Beyond the Headset: How Cognitive and Emotional Engagement Drives Consumer Reuse Intention in Virtual Reality Experiences

Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used to create rich consumer experiences. However, little is known about how specific VR design attributes translate into cognitive and emotional engagement and, ultimately, reuse intentions. Grounded in the Stimulus– Organism–Response framework, this thesis examines how vividness, perceived coolness, and parasocial interaction shape consumers' cognitive and emotional engagement with VR and how these engagement states drive reuse intention. An experiment with 125 participants exposed to a 360° VR video via headset was conducted, and the proposed model was tested using PLS-SEM with multigroup analyses. Results show that perceived coolness and parasocial interaction are central drivers of both cognitive and emotional engagement, whereas vividness primarily strengthens emotional engagement. Across the full sample and groups, cognitive engagement consistently emerges as the key predictor of reuse intention, while emotional engagement, although activated, does not directly affect continuance. These findings clarify the distinct cognitive and emotional pathways through which VR experiences influence consumer behavior and highlight the pivotal role of cognition in VR continuance. Managerially, the study suggests that VR experiences should be designed not only to elicit emotion but, crucially, to foster deeper cognitive processing if organizations aim to encourage repeated use and sustained engagement.