default integration can heighten blame toward adopting firms when consumers become aware of GenAI’s environmental externalities, making interface design consequential for consumer responses. Originality/value This study extends attribution-based consumer research to customer-facing digital-service adoption by showing how GenAI’s upstream environmental externalities can be attributed to the firm deploying the assistant. It also identifies user-choice architecture as a boundary condition shaping this attributional pathway and related accountability responses.