How anthropomorphic brands foster customer engagement in online food delivery platforms: unveiling the roles of respect, attachment, heroism and readiness

Purpose This study examines how brand anthropomorphism drives customer engagement through the mediating roles of brand respect and emotional attachment, culminating in perceptions of brand heroism, and investigates the moderating effect of customer ability readiness on the heroism–engagement relationship, grounded in Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) theory. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via an online survey from 980 users of AI-enabled food delivery platforms in Iraq. The study measured six constructs: brand anthropomorphism, brand respect, emotional attachment, brand heroism, customer engagement and ability readiness. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with bootstrapping was employed to assess direct, indirect, sequential mediating, and moderated effects. Findings Brand anthropomorphism significantly enhances brand respect and emotional attachment, which sequentially mediate its effect on brand heroism. Heroism, in turn, strongly boosts customer engagement. Moderation analysis indicates that customer ability readiness amplifies the heroism–engagement relationship, showing that consumer competence strengthens the translation of symbolic brand meaning into engagement. The model explains substantial variance across all key constructs. Research limitations/implications The findings extend S–O–R theory by demonstrating how anthropomorphic stimuli activate intertwined cognitive, affective, and symbolic organismic states that culminate in engagement outcomes. By introducing brand heroism as a higher-order symbolic mechanism, the study advances understanding of how moral respect and emotional attachment jointly elevate brands beyond functional service providers in AI-mediated food contexts. Originality/value This research introduces brand heroism as a mediator linking anthropomorphism to engagement and identifies ability readiness as a boundary condition, offering actionable insights for AI-mediated food service branding.