Old roots, new faces: virtual influencers in legacy restaurants

Purpose Legacy restaurants face growing pressure to remain digitally relevant while preserving heritage-based brand identities. This study aims to examine how virtual influencer (VI) adoption shapes consumer sentiment in legacy restaurants and how this relationship is conditioned by managerial education and family involvement. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on organizational imprinting theory and uses and gratifications theory (UGT) as an interpretive consumer-side framework, this study uses a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design using data from 234 legacy restaurants across ten Indian cities observed over eight quarters, combining managerial surveys with natural language processing-based sentiment analysis of online reviews. Findings VI adoption significantly improves consumer sentiment. This effect is stronger in restaurants with professionally educated managers and chefs and weaker in family-managed firms, indicating that digital branding effectiveness is conditioned by organizational legacies. Research limitations/implications This study offers actionable guidance for legacy restaurant managers seeking to modernize brand communication without compromising heritage identity. VI adoption is most effective when led by professionally educated managers and chefs capable of aligning digital campaigns with heritage narratives. Family-managed restaurants should approach VI adoption incrementally, beginning with limited-scope pilots. Originality/value This study extends imprinting theory into artificial intelligence-mediated hospitality branding by conceptualizing VIs as identity-preserving adaptation mechanisms. By integrating UGT with firm-level organizational theory, it explains why consumer responses to identical digital branding tools vary systematically across legacy service firms, thereby advancing research on digital transformation, heritage branding and hospitality innovation.