Cognitive Social Presence Research Articles

Explaining the gift-giving intentions of live-streaming audiences through social presence: the perspective of interactive marketing

PurposeLive streaming has become an extremely popular form of online service and allows live audiences to give virtual gifts or money to their favorite streamers. This study aims to investigate the impact of the audience's multidimensional social presence on their attitudes toward live streamers and intentions to give money or gifts to streamers, based on the interactive marketing perspective. This study considers live audiences' gift-giving intentions by integrating the theory of multidimensional social presence, which includes awareness, cognitive social presence and affective social interaction, and the theory of reasoned action (TRA).Design/methodology/approachThis study invited audiences who had watched live streaming from several popular live-streaming platforms to respond to a web questionnaire. The unit of analysis was at the individual level. This study applied the purposive sampling technique for data collection. A sample of 258 eligible responses to the online survey was analyzed using SPSS software and the causal relationships between the measurement variables of this research model were verified through structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results indicate that the audiences' awareness of participating in live streaming enhanced their cognitive and affective social presence, which positively affected their attitudes toward live streamers. These attitudes had a further significant effect on their gift-giving intentions. Cognitive social presence and affective social presence were found to play significant mediating roles in the relationship between awareness and attitudes toward live streamers.Originality/valueThis study examines audiences' intention to give gifts to their favorite live streamers, based on the interactive marketing perspective. The interactive relationship between live streamers and online audiences is developed by audience members through the process of inner psychological transformation, which is measured through the multidimensional construct of social presence. This occurs through a mutual influence relationship in which awareness simultaneously influences cognitive social presence and affective social presence, and cognitive social presence impacts affective social presence.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes three noteworthy findings to the theory development through the integrated perspective of the TRA and the theory of social presence. (1) Exploring the influence of belief factors on internal psychological responses and intention in live streaming to expand an innovative application of the TRA. (2) Adopting the multidimensional social presence can help researchers more clearly describe various live-streaming situations and extend the research scope of the social presence theory to live-streaming interactive marketing strategies. (3) From the perspective of live-streamer marketing, this study broadens the research fields of electronic commerce and interactive marketing.Practical implicationsThis study provides four practical implications for platform managers and live streamers. (1) To induce favorable attitudes toward live streamers, live streamers initiate various interactive activities sequentially to establish a social presence with the audience. (2) Live streamers should devote themselves to forming a joyful atmosphere for their followers, as this will trigger audiences' affective social presence to generate positive attitudes and increase followers' intentions. (3) To attract and retain young followers, live streamers must devise interesting content and provide fresh services. (4) Platform managers must create useful widgets to assist live streamers in managing their channels and followers.Social implicationsBuilding friendly real-time interaction between the live streamer and the audience is an important task in live streaming and further influences the income of the live streamer and the platform. The study provides an effective approach to building friendly real-time interaction for the live streamer and manager of live-streaming electronic commerce through the interactive marketing perspective. The approach can help the live streamer manage nice communication with their audience and obtain virtual money and gift-giving from the audience.

The Moderating Role of Age in the Mechanism of the Impact of Social Presence on Purchase Intention in Live-Streaming Shopping

This study explores the different impacts of cognitive and affective social presence on purchase intention in live-streaming shopping for two age groups. Two hundred and four middle-aged and older adults (age: 55–76) and 228 younger adults (age: 18–31, mostly comprised of college students) completed surveys on cognitive social presence, affective social presence, perceived trust, perceived usefulness, and purchase intention. The findings uncover the mediating effects of perceived trust and perceived usefulness in the impacts of cognitive and affective social presence on purchase intention, indicating variations in the influencing relationships between the two age groups. Affective social presence was more important for middle-aged and older adults, with a stronger mediation effect and a significant direct effect. On the other hand, cognitive social presence was more important for younger adults, with stronger meditation effects, stronger total effect, and a stronger direct effect. The results suggest that affective experience plays a more important role in live-streaming shopping for middle-aged and older adults, while information comprehension is more crucial for younger adults. These findings highlight the importance of tailoring live-streaming shopping experiences to meet the needs of different age groups.

Images, reviews, and purchase intention on social commerce: The role of mental imagery vividness, cognitive and affective social presence

Images and textual reviews are central to social commerce sites. But little is known about the mechanism by which image quality and type of textual review (with personal experiences versus facts) impact consumer purchase intention on a social commerce page. We address this knowledge gap and use the stimulus-organism-response (S–O-R) framework to develop our conceptual framework. We hypothesize that image quality and type of textual review impact purchase intention through imagery vividness that functions as a stimulus. Further, imagery vividness impacts purchase intention positively in the social commerce context through social presence. Specifically, the effect of imagery vividness on purchase intention is likely to be serially mediated by cognitive social presence and affective social presence. We collect data by conducting two experiments using a social media post regarding fashion apparel for middle-aged women on Instagram and find support for our thesis.

Affective and Cognitive Social Presence in Chinese Live Commerce -Consumption Value as a Mediator-

Affective and Cognitive Social Presence in Chinese Live Commerce -Consumption Value as a Mediator-

Understanding the determinants of users’ subjective well-being in social networking sites: an integration of social capital theory and social presence theory

ABSTRACTIn order to understand the factors affecting users’ well-being perception derived from social networking sites usage, this study integrates the perspectives of social presence theory and social capital theory to develop a research model. Data were collected from 305 users of Facebook in Taiwan to test the model. The findings reveal that structural capital, relational capital, and cognitive capital exert significant influences on subjective well-being. The results also reveal that structural capital and cognitive capital have positive influence on relational capital, while structural capital influences cognitive capital significantly. The results, on the other hand, show that awareness and affective social presence are the antecedents of structural capital, whereas cognitive social presence and affective social presence influence cognitive capital significantly. Finally, affective social presence is associated with relational capital positively. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Exploring Multidimensional Conceptualization of Social Presence in the Context of Online Communities

Social presence is considered to be a major design principle in computer-mediated communication and an important determinant of online community participation. In this research, a multidimensional conceptualization of social presence that is more specific to online communities was developed and the potential of such a conceptualization to augment motivational theory was investigated to provide a better explanation of online community participation. More specifically, motivational theory and social presence theory are integrated to develop a model explaining online community participation. Different from prior research where social presence was assumed to be fully mediated through motivation, a direct effect of social presence on participation is hypothesized over and above those effects that are mediated by motivational variables. Three social presence dimensions of particular relevance to online communities (i.e., awareness, affective social presence, and cognitive social presence) are identified and investigated. The results of an online survey provide strong support for the appropriateness of the multidimensional conceptualization of social presence and the research model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.