Interactivity, presence, and purchase intention: An empirical study in virtual collaborative shopping

Abstract

This study is one of the first attempts to study factors that influence consumer attitude and behavior in the context of virtual collaborative shopping.Presence is recognized as an essential factor that distinguishes collaborative virtual environment technology. The influence of presence on usera??s attitudes and behavior is widely reported in the literature. This research studied the effects of technological characteristics on the formation of presence, and the impact of presence on consumer satisfaction and purchase intention.An experiment was conducted to test the research model. Results show that object interactivity is a significant predictor of telepresence. Person interactivity has positive effects on both telepresence and social presence. Both telepresence and social presence positively influence satisfaction. Satisfaction significantly affects purchase intention. Further analysis reveals that social presence plays a more critical role than telepresence in influencing consumer satisfaction.This study enlightens the marketers with practical insights and lays useful foundation for future researchers.