Table 2.

Research suggestions

Research domain		Major gaps	Research questions
Theory		Lack of unified theories for brand identity that also consider no-brands Lack of theories that integrate the physical, online, and virtual services Lack of theories that can regard humanized robots as customers	What will be an integrated theory of brand identity? Could such theory integrate the physical, online, and virtual service? Can the brand knowledge model be extended to the virtual service? What could change when customers are non-humans (e.g. AI algorithms incorporated or not in humanized robots)?
Themes and context		Lack of studies on no-brands More studies on consumer-brand relationship, particularly the negative site of relationships Lack of studies dedicated to analyzing positive and negative relationships with brands and other stakeholders besides consumers Lack of longitudinal studies tracking the evolution of brand due to the Covid-19 situation Lack of studies on the consumers’ decision process in an era of continuous increment in technology More studies on how brand identity and brand knowledge in different cultural contexts	What strategies and tools are recommended to no-brand? How the continuous increment in technology can affect the consumers’ decision process? how to measure brand value and how monetarize brand health in an era of continuous increment in technology? How technologies enable the co-creation of the brand? How technologies help integrate consumers value and brand? How different can be the marketing communication of well-known and not well-known brands? What are the consequences for brands of Covid-19 situation over time? How manage Ai system that operate as brands (e.g. Alexa, Siri)? And what about when AI systems (embodied in anthropomorphic robots) will operate as customers (for instance in interactions with other stakeholders) What is the perspective of brand identity in less studied cultural contexts? What about brand knowledge?
Characteristics	Cognitive	Lack of understanding the perceptions of service quality, value and risk of brands and no-brands operating with different levels of technologies and AI systems	What relevance will be conferred to service quality with the development of the virtual and artificial contexts? What about the perception of value and risk?
	Identification	Lack of understanding the identification with brands in virtual worlds More research on strategies for brand extensions and co-branding	What associations with brand will be more affective to create identification in the virtual worlds? Can the associations towards the brand be perceived differently in virtual services than in physical and online ones? What about the strategies of brand extensions and co-branding? How does the identification process occur with consumers and no-brands?
	Symbolism	Lak of studies on symbolic cues in the context of virtual world and AI systems Lack of studies on brand coolness	What symbolic cues can brands transfer in the virtual worlds and AI systems? What symbolic cues are expressed by no-brands? How can dimensions of coolness such as iconic, authentic, aesthetical appealing be symbolic cues in online and virtual services?
	Integration	Lack of studies on the personality of brands and no-brands in virtual and AI systems context More studies to understand how humans integrate the information associated with brands from different sources	What traits of personality will prevail in virtual brands? Or on no-brands? Will AI Robots have different personalities? How will humans and AI systems be integrated in the future? Can they (AI systems) become influencers, as human celebrities, and e-influencers? How do consumers integrate the information associated with the brands (different types of service brands) (e.g. lifestyle, innovation, emotional states) and store it in their memory?
	Connection	More studies to understand how brands/no-brands can interact with customers or between brands and non-humans More studies about attachment/avoidance, love/hate, engagement with brands/no-brands and humans in different environmental contexts	How do the human-virtual brands connect? What about when the connection is stablished between brands and non-humans (e.g. AI robots)? How can we extend the attachment/avoidance process to the virtual brands? What about no-brands? Can consumers develop love/hate relationships with virtual service brands? What about with AI algorithms and robots? What about no-brands? How will the evolution of AI systems contribute to the engagement process with brands?
	Emotional	Lack of studies on positive/negative emotional states in difference experience context simultaneously Lack of studies on how AI systems will evolve emotionally and how this is reflected in interactions	How will both positive and negative emotional states be developed between brands and consumers in worlds where consumers experience simultaneously physical, online, and virtual services? With the acceleration of innovation due to the virtual, artificial and nano-technologies, how will consumers and brands evolve emotionally?
	Behavioural	Lack of studies analysing co-creation processes in different types of services, extended to virtual environment and interactions with AI systems Lack of studies on behavioural intentions and actual behaviour comparing virtual and online environments	How will humans behave with no-brands? Will the interactive engaged process and co-creation depend on the type of service brand? If yes, what are the differences? What about other aspects of behavioural engagement? Can humans be more willing to purchase more, pay more or recommend more in the case of virtual brands than online ones? Under what circumstances can it happen?
Methodology		Lack of more exploratory studies (qualitative and mixed approaches) that allow the development of new concepts and frameworks Extensive use of symmetrical analysis of data and lack of asymmetrical analysis Develop new data collection techniques and algorithms to treat them (for instance using AI algorithms) More research on how VR, AR and AI evolve and how to develop research to contribute to brand management and advertising	How will the text mining techniques capable of analysing both qualitative and quantitative data evolve? What other forms of collecting data using surveys will allow a better generalization of the findings? What other techniques of organizing, clustering, and categorizing data will emerge? How will the virtual and augmented technologies evolve? How will the evolution of neuro-techniques conduct us to have more knowledge about the interaction human-non-humans-brands?