Online Social Presence
Which type of social presence is more effective:
other customers or firm representatives?
Author
Martijn Hoving
Verlengde Nieuwstraat 26a 9724 HD Groningen 06-53894113
m.hoving.3@student.rug.nl 1669877
University of Groningen
Faculty of Economics and Businesses MScBA Marketing Management Master Thesis
August 2012
1st supervisor: Dr. J. Liu
PREFACE
Two years ago I decided to write my thesis in a lower tempo, since I got an opportunity for an internship at an online marketing agency. This opportunity finally led to a job at another online marketing agency, which slowed down the writing of my thesis even more.
Nevertheless, these routines within the world of online marketing provided me with input for the topic of my thesis. Even though the writing of this thesis was a long and bumpy road, I enjoyed the research and way of thinking that this period in my live gave me. I am really glad that I was able to write this thesis.
SUMMARY
The keyword of the world we are living in nowadays is “online”. Two decades ago most products were sold in brick and mortar businesses and information (in the orientation process of the purchase funnel) was derived from brochures, stores and word-of-mouth. Nowadays people go to websites to get information and opinions of others concerning products and services. More importantly, people buy their products and services in an online environment. Shopping in an online environment is not quite social or interactive, in comparison with shopping in brick and mortar businesses. Nevertheless, the online shopping experience could be enhanced with adding social cues (with a certain level of interactivity) to the web
environment.
This thesis investigates the use of social cues in an online environment, the effects of these social cues on customers’ attitude towards the website and purchase intentions and the role that interactivity has in this relationship. Former researches explored that adding social cues to websites (and enhance the social presence of the website) affect customers’ attitude towards the website, which led to an effect on customers’ purchase intention. Other studies focused on the role of interactivity in this relationship. To deepen this topic, this study focuses on two social presence types: social presence that represents other customers and social presence that represent firm representatives. These types of social presence are derived from former research concerning the topic of social presence. More specifically, we focus on the difference in effect of these social presence types on customer attitude towards the website and the moderating role that the level of interactivity has in this relationship.
Moreover, the differences between the effect of social presence of other customers and social presence of firm representatives on consumers’ attitude towards the website were not
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ... 2
SUMMARY ... 3
1. INTRODUCTION ... 6
1.1 SOCIAL PRESENCE AND ONLINE COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS ... 6
1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT ... 8
1.2 ACADEMIC AND MANAGERIAL RELEVANCE ... 9
1.3 STRUCTURE OF THIS THESIS ... 10
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 11
2.1 SOCIAL PRESENCE IN GENERAL ... 11
2.2 SOCIAL PRESENCE IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT ... 12
2.3 SOCIAL PRESENCE AND CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDE ... 14
2.4 SOCIAL PRESENCE FROM OTHER CONSUMERS OR FIRM REPRESENTATIVES ... 15
2.5 THE ROLE OF INTERACTIVITY ... 17
3. METHODOLOGY ... 19 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN ... 19 3.2 VARIABLES ... 20 3.3 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN ... 22 3.4 PROCEDURE ... 23 3.5 PLAN OF ANALYSIS ... 23 4. RESULTS ... 25 4.1 MANIPULATION CHECK ... 25 4.2 RELIABILITY TEST ... 26 4.3 HYPOTHESES ... 27 5. DISCUSSION ... 28 5.1 CONCLUSION ... 28
5.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS AND RESEARCHERS ... 30
6. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH ... 32
6.1 LIMITATIONS ... 32
6.2 FURTHER RESEARCH ... 32
REFERENCES ... 34
APPENDIX A: CRONBACH’S ALPHA SPSS OUTPUT ... 39
APPENDIX B: ANOVA SPSS OUTPUT ... 42
1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 SOCIAL PRESENCE AND ONLINE COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS
The introduction of the Internet in the 90’s changed the world of marketing and communications extensively. A new communication medium was born and with the development of ecommerce, there was also the birth of a new sales channel. By definition, ecommerce involves carrying out commerce on the web, which includes buying and selling products (Thuraisingham, Gupta, Bertino, & Ferrari, 2002). These developments provided large opportunities for existing companies and new startups. The new startups that exploited the Internet opportunities used the new sales channel. An example of a new media startup with excellent results is Bol.com, a so-called Internet company. Founded in 1999, Bol.com started with selling books and compact discs online. A few years later the webshop expanded into the largest online department store of the Netherlands, with a turnover of € 268 million in 2009 (Boogert).
Wehkamp, the mail ordering company with the traditional catalogue channel changed its sales strategy towards a multi-channel approach (Libbenga, 2010) with an emphasis on ecommerce. The company developed a webshop and a strategy that is entirely focused on online sales. Apparently, existing companies without an online strategy also exploited Internet, by means of using online communications to let Internet users learn about their products and services and for the branding of their company and brands (Ryan, 1999). Consequently, the amount and frequency of online communications boosted in the last two decades. Nevertheless, marketing managers are still searching for ways to improve online communication effectiveness. Therefore, the improvement of online communication effectiveness is the general topic of this thesis.
A factor of importance for communication effectiveness, for every medium (traditional- and new media), is social presence. Social presence can be defined as:
“the extent to which a medium allows users to experience others as being psychologically
present” (Gefen & Straub, 2004).
capacity of the communication medium to transmit information about facial expression, direction of looking, posture, dress and non-verbal vocal cues (Short et al., 1976). The book of these authors was published in 1976, long before the introduction of new media. The authors assessed the level of social presence of several communication media types, such as business letters, face-to-face communication and television. Obviously, face-to-face
communication was the medium with the highest level of social presence, followed by television and video.
The introduction of new media, where new media can be defined as “computer-mediated
communication media” (Valacich & Paranka, 1993) caused many questions concerning the
level of social presence in new media and the effect on the human mind. Social presence seems to have a close relationship with social response theory, which states that people apply social rules to respond to computers when computers possess humanlike attributes, or social cues (Wang, Baker, Wagner, & Wakefield, 2007). Social presence implies a psychological connection with the user, who perceives the website as “warm”, personal, sociable, thus creating a feeling of human contact (Yoo & Alavi, 2001).
In general, electronic communication media such as the Internet are typically viewed as low in social presence (Miranda & Saunders, 2003). More specific, ecommerce (buying and selling goods and services on the internet) can be viewed as lacking human warmth and sociability, since it is more impersonal, anonymous and automated than traditional face-to-face commerce (Hassanein & Head, 2007). Social presence is a quality of a communications medium and the level of social presence in new media is questionable. People apply social rules to computers, when computers possess humanlike attributes. Nevertheless, ecommerce, in comparison with face-to-face commerce, lacks sociability.
Consumers’ perception of the degree of social presence of a website has a relationship with consumers’ attitude towards the website (Ciu, Wang, & Xu, 2010; Gefen & Straub, 2004; Hassanein & Head, 2007; Wakefield, Wakefield, K.L. : Baker, J., & Wang, 2010; Wang et al., 2007).
within an online environment. The influence of social presence of a website on consumers’ attitude towards the website is yet treated in former studies.
The relationship between social presence of both customers and firm representatives and customer attitude is moderated by interactivity: the level of interactivity influences the strength of the relationship between the degree of social presence and customer attitude (Fortin & Dholakia, 2005). Next to that, there is a positive relationship between the level of interactivity of a web advertisement and the social presence it conveys (Fortin & Dholakia, 2005).
In conclusion, it can be stated that there are some evidences that higher levels of social presence improve online communication effectiveness. Nevertheless, there is little evidence of the difference between the effect of social presence of other customers and social presence of firm representatives on attitude towards the website (and customer purchase intentions). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to empirically examine the comparison in effect of social presence of other customers and social presence of firm representatives in ecommerce websites on attitude towards the website (and customer purchase intention).
1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT
The topic of social presence of other customers and firm representatives in relation with consumers’ attitude has not received much attention in the academic literature. Therefore it will be the major objective of this thesis. The problem statement of this research will be:
“How does social presence in an online environment affects attitude towards a website and how will this differ between social presence of other customers and social presence of a firm representative?
The sub-research questions of this thesis will help examining the problem statement:
1. Is there a difference between the effect of social presence of other customers and social presence of firm representatives in an online environment on consumers’ attitude towards the website?
1.2 ACADEMIC AND MANAGERIAL RELEVANCE
The central research question of this thesis will contribute to the existing marketing theories concerning social presence. It will provide a better understanding of the concept of social presence and its influence on online communication effectiveness.
The topic of social presence in a communications medium received much attention in the academic literature (Biocca, Harms, & Burgoon, 2003; Fortin & Dholakia, 2005; Gefen & Straub, 2004; Hassanein & Head, 2007; Kumar & Benbasat, 2002; Short et al., 1976). Nevertheless, the introduction of the new media, created some new arguments to examine social presence in an online setting. A number of recent studies with the topic of online social presence, however, focus solely on its relationship with trust.
Recent studies with the topic of online social presence examine its effect on consumers’ attitude (Gefen & Straub, 2004; Hassanein & Head, 2007). Next to that, some recent studies with the topic of online social presence focus solely on one design feature of a website and its effect on social presence and other variables (Do-Hyung Park, Lee, & Han, 2007; Duan, Gu, & Whinston, 2008; Holzwarth, Janiszewski, & Neumann, 2006; Kumar & Benbasat, 2006; Riegelsberger, Sasse, & McCarthy, 2005; Wang et al., 2007).
In this thesis the effect of social presence on customer purchase intentions will be examined by the use of several design features, instead of one. This provides a contribution to the existing literature about online communication. Hassanein and Head (2007) state that an area for future research is the examination of other socially rich design elements: their study only examined the impacts of socially rich text and pictures on perceived social presence. These other socially rich design elements will be examined in this thesis, representing both other consumers and firm representatives.
The findings of this research may provide marketing managers and marketing departments with ‘a blueprint’ when it comes to designing a website or webshop. Even companies with a relative tedious image can enhance their website or webshop towards a ‘social’ instrument or tool. When a high level of social presence shows to have a significantly large effect on online communication effectiveness (and in the case of ecommerce on customer purchase
entrepreneurs will be provided with evidence to add warmth and sociability in their online sales channel.
Finally, this study will support companies in increasing their online communication effectiveness. Next to the new concept of social media, about which decision makers are trying to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use of (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), there is the concept of social presence. Social presence is used in websites and webshops to make the customer feel that they are not the only one that made a decision or bought something on the website. Therefore, it increases online communication effectiveness.
1.3 STRUCTURE OF THIS THESIS
2.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 SOCIAL PRESENCE IN GENERAL
In this chapter, the factor social presence is presented. Social presence in general comes down on social presence within the traditional media, which excludes social presence within new (online) media. Social presence online will be discussed in section 2.2.
The factor social presence is regarded as an important quality of a communications medium (Short et al., 1976). Every communications medium possesses a certain level of social presence. Social presence can be defined as: “the extent to which a medium allows users to
experience others as being psychologically present”(Fulk, Steinfield, Schmitz, & Power,
1987). Moreover, social presence comes down on the sense of being with (an)other(s) (Biocca et al., 2003). Thus, social presence depends not only on the words conveyed during
communication, but also on a range of nonverbal and verbal cues and the communication context (Rice, 1993). This means that every medium possesses a certain degree of social presence, regardless of the human contact that the medium provides.
Social presence concerns the “warmth” of a medium. A medium is perceived to be warm if it gives the user a feeling of human contact, sociability and sensitivity. This implies that social presence is not an established characteristic of a medium, it is a by the user perceived factor of the communications medium.
The function of social presence within a communications medium is to let the user of the medium perceive that other users are present. In this way the user feels warmth and sociability: the sense of being with another.
Social presence differs among communication media on factors as sociability, warmth,
personalness and sensitivity (Short et al., 1976). Moreover, Lombard and Snyder-Duch (2001) provides us with three distinct forms of social presence:
• “Perceived interactivity”: when a person perceives to engage in two way
communication, when the communication is in fact one-way, from the medium to the person (“It seemed like we were interacting”)
• “Perceived human”: when a person perceives that s/he is engaged in communication with another human being, when in fact the human being is merely a
medium/technology (“It seemed like a person!”)
These forms of social presence clarify the role or function that the degree of social presence can have within a medium: giving the consumer the feeling that he is interacting (while he only receives communication from the medium), giving the consumer the feeling that he is in one room with the other (while they are in different locations) and giving the consumer the feeling that he is communicating with a person (while he is communication with a
medium/technology).
As stated before, the perceived degree of social presence within a medium varies by each user. Nevertheless, there is a general degree of social presence for every medium, acquired from existing studies, which can be either high or low. Within the traditional media, face-to-face communication is obviously the medium with the highest social presence, followed by television and video (Short et al., 1976). The telephone is a communications medium with a relative low level of social presence and the medium with the lowest degree of social presence is the (business) letter (Short et al., 1976).
2.2 SOCIAL PRESENCE IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
To clarify the distinctions between traditional media and new media when it comes to the degree of social presence, the social presence within online media is presented in this chapter. No evidence is found that the definition of social presence in an online environment differs from the definition of social presence in general. Social presence in an online environment can also regarded as “the extent to which a medium allows users to experience others as being
psychologically present” and “the sense of being with another”.
Nevertheless, social presence has also been employed to evaluate the social aspects of the relationship between users and Websites in the context of online shopping (Fortin & Dholakia, 2005; Gefen & Straub, 2004; Kumar & Benbasat, 2006).
Thus, the difference between offline and online social presence is the focus of online social presence on the evaluation of social aspects of the user-Website relationship. This difference is in line with the link between social presence and social response theory. Social response theory argues that people respond socially to computers if these possess humanlike attributes or social cues (Wang et al., 2007). Cui et al. (2010), who investigated how social presence cues in consumer-to-consumer interactions on websites have an effect, argue that these social cues have impact on consumers’ perception of cognitive social presence, since:
• Information about other consumers online enables the consumer to realize other consumers are doing the same thing
• This information makes consumers perceive that another human is present, such that they consider their online activity two-way communication in stead of one-way communication
• This information also provides online consumers with external cues, helping consumers reduce uncertainty during their shopping processes. This causes the website to be perceived as more controllable.
Hence, (online) social presence is all about the perceived presence of other consumers or representatives of the firm on a website. This perceived presence could be realized by the actual presence of other consumers/human kinds or by the medium/technology. An important conclusion of the first chapter is the difference in degree of social presence of the several (traditional) media. The degree of social presence for new media, however, is more difficult to determine. Therefore, it can be concluded that social presence can be high or low in any given (ecommerce) website (Gefen & Straub, 2004; Papadopoulou, Andreou, Kanellis, & Martakos, 2001). This implies that the general level of social presence in computer-mediated communication media varies, depending on the social cues on the medium.
feeling that it represents the firm or another customer visiting the firms’ website (Wang et al., 2007).
Four cues are particularly relevant to cause these social responses (Nass & Steuer, 1993): • Language: written and spoken communication
• Voice: human speech
• Interactivity: when a human responds on previous inputs instead of responding directly on input
• Social role: individuals define other entities as humans by observing the roles (e.g. doctor, mother, tutor) that those entities fill
Wang et al. (2007) examined these cues: a comparison between a Website that uses only text and limited interactivity and a website that uses language, voice, interactivity and social role. The authors concluded that a website containing the four cues is significantly more social. The change in consumers’ attitude, realized by the higher level of social presence, will be discussed in the next chapter.
2.3 SOCIAL PRESENCE AND CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDE
The main issue of this study is whether social presence influences consumers’ attitude. In this chapter the change in consumers’ attitude, caused by a higher level of social presence, will be discussed. Attitude is defined as:
“A learned notion to respond in a particular way towards a particular object or class of objects in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way” (Hassanein & Head, 2007).
Attitude is not behaviour straightforward, yet attitude influences behaviour. Attitudes are learned notions, which mean that they will be affected by information and experiences (Lee, 2007). An individuals’ behaviour is determined by his or her behavioural intentions, which are determined by the individuals’ attitude (and subjective norms) (Hassanein & Head, 2005). Some authors found a positive influence of attitude on intention, in an online environment (Pavlou, Liang, & Xue, 2005; van der Heijden, Verhagen, & Creemers, 2003). In this study the dependent variable attitude is used, since:
• Attitudinal beliefs are very relevant in the consumer decision-making context (Brown, Broderick, & Lee, 2007; Venkatesh & Brown, 2001)
Thus, if a consumer makes a decision (e.g.: a purchase decision, a decision to go online or a decision to subscribe for a newsletter), this decision is caused by a change in attitude. Consumers’ favourable attitudes towards websites expect to ease online transactions and reduce barriers to the adoption of ecommerce, and consequently reduce the barriers to purchase from an ecommerce website (Hassanein & Head, 2007).
There are many studies that examine the relationship between social presence and consumers’ attitude. Hassanein and Head (2007) state that higher levels of perceived social presence show a positive impact on perceived usefulness, trust and enjoyment, leading to more favourable attitudes. These authors came to this conclusion through examining the impact of socially rich text and socially rich picture design elements on the perception of online social presence (and its effect on attitudes towards websites).
Van der Heijden (2003) argues that attitude is a construct including positive attitude towards the website, as well as the intention to visit the site frequently. The authors studied the perceptions of online shoppers regarding trust and technology and their attitudes and intentions to shop online at particular websites.
2.4 SOCIAL PRESENCE FROM OTHER CONSUMERS OR FIRM REPRESENTATIVES
Being with another could also imply the presence of a firm representative. Consumers respond positively to social cues that are designed to portray a firm representative, such as a service employee or shopping guide (Wang et al., 2007). Moreover, research suggests that the most important disadvantages of online shopping are the absence of pleasurable experiences, social interaction and personal consultation by a company representative (Holzwarth et al., 2006; Jahng, Jain, & Ramatnurthy, 2006). These firm representatives could make the level of message also more personal, because they are tend to give the consumer service, for example while they chat in real time with the customer. When the level of message personalization increases, interactivity perceptions and site effectiveness also increases (Song & Zinkhan, 2008). Moreover, real time chat activities between customer and firm representatives are high in interactivity and social presence (Rosenbaum & Huang, 2002). These web-based
interactions between the firm and the customer are important in building trust into the
in customer attitude, caused by changes in the level of social presence (Hassanein & Head, 2007).
It is clear that social presence can be regarded as the sense of being with another and that this “another” could be a firm representative. Yet, this “another” could also be another customer. A customer on a website can be influenced by the cue of presence of other consumers on the web page (Ciu et al., 2010). This cue could be, for example, information on the web page about how many other consumers currently are browsing the same product (Ciu et al., 2010). Information about other consumers online enables the customer to sense anothers’ presence. Next to that, information about other consumers may help consumers reduce uncertainty during the shopping process, which may cause them to perceive the website as more
controllable (Short et al., 1976). Thus, consumers on websites can be influenced by cues that represent other consumers.
Ciu et al. (2010) provided us with the example of information about the number of other customers that are browsing the same product. These authors also state that consumers like to review others’ opinions or comments about products, when making online shopping
decisions. This premise is confirmed by Kumar and Benbasat (2006) who proved that the provision of consumer reviews increase social presence of the website. Thus, another example of cues that represent other consumers is the online review. Online reviews on a website create the feeling of a place where consumers interact, which increase the social presence of the website (Dholakia, Zhao, Dholakia, & Fortin, 2001). Moreover, the presence of consumer reviews of a product results in consumers perceiving the website as providing more, for the customer relevant, information about the product. This increases consumers’ perceptions that the website responses to their needs and engages in more personalization, which results in a higher social presence of the website (Fogg, 2003).
which form of social presence is the most effective: social presence by a firm representative or social presence by other consumers. There is an insignificant amount of research that examines that question. Senecal and Nantel (2004) argued that recommendation systems have more influence on consumers’ attitude than firm representatives (human experts). Brown et al. (2007) consider online reviews to be word-of-mouth communications and part of the
consumer-dominated channel of marketing communication. These authors argue that this form of marketing communication is perceived to be more reliable, credible and trustworthy by consumers, compared to firm-initiated communications. Thus, social presence caused by other consumers is more effective than social presence caused by firm representatives.
H1: Social presence caused by other consumers has a higher influence on consumers’ attitude towards the website than social presence caused by firm representatives.
2.5 THE ROLE OF INTERACTIVITY
Cui et al. (2010) emphasize that the classic theory of social presence argues that important social cues that are available in face-to-face communication often are missing in computer-mediated-communications. Social cues on a website change the attitude of the customer, yet website interactivity enhances the perception of this website ‘socialness’ level (Fortin & Dholakia, 2005; Lombard & Snyder-Duch, 2001). An example of such a website feature is the use of an avatar with vivid facial expressions as a shopping agent on a website (Holzwarth et al., 2006). If such social cues/website features are incorporated into websites, the visitors’ attitude will change. The visitors’ perception of online interactivity will influence this attitude change. Hence, the limited degree of social presence in online communications will be
weakened in this way (Sproull & Kiesler, 1986). Thus, if companies provide their websites with social presence cues consumers’ attitude will change. Consumers perception of online interactivity influences this relationship and let the consumer perceive that he has more control over the website visit. The consumers will feel as well that they are capable to communicate with the website or other consumers and the consumers will show a higher favorable attitude towards the website (Ciu et al., 2010).
2.6 CONCEPTUAL MODEL
The following conceptual model can be derived from the literature research:
Social Presence Attitude
Interactivity
+
+
Figure 1: conceptual model
The conceptual model shows the relationship between social presence and the attitude of the customer. This relationship is moderated by interactivity. In this study social presence is divided in social presence of other customers and social presence of firm representatives. The premise of this study is:
“Social presence of other consumers has a higher influence on consumers’ attitude towards the website than social presence caused by firm representatives. This relationship is
moderated by interactivity.
3.
METHODOLOGY
The research objective of this study was to empirically examine the difference in effect of social presence of other customers and social presence of firm representatives on consumers’ attitude towards the website and the moderating role of interactivity in this effect. In this chapter the choice of the research will be argued, followed by the method of data collection.
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
A research design may be classified as exploratory or conclusive (Malhotra & Birks, 2007). The objective of exploratory research is to provide insights and understand marketing phenomena. The objective of conclusive research is to describe phenomena, to test specific hypotheses and to examine specific relationships (Malhotra & Birks, 2007).
In this study certain phenomena are researched by testing hypotheses and examining relationships between variables. Therefore, this study can be pinpointed as conclusive. There are two types of research that consists in conclusive research designs: descriptive research and causal research. Descriptive research is often used to describe marketing characteristics or functions. The major objective of causal research is to obtain evidence regarding causal relationships. The major objective in this study is to obtain evidence regarding causal relationships, through hypotheses testing and relationship examining. Therefore, this study can be pinpointed as causal research.
The methodology that will be used in this study is an experiment. This method is chosen in order to infer causal relationships (Malhotra & Birks, 2007). The aim of the experiment is to measure if the independent variable has an impact on the dependent variable and if the moderating variable influences this impact. In this study the independent variable is social presence and the moderating variable is interactivity. The experimental design is a factorial design. The factorial design is used to measure the effects of the independent variable and moderating variable and to allow for interactions between variables.
acquaintances was asked to participate in the study and when finished, asked to share the survey with their acquaintances. To enlarge the sample size a free dinner was raffled among the respondents. The result of this recruitment tactic was a sample consisting of people from different age, gender and education. The four surveys, representing the four conditions, where evenly spread among the respondents, resulting in four differentiated, yet similar sized groups. The groups in the sample consist of 28 participants per group, resulting in a sample size of 112. A minimum of 80 observations (a minimum of 20 observations per group) is required for an adequate analysis {{128 Hair, Joseph F. 2010}}, therefore meeting the academic standard for experimental research and ANOVA techniques.
3.2 VARIABLES
The experimental design consists of an independent variable, a moderating variable and dependent variables, which are described in the following paragraph.
The following variables are involved in this experiment: • Independent variable: social presence type • Moderating variable: level of interactivity • Dependent variable: attitude towards website
• Dependent variable: attitude towards online purchasing • Dependent variable: online purchase intention
Hereafter, all the variables and the manipulations of these variables will be discussed.
Independent variable: social presence type
recommendation source was manipulated (leading to four conditions: other consumers, human experts, recommender system or no recommendation source).
Moderating variable: level of interactivity
The moderating variable used in this experiment is interactivity. The level of interactivity is a characteristic of the social presence cue on the webpage that is presented to the respondents. The moderating variable interactivity is manipulated into two levels: a high level and a low level. The social presence cue representing other customers consists of two conditions: a low level of interactivity, represented by online reviews of other customers and a high level of interactivity, represented by a Facebook live chat function, in which customers can chat with each other. This manipulation is derived from Ballantine (2005) who manipulated
interactivity in three conditions. A static website represented the low condition and a website with extensive opportunities for both person- and machine-interactivity represented the high condition. The social presence cue representing firm representatives also consists of two conditions: a low level of interactivity, represented by a contact form and a high level of interactivity, represented by a live chat function, in which a customer can chat with a firm representative. Other research performed in the past is in line with the manipulation in this study. Cui et al. (2010) for example, manipulated the variable interactivity by presenting a webpage with product information to one group of respondents and presenting a webpage with online consumer comments to the other group of respondents.
Dependent variable: attitude towards website
One of the dependent variables in this study is attitude towards the website. Consumer decision-making is caused by a change in attitude. When a social presence cue on a webpage positively changes the attitude of consumer, the effect will be a change in the decisions of the consumer (for example the decision to purchase or to subscribe to a newsletter). Thus, online purchase intention is influenced by the change in attitude (Pavlou et al., 2005; van der
Dependent variable: attitude towards online purchasing
The second dependent variable in this study is attitude towards online purchasing.
Consumer’s behavioral intentions on websites are determined by the individuals’ attitude (Hassanein & Head, 2007). Purchase intention is a behavioral intention. Nevertheless, a consumer can have more behavioral intentions on websites, as we described in the description of the first dependent variable. In this dependent variable we narrow attitude down into attitude towards online purchasing. A positive attitude towards online purchasing reduces barriers to the adoption of ecommerce and is expect to ease online transactions (Hassanein & Head, 2007). In this study, we divide online purchase intention into two scales: attitude towards online purchasing and online purchase intention (the latter will be described
subsequently). The attitude towards online purchasing scale consists of behavioral intentions concerning the favorability and appeal to purchase online, on the website, perceived by the consumer. The attitude towards online purchasing scale is used as the second dependent variable in this study, based on a 7-point Likert scale.
Dependent variable: online purchase intention
The third dependent variable in this study is online purchase intention. The difference between the online purchase intention scale and the attitude towards online purchasing scale is that the latter concerns the attitude, while online purchase intention concerns the actual purchase a consumer accomplishes. The online purchase intention scale is used as the third dependent variable in this study, based on a 7-point Likert scale.
3.3 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
The experimental design in this study is a 2 (social presence from customers vs. social presence from firm representatives) x 2 (high interactivity vs. low interactivity) experimental design. This results in 4 experimental conditions, which are being depicted in Table 1. The participants in the study will be assigned to one of the 4 conditions.
Social presence of other customers Social presence of firm representatives Low interactivity M (sd) M (sd) High interactivity M (sd) M (sd)
3.4 PROCEDURE
The procedure starts with sending the respondents a hyperlink for the questionnaire (which can be found in the appendix). The hyperlink automatically disperses four different
questionnaires among the respondents. Consequently, each respondent has an equal chance to get one of the four conditions. The questionnaire starts with an introduction about
Zonvakantieboeken.nl, the fictive ecommerce travel website. A travel website is chosen, since holidays are the second most popular purchases online, after travel tickets (Marcussen, 2009).
After the introduction the participant will find a short text and an image of manipulated product page of the website. The text shortly describes the function of the webpage and in particular the functionality of the social cue, which is the part of the webpage that is
manipulated in the four experimental conditions. The participant is asked to read the text and scan the webpage thoroughly. After this, the participant has to fill in the questions. The first 9 statements represent three scales: attitude towards the website (e.g. I would like to visit this website again in the future), attitude towards purchase intention (e.g. I like the idea of
booking a holiday on this website) and online purchase intention (e.g. I would book a holiday on this website at this moment). The participant has to fill in one of the 7 options from totally agree to totally disagree (a 7 Likert scale). After these statements the participant is presented two manipulation check statements. The objective of these statements is to test whether the manipulations in the experiment functioned well. At the end of the survey the participant is presented some controlling statements (education, age, gender and online purchase
experience).
3.5 PLAN OF ANALYSIS
To test the hypotheses in this study a univariate ANOVA is performed. The ANOVA is chosen, since the effect of the independent variable and moderating variable on the dependent variables has to be tested, as well as the combined effects of these variables. In an ANOVA test the variance between groups with multiple factors is analyzed. Therefore, the Univariate ANOVA is very suitable for testing the hypotheses in this study.
The manipulation checks for the independent variable “type of social presence” and
The T-Test provides us with the insight if a variable differs per group. Thus, if we present the web page with the social cue of other customers to two groups it is expected that these groups perceive this web page higher on social presence; in comparison with the groups we present a web page with the social cue of a firm representative. This expectation is tested for
significance differences with the use of an Independent Samples T-Test.
The internal consistency of the survey, scales and questions is determined by performing a reliability test on the variables. This reliability test is measured by using Cronbach’s Alpha. The three scales in this study consist of different survey questions and Cronbach’s Alpha determines if these questions may form the scales. Otherwise the questions have to be tested separately.
Internal validity
The internal validity in this study is guaranteed by controlling other variables (extraneous variables) that could cause effects, instead of the manipulated variables. The four conditions (webpages) are exact identical, with the exception of the manipulated social cues. Next to that, the participants are presented a thorough description of the web page and social cue, which results in ruling out any effect of extraneous variables on the dependent variable. Therefore, a high internal validity is guaranteed in this study.
External validity
4.
RESULTS
In total, 128 respondents (N=128) participated in the research, by fulfilling one of the four questionnaires. The sample consists of 75% males and 25% females, as a result of the snowball technique that was used to recruit the respondents. The difference in gender on attitude towards the website was not an objective in this research. The average age of the respondents is 30,2 years. The youngest participant is 19 years old, while the oldest participant is 62 years old. The age range of the participants is therefore 43. The age that occurs most frequently in the group of participants is 27. The most attended education of the participants is HBO with 57%, followed by University with 34%. No significant differences in attitude towards the website were found in a comparison between education groups, age groups and gender.
4.1 MANIPULATION CHECK
Since the independent variable and moderating variable are not tangible, a manipulation check is added at the end of the surveys. The objective of this manipulation check is to test whether the manipulations in the experiment functioned well. This test is performed by the use of an Independent Samples T-Test.
The manipulation check question “I felt the presence of other customers on the website” results in a difference in means, between the two experimental conditions with Social Presence from other customers and the two experimental conditions with Social Presence from firm representatives. This difference in means is significant (P = .006)
The manipulation check question “This website has shown a high level of interactivity to me” results in a difference in means, between the two experimental conditions with a high level of interactivity and the two experimental conditions with a low level of interactivity.
Manipulation check Means I felt the presence of other consumers on this website
Type of Social Presence: Customer 4,27
Type of Social Presence: Firm representative 2,41 This website has shown a high level of interactivity to me
Level of interactivity: low 4,48
Level of interactivity: high 4,46
Manipulation question P-value
I felt the presence of other consumers on this website .006 This website has shown a high level of interactivity to me .083
Table 2: Manipulation check
4.2 RELIABILITY TEST
The three scales (attitude towards website, attitude towards online purchasing and online purchase intention) consist of different questions in the survey. To test the internal
consistency of the survey a Cronbach’s alpha test is performed. The results can be found in table 2.
Variables Cronbach's alpha
Attitude towards website .747
Attitude towards purchase intention .800
Online purchase intention .776
Table 3: Cronbach's alpha for the three scales
4.3 HYPOTHESES
There is one independent variable (type of social presence) in this study, divided in two groups (customer and firm representative). Next to that, there is one moderating variable (interactivity), divided in two groups (low and high). For the several hypotheses an ANOVA 2-way test is been conducted. The confidence level that is used in this test is 95%.
H1: Social presence caused by other consumers has a higher influence on consumers’ attitude towards the website than social presence caused by firm representatives.
H2: Higher perceived online interactivity influences the strength of the relationship between social presence in an online environment and customers' attitude.
For the attitude towards the website the ANOVA failed to reveal a main effect for the type of social presence (firm representative and other customer) (F = 1.405), p = .238). Social
presence caused by other consumers does not have a higher influence on consumers’ attitude towards the website than social presence caused by a firm representative. This was also the case for attitude towards purchase intention (F = .066), p = .797) and for online purchase intention (F = .677), p = .412). Therefore, H1 is not supported.
For the attitude towards the website the ANOVA failed to reveal a main effect for the level of interactivity (F = 2.721), p = .102). Social presence does not have a stronger effect on
5.
DISCUSSION
In this part of the thesis conclusions are made on the basis of the data and the outcomes. This data and outcomes will be related to the theoretical findings. The problem statement and sub-research questions will be answered. Further, the data and outcomes will be discussed. Lastly, this part of the thesis ends with a discussion about recommendations of online social presence for managers and researchers, based on the results of this research.
5.1 CONCLUSION
The objective of this thesis is to analyze the difference in effect of social presence of
customers and social presence of firm representatives in an online environment on consumers’ attitude towards the website and the effect of interactivity as a moderator.
The first research question concerns the difference in effect of social presence of customers and social presence of firm representatives on consumers’ attitude towards the website. Customers are enabled to sense the presence of other human beings when information about other customers or firm representatives is presented. Examples of types of information about other customers are information about the number of other customers that are browsing or bought the same product, consumers’ reviews about products, contact forms that allow a customer to contact a firm representative and live chat functions with firm representatives. The facilitation of such types of information influences consumers’ attitude in a positive way (Aksoy, 2001). Social presence conveyed by other customers may differ in effect on
customers’ attitude, compared with social presence conveyed by other customers.
Brown et al. (2007) and Senecal and Nantel (2004) consider social cues from other customers as more effective as social cues from firm representatives. In the experiment the manipulation attempted to let the respondents experience a social cue on a website with a varying type of social presence (other customers or a firm representative). Nevertheless, the differences between the effects of social presence of other customers on attitude towards the website and social presence of a firm representative on attitude towards the website are not statistically significant and the corresponding hypothesis (H1) is therefore rejected.
the attitude of the customer and website interactivity enhances the perception of this ‘socialness’ level (Fortin & Dholakia, 2005; Lombard & Snyder-Duch, 2001). The limited degree of social presence in online communications is weakened by the incorporation of social cues. Consumers’ perception of online interactivity influences the relationship between social presence and attitude towards the website. The consumers perceive to have more control over the website visit and feel as well that they are capable to communicate with the website or other consumers. As a result of that the consumers will show a higher favorable attitude towards the website (Ciu et al., 2010).
In the experiment the manipulation attempted to let the respondents experience a social cue on a website with a varying level of interactivity (high and low). Yet, the difference between the effects of social presence with a high level of interactivity on attitude towards the website and the effects of social presence with a low level of interactivity on attitude towards the website are not statistically significant and the corresponding hypothesis (H2) is therefore rejected. Thus, the results of the experiment do not support the premise of the second research question.
An overview of the hypotheses is presented in table 4, based on the results of the questionnaires and the outcomes of analyses:
Hypotheses
H1: Social presence caused by other consumers has a higher influence on consumers’ attitude towards the website than social presence caused by firm representatives.
Rejected
H2: Social presence will have a stronger effect on consumers’ attitude towards the website when the degree of interactivity is high, compared with when the degree of interactivity is low.
Rejected
Table 4: hypotheses
Several causes for the non-supportive outcomes of the experiment can be named. The first possible cause is the situation that the respondents experienced. The experimental conditions in this experiment consisted of webpage screenshots. Hence, the respondents could
experience the situation on a product page in a lesser extent in comparison with an
experimental condition that would take place in a real website environment. The perceived differences between the manipulated social cues could be larger in a real website
environment. As a result of this, the deviation of attitude towards the website between the two types of social presence was not significant, which led to the rejection of the first hypothesis. The second possible cause of the non-supportive outcomes of the experiment is the level of interactivity the respondents experienced. This cause could as well be instigated by the
perceived experience of the four experimental conditions among the respondents. In the rather static situation of this experiment (the webpage screenshots), the differences in level of
interactivity were not perceived by the respondents. The high level of interactivity in two experimental conditions and the low level of interactivity in the other two experimental conditions did not differ sufficiently. When the experiment took place in a real website environment, the respondents may experience the level of interactivity in a better way. This could lead to larger, significant deviations between the four experimental conditions and support for the second hypothesis.
The possible third cause of the non-supportive outcomes of the experiment is the instruction in the survey itself and the lack of time that respondents could have. The instruction in the survey explained the need for the respondents to extensively study the screenshot of the webpage, before they could answer the survey questions. When respondents did not extensively study this screenshot and quickly continue to answer the survey questions (because a lack of time for example), they may not have experienced the social cue well enough. This resulted in insignificant differences in the scales among the four groups of respondents and led to the rejection of the two hypotheses.
5.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS AND RESEARCHERS
When social cues concern firm representatives, managers have to train those firm representatives in dealing with customers and customer satisfaction online.
6.
LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH
This study led to several insights in the field of online social presence. Nevertheless, there are some limitations that might be interesting for further research
6.1 LIMITATIONS
There are several points of criticism that can be assigned to this thesis. First of all, this study focused on social presence type and the level of interactivity, both manipulated by using showing four social cues in four experimental conditions. There are more forms of social cues that can be added to a website. To create a complete view of social presence and its influence on attitude towards the website these forms have to be researched as well. Examples of these other forms of social cues are recommender systems and social media counters (“this product page is shared by 400 others on Facebook”). Secondly, there are more elements that can influence the attitude towards a website of customers. Examples are the reputation of the website, the reputation, brand awareness and trust of the brand, the user experience of the website as perceived by the visitors and the experiences of the website that a visitor already has. A third point of criticism is the lack of a real website environment in this study. The decision to not perform this experiment in a real website environment is taken, since there was a lack of resources to build a real website environment. Next to that, there was
inexperience in building real websites to perform the experiment. A real website environment could lead to a real website experience among the respondents and could therefore lead to better results.
6.2 FURTHER RESEARCH
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APPENDIX A: CRONBACH’S ALPHA SPSS OUTPUT
CRONBACHS ALPHA: ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE WEBSITEReliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardize d Items N of Items ,747 ,750 3
Inter-‐Item Correlation Matrix
This website makes it easy for me
to build a relationship
with this company.
I would like to visit this
website again in the
future. I'm satisfied with the service provided by this website. This website makes it
easy for me to build a relationship with this company.
1,000 ,536 ,369
I would like to visit this website again in the future.
,536 1,000 ,595
I'm satisfied with the service provided by this website.
,369 ,595 1,000
CRONBACHS ALPHA: ATTITUDE TOWARDS PURCHASE INTENTION Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardize d Items N of Items ,800 ,801 2
Inter-‐Item Correlation Matrix
The idea of using this website to buy a product or service is appealing.
I like the idea of buying a product or service on this website. The idea of using this
website to buy a product or service is appealing.
1,000 ,669
I like the idea of buying a product or service on this website.
,669 1,000
CRONBACHS ALPHA: ONLINE PURCHASE INTENTION Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardize d Items N of Items ,776 ,779 3
Inter-‐Item Correlation Matrix
It is likely that I would
return to this store’s
website.
It is likely that I would
consider purchasing from this website in the long term.
It is likely that I would
buy from this store,
for this purchase. It is likely that I
would return to this store’s website.
1,000 ,620 ,513
It is likely that I would consider purchasing from this website in the long term.
,620 1,000 ,486
It is likely that I would buy from this store, for this
purchase.
APPENDIX B: ANOVA SPSS OUTPUT
Descriptive StatisticsType of Social Presence Level of interactivity Mean Std. Deviation N
Attitude_towards_website Customer Low 4,4286 1,18931 28
High 3,8810 1,18709 28
Total 4,1548 1,20933 56
Firm representative Low 4,5357 1,14518 28
High 4,3214 1,35623 28 Total 4,4286 1,24838 56 Total Low 4,4821 1,15805 56 High 4,1012 1,28223 56 Total 4,2917 1,23116 112 Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention Customer Low 4,6964 1,42296 28 High 4,5536 1,46148 28 Total 4,6250 1,43099 56
Firm representative Low 4,3036 1,66299 28
High 4,8036 1,30766 28
Total 4,5536 1,50357 56
Total Low 4,5000 1,54626 56
High 4,6786 1,37982 56
Total 4,5893 1,46154 112
Online_purchase_intention Customer Low 3,5000 1,18113 28
High 3,3810 1,18187 28
Total 3,4405 1,17225 56
Firm representative Low 3,7500 1,35969 28
High 3,5357 1,46099 28
Total 3,6429 1,40253 56
Total Low 3,6250 1,26820 56
High 3,4583 1,31896 56
Tests of Between-Subjects Effects
Source Dependent Variable
Type III Sum of
Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Corrected Model Attitude_towards_website 6,940a 3 2,313 1,549 ,206
Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention 3,929b 3 1,310 ,607 ,612 Online_purchase_intention 1,988c 3 ,663 ,391 ,760 Intercept Attitude_towards_website 2062,861 1 2062,861 1381,127 ,000 Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention 2358,893 1 2358,893 1092,555 ,000 Online_purchase_intention 1404,861 1 1404,861 829,422 ,000 SP_type Attitude_towards_website 2,099 1 2,099 1,405 ,238 Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention ,143 1 ,143 ,066 ,797 Online_purchase_intention 1,147 1 1,147 ,677 ,412 Interactivity Attitude_towards_website 4,063 1 4,063 2,721 ,102 Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention ,893 1 ,893 ,414 ,522 Online_purchase_intention ,778 1 ,778 ,459 ,499
SP_type * Interactivity Attitude_towards_website ,778 1 ,778 ,521 ,472
Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention 2,893 1 2,893 1,340 ,250 Online_purchase_intention ,063 1 ,063 ,037 ,847 Error Attitude_towards_website 161,310 108 1,494 Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention 233,179 108 2,159 Online_purchase_intention 182,929 108 1,694 Total Attitude_towards_website 2231,111 112 Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention 2596,000 112 Online_purchase_intention 1589,778 112
Corrected Total Attitude_towards_website 168,250 111
Attitude_towards_purchase_ intention
237,107 111
Online_purchase_intention 184,917 111
APPENDIX C: GENERAL PART QUESTIONNAIRES
(INTRODUCTION AND SURVEY QUESTIONS)
Dear respondent,
This experiment forms a part of my Master Thesis at the faculty of Business & Economics at the University of Groningen.
Online shopping is very popular nowadays, especially in apparel and leisure travel. This experiment concerns the use of internet and specifically online shopping. It will take about 4 minutes of your time. Your information will be handled with care and your data will be kept anonymous.
I would like to thank you in advance for the cooperation. Regards,
Martijn Hoving
Zonvakantieboeken.nl is a new online travel shop. Zonvakantieboeken.nl offers you a wide variety of package holidays for both summer and winter. Our travel company is known for its large assortment of customizable holidays and its high level of on-‐site service. On the next page you will see the product page of a
package holiday with the destination Perphentian Islands. Please process the web page carefully and answer questions accordingly.
(Experimental conditions, Appendix D)
This website makes it easy for me to build a relationship with this company.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I would like to visit this website again in the future.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I'm satisfied with the service provided by this website.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The idea of using this website to buy a product or service is appealing
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I like the idea of buying a product or service on this website
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Using this website to buy a product or service at this store would be a good idea
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
