THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL PRESENCE ON THE EXPERIENCES

OF ONLINE SHOPPERS

A Cross-Cultural Study

Khaled Hassanein, Milena Head

DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Chunhua Ju

College of Computer and Information Engineering, Hangzhou University of Commerce, P. R. China

Keywords: Social presence, cross-cultural, Website design, Canada, China.

Abstract: A notable difference between online and offline shopping that is hindering the growth of e-Commerce is the

decreased presence of human and social elements in the online environment. This paper explores how

human warmth and sociability can be integrated through the Web interface to positively impact online

consumer perceptions. More specifically, the impact of design elements (emotive text and socially-rich

pictures) is explored across two national cultures: Canadian and Chinese. Our results show increased levels

of social presence through socially-rich design elements (i.e. socially-rich text and pictures) as having a

positive impact on antecedents of attitude/intention of Canadian online shoppers (perceived usefulness, trust

and enjoyment). We were also able to demonstrate similar results with Chinese online consumers in the case

of perceived usefulness and enjoyment but not for trust. The paper concludes with a discussion of these

results outlining implications for practitioners and directions for future research.

1 INTRODUCTION

Electronic commerce (e-Commerce) promises

significant potential to revolutionize the way

business is conduced, however, to date online

business is still relatively insignificant. In particular,

business-to-consumer e-Commerce transactions

have not reached a point of critical mass (Ho et al.,

2006).

A notable difference between online and offline

consumer markets that is hindering the growth of e-

Commerce is the decreased presence of human and

social elements in the online environment. The

traditional offline shopping experience includes a

wide range of emotions involving various types of

social interactions with humans (Tauber, 1972). In

contrast, the online shopping experience may be

viewed as lacking human warmth and sociability

(Gefen and Straub, 2003). Online vendors can try to

overcome the more impersonal, anonymous and

automated stigma of online shopping (Riegelsberger

et al., 2003) by making their virtual storefront

socially rich (Kumar and Benbasat, 2002).

This paper explores how human warmth and

sociability can be integrated through the Web

interface to positively impact consumer perceptions.

More specifically, the impact of design elements

(emotive text and socially-rich pictures) is explored

across two national cultures: Canadian and Chinese.

Research has shown that the infusion of social

presence into e-Commerce Websites has a positive

effect on the perceptions of North American online

consumers (Gefen and Straub 2003; Cyr et al. 2006).

More specifically, it has a positive effect on various

Web experiences such as trust, perceived usefulness

and enjoyment. This paper seeks to understand if

these positive impacts of social presence hold for

other cultures (in particular, the Chinese culture).

Hassanein K., Head M. and Ju C. (2007).

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL PRESENCE ON THE EXPERIENCES OF ONLINE SHOPPERS - A Cross-Cultural Study.

In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - HCI, pages 11-18

DOI: 10.5220/0002354300110018

 SciTePress

2 THEORY

In this section we provide a brief overview of two

important lines of research that are fundamental to

our hypotheses development: social presence and

cultural influence.

2.1 Social Presence

Social presence is broadly defined as the extent to

which a medium allows users to experience others as

being psychologically present (Fulk et al. 1987). A

more specific perspective of social presence focuses

on “warmth”, where a medium is perceived to be

warm if it conveys a feeling of human contact,

sociability, and sensitivity (Rice and Case, 1983).

This is the perspective we adopt in the current study.

Gefen and Straub (2003) suggest that pictures

and text content can convey a personal presence in

the same way as personal photographs and letters

can. Choice of language can help create a sense of

psychological closeness, warmth and social presence

(Weiner and Mehrabian, 1968; Nass and Steuer,

1993). The effect of pictures may be even more

pronounced, as our visual senses tend to dominate

our perceptions and may be more susceptible to the

influence of social presence (Short et al., 1976).

In computer mediated communications,

automated and impersonal interactions can become

more warm and personal by integrating interface

elements that help to build perceived social

presence. This, in turn, can help to promote

acceptance and use of such systems. For example,

in an online environment, Dormann (2001) suggests

that incorporating emotional or social displays (via

pictures, text, etc.) can be a key factor to the success

of e-Commerce.

2.2 Cultural Influence

Culture is defined as the “collective programming of

the mind which distinguishes the members of one

human group from another” (Hofstede 1980). In his

widely cited research in this area, Hofstede (1980)

identifies the following dimensions for

characterizing national cultures:

(i) Power Distance: The extent to which less

powerful members expect and accept that power is

distributed unequally.

(ii) Individualism vs. Collectivism: Looking after

oneself and immediate family vs. loyalty to cohesive

groups.

(iii) Uncertainty Avoidance: The extent to which

members feel threatened by unknown situations.

(iv) Masculinity vs. Femininity: Competitiveness

and material success vs. nurturing behaviour and

quality of life.

Context is another commonly cited cultural

dimension that had been affirmed by many

researchers for its validity and usefulness (de Mooij,

2003). According to Hall and Hall (1990), “high

context or low context refers to the amount of

information that is in a given communication as a

function of the context in which it occurs”. In high

context cultures (such as China), information is part

of a contextual understanding and is implicit, while

in low context cultures (such as Canada) information

is conveyed explicitly.

Previous research has shown that culture can

influence the attitude towards and adoption of

information technologies (see Ford et al. 2003 for a

comprehensive review). More specifically, research

results have shown that there are differences

between cultural-based perceptions and satisfaction

with Websites (Simon 2001; Tsikriktsis 2002) and e-

Commerce adoption (Pavlou and Chai 2002; Hwang

et al., 2006).

2.3 Research Hypotheses

A number of IS studies have examined various

determinants of consumer attitude towards and

intentions to transact with a Website. Three common

determinants of attitude/intention within the Web

context are the perceived usefulness (PU) construct

of TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) (Davis

1989); Trust; and Enjoyment.

2.3.1 Social Presence and Perceived

Usefulness

There is a psychological connection between

perceiving that a medium is warm and its usefulness

across a range of communications tasks (Rice and

Case, 1983). Therefore, when a Website serves as a

communication interface between an online vendor

and a customer, it is expected that social presence

will be positively related to perceived usefulness.

This relationship between social presence and

perceived usefulness has been investigated and

established by Straub (1994), Karahanna and Straub

(1999), and Gefen and Straub (1997).

The above studies have established the positive

influence of social presence on PU within a Western

culture. Since China is classified as a culture with a

high degree of uncertainly avoidance (Hofstede

1980) a rich interface incorporating social presence

elements such as pictures of people with products

should help reduce the degree of consumer

ICEIS 2007 - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

uncertainty in conducting business with a particular

Website. We, therefore, hypothesize that:

H1: Increased levels of social presence will have

a positive impact on perceived usefulness for both

Canadian and Chinese consumers while shopping

online.

2.3.2 Social Presence and Trust

Trust is especially important in the online

environment to positively impact consumers’

attitudes and purchasing intentions (Corritore et al.

2003). Since trust is created within the context of a

social environment (Blau 1964), social presence is a

necessary condition for the development of trust

(Gefen et al. 2003). A lean social presence

environment may facilitate information hiding and

untrustworthy behaviour. Whereas, a high social

presence environment may engender trust among

participants (Gefen et al. 2003).

China is considered to be a collectivist society

(Hofstede, 1980), where trust is built through

frequent face-to-face communications (Jarvenpaa

1998). In the online environment, face-to-face

interaction is minimal, making it more difficult for

Chinese consumers to develop trust online.

Based on the above discussion, a socially rich

Web interface should help engender trust for

consumers in general, and may play a larger role for

collectivist societies, such as China. We, therefore,

hypothesize that:

H2: Increased levels of social presence will have

a positive impact on trust for both Canadian and

Chinese consumers while shopping online

2.3.3 Social Presence and Enjoyment

Enjoyment is an important experiential aspect in

offline shopping (Morris 1987). Likewise,

enjoyment has emerged as an essential factor in

online shopping with significant impacts on online

consumers’ attitudes (Koufaris et al. 2001/02).

(Lombard and Ditton (1997) argue that perhaps the

most prominent psychological impact of social

presence is enjoyment. Previous research has shown

that increased social presence positively influences

enjoyment for low context cultures (Cyr et al. 2006).

High context cultures (such as China) tend to

place strong emphasis on mood and emotion, as

compared to low context cultures (such as Canada).

Therefore, high context cultures tend to favour face-

to-face over computer-mediated interactions (Liu

and Murphy 2003). Hence, infusing social presence

through interface elements may play a larger role for

high context societies, such as China. We, therefore,

hypothesize that:

H3: Increased levels of social presence will have

a positive impact on enjoyment for both Canadian

and Chinese consumers while shopping online.

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

An empirical study was conducted to investigate our

proposed hypotheses. The study was designed as a

one-factorial experiment manipulating three levels

of Website social presence with three independent

groups. The study was conducted in Canada and in

China using the same experimental design and

methodology. Subjects were given the task of

purchasing a shirt/top as a gift for a female friend.

Clothing was selected as the online product to sell

on the Websites for this study as it is a product that

all consumers would be familiar with and to which

social presence could be easily and naturally

applied.

Each of the three Websites displayed the same

products and followed the same design. Only social

presence elements were manipulated on the sites.

The experiment was conducted entirely online and

subjects could complete the study from any

computer with an internet connection, thus

increasing the online shopping task realism.

Following the completion of the task (selecting a

woman’s top for a friend), subjects completed a

questionnaire about their experiences on the clothing

Website they visited.

3.1 Experimental Websites

Three Websites were created for a fictitious clothing

company (called myCloset.com). A fictitious

company was chosen to avoid any potential bias

from previous branding or experience. The

manipulated levels of social presence were

incremental, as shown in Table 1. With this

approach, differences between the three groups

could be directly attributed to the increasing levels

of social presence.

As previously mentioned, this study was

restricted to manipulating social presence through

imaginary interaction elements of textual and

graphic information. Example screen shots of the

study sites are shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3 which

show the same product page for the low, medium

and high social presence Websites respectively.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL PRESENCE ON THE EXPERIENCES OF ONLINE SHOPPERS - A Cross-Cultural Study

Table 1: Social Presence (SP) Manipulations of the

Experimental Websites.

Website SP Level Available Features

SP-1 Low

• Products are shown in a

solitary format

• point form, functional

descriptions

SP-2 Medium

• all features of SP-1

• socially-rich text:

descriptions aimed at

evoking positive emotions

SP-3 High

• all features of SP-2

• socially-rich pictures:

products are shown worn

by people in emotional,

dynamic settings

It is important to note that the same experimental

Websites were used for both the Canadian and

Chinese samples. While the Chinese participants

were residents of mainland China, they were all

fluent in English and had experience with English e-

Commerce Websites. This was a highly controlled

study, with no Website localization (translations

and/or other cultural markers).

Figure 1: SP-1 Low Social Presence Website.

Figure 2: SP-2 Medium Social Presence Website.

Figure 3: SP-3 High Social Presence Website.

3.2 Subjects

A total of 158 subjects participated in this

experiment (78 for the Canadian study and 80 for the

Chinese study). Subjects were largely undergraduate

and graduate students and the demographics were

similar among the Canadian and Chinese samples.

Each subject participated in only one of the three

groups. Subjects were randomly assigned to the

social presence groups to control for confounding

effects due to possible variations in individual

ICEIS 2007 - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

characteristics. ANOVA tests found no significant

differences for subjects in the various treatment

groups in terms of Internet and online shopping

experience. Similarly, there were no significant

differences in the proportion of male-to-female

subjects across the three groups. Therefore,

randomization of assignment across groups for both

cultures was successful in terms of subject

characteristics.

3.3 Validity

Measures for our dependent variables (i.e. perceived

usefulness, enjoyment and trust) came from existing

literature, where they had been repeatedly shown to

exhibit strong content validity. Construct items used

in this study are provided in the Appendix.

Construct validity (measured through convergent

and discriminant validity) examines the extent to

which a construct measures the variable of interest.

A construct is considered to exhibit satisfactory

convergent and discriminant validity when items

load highly on their related factor and have low

loadings on unrelated factors. Table 2 includes the

results of the varimax rotation on the original 12

items for both the Canadian and Chinese samples.

Hair et al. (1995) suggested that an item is

significant if its factor loading is greater than 0.50.

From the original 12 items, one was eliminated in

the Canadian sample (T3) and three were eliminated

in the Chinese sample (PU4, E2, and T3) due to high

cross-loadings on other constructs.

Table 2: Construct validity.

Canada China

Construct

Items

Item

PU1

.610 .856 .785 .844

PU2

.806 .783

PU3

.778 .790

PU4

.622

.804 .900 .810 .914

.847

.872 .879

.775 .788

.860 .821 .698 .789

.820 .904

.605 .750

Table 2 also shows that the Cronbach α-values

(measure for construct reliability) were satisfactory

for both the Canadian and Chinese samples.

4 RESULTS

A MANOVA analysis was conducted to examine

differences between group means for the three

dependent variables of social presence (i.e.

perceived usefulness, trust and enjoyment) across

cultures (Canada and China). Groups were defined

by the three levels of manipulated social presence

(SP-1, SP-2, and SP-3). MANOVA test statistics

included Pillari’s Trace, Wilks’ Lambda, Hotelling’s

Trace, and Roy’s Largest Root. The p-values of

these statistics were found to be significant (p<0.01)

across all three groups of respondents for both the

Canadian and Chinese samples. Table 3 summarizes

the MANOVA results, where social presence level is

the independent variable, and perceived usefulness,

trust and enjoyment are the three dependent

variables.

Table 3: MANOVA Results for Level of Social Presence.

Canada China Dependent

Variable

F Sig. F Sig.

7.360 .001** 3.221 .045*

Trust

8.503 .000*** 0.207 .813

Enjoyment

6.101 .004** 4.468 .015*

Note: Level of Social Presence is the independent variable;

* denotes significance at .05 level; ** denotes significance at the

.01 level; *** denotes significance at the .001 level

As shown in Table 3, the F-statistic was

significant for all three dependent variables in the

Canadian sample (p<.01), but only significant for

perceived usefulness and enjoyment in the Chinese

sample (p<.05). Significance indicates that at least

one of the social presence levels is different from the

others. Contrast results, shown in Tables 4 and 5,

indicate where these differences are. It is interesting

to note that there were no perceived differences for

usefulness, trust and enjoyment between SP-1 and

SP-2 for Canadian or Chinese subjects. Hence, the

addition of emotive text to Website design did not

influence the dependent variables investigated in this

study for either culture.

However, there were significant differences

between SP-1 and SP-3 and between SP-2 and SP-3.

In the Canadian study, these differences were

exhibited for perceived usefulness, trust and

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL PRESENCE ON THE EXPERIENCES OF ONLINE SHOPPERS - A Cross-Cultural Study

enjoyment. In the Chinese study, there were

significant differences between SP-1 and SP-3 and

between SP-2 and SP-3 for enjoyment, but only

between SP-1 and SP-3 for perceived usefulness.

There were no differences in terms of trust for the

Chinese participants for any pair-wise comparisons

of Website conditions. This indicates that the

addition of socially-rich pictures to Website design

had a more influential impact on user perceptions

than the addition of emotive text for both cultures.

This is in line with extant literature that suggests the

effects of pictures may be more pronounced than the

effects of text alone (Short et al., 1976; Fogg, 2002;

Olson et al., 2002; Riegelsberger, 2003). However,

this impact is more pronounced for Canadians than

for Chinese. While the Chinese found the addition

of socially-rich pictures to Website design to

positively impact their enjoyment, it had a marginal

effect on their perceptions of usefulness and no

impact on their perceptions of trust. On the other

hand, Canadian perceptions of enjoyment,

usefulness and trust were significantly enhanced

though the inclusion of socially-rich pictures.

A summary of our hypotheses and whether they

were supported or not for the Canadian and Chinese

samples is provided in Table 6.

Table 4: MANOVA Contrast Results for the Canadian

Sample.

Dependent Variable

Contrast

PU T E

Contrast Est. .519 -.013 .096

Std. Error .291 .239 .294

SP-1

vs.

SP-2

Sig. .078 .955 .744

Contrast Est. -1.115 -.846 -.933

Std. Error .291 .239 .294

SP-1

vs.

SP-3

Sig. .000 .001 .002

Contrast Est. -.596 -.859 -.837

Std. Error .291 .239 .294

SP-2

vs.

SP-3

Sig. .044 .001 .006

Table 5: MANOVA Contrast Results for the Chinese

Sample.

Dependent Variable

Contrast

PU T E

Contrast Est. .439 .211 .293

Std. Error .369 .334 .340

SP-1

vs.

SP-2

Sig. .238 .529 .392

Contrast Est. -.992 -.060 -1.062

Std. Error .391 .353 .360

SP-1

vs.

SP-3

Sig. .013 .865 .004

Contrast Est. -.553 .151 -.769

Std. Error -.403 .364 .371

SP-2

vs.

SP-3

Sig. .174 .679 .041

Table 6: Hypotheses Support Summary.

Canada China

H1 supported supported

H2 supported not supported

H3 supported supported

5 CONCLUSION

This research suggests that infusing social presence

through the Web interface could play an important

role in enhancing the experience of online

consumers. Specifically we have shown that

increased levels of social presence through socially-

rich design elements (i.e. socially-rich text and

pictures) as having a positive impact on antecedents

of the attitude/intention of Canadian online shoppers

(perceived usefulness, trust and enjoyment).

We were also able to demonstrate similar results

with Chinese online consumers in the case of

perceived usefulness and enjoyment. However,

higher levels of social presence failed to have a

significant influence on establishing trust within an

online environment with Chinese consumers. This

may be due to one or more of the following factors:

(i) Our study utilized the same Website for

the Canadian and Chinese studies. Although the

Chinese subjects were all English speaking,

they might have perceived more trust had we

localized the Websites in terms of language

(Mandarin instead of English); nature of

emotive text used (Chinese narrative instead of

English narrative) photos (Asians instead of

Westerners); clothing fashions (Chinese-based

instead of Western-based fashions).

(ii) The Chinese culture places a lot of emphasis

on frequent face-to-face interactions over time

in terms of building trust. Hence, it is more

difficult to establish swift trust with Chinese

subjects based on one encounter with a Website

as was the case in our experimental setup even

if the interface is socially rich.

Results from this study can have direct

implications for designers of online shopping

Websites. We have shown that social presence can

be infused by including descriptions aimed at

evoking positive emotions and pictures that depict

products with people in social settings. Text and

pictures are standard elements in Webpages, not

requiring advanced technologies or additional

resources from the designers’ or users’ points of

view. Therefore, inducing a sense of social presence

through these design elements on commercial

ICEIS 2007 - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

Websites can be an attainable goal for e-vendors. It

is also important to realize that Website artefacts

that are appropriate for one culture may not have the

same effects on members of another culture. In this

regard, it is important to ensure that such artefacts

are appropriately localized to the target culture to

ensure the realization of its intended effects.

A definite area for future research is to explore

whether localizing the Websites to the Chinese

cultures as outlined above would yield different

results (i.e. show social presence as having a

significant influence on trust). Future research needs

to also determine the extent to which the findings

presented in this paper can be expanded to include

other persons, settings, products and times. Areas

for future research include examining the influence

of increased social presence for other product types;

other cultures and other applications (e.g. B2B and

C2C) The impact of other socially-rich design

elements (such as virtual communities, chats,

message boards, human Web assistants, etc.) should

also be explored.

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APPENDIX

All items were measured on a seven-point Likert

strongly disagree/strongly agree scale.

Perceived Usefulness (PU)

Sources: Moon and Kim (2001); Chen et al. (2002)

PU1: This Website provides good quality

information

PU2: This Website improves my performance in

assessing clothing online

PU3: This Website increases my effectiveness

for clothing assessment online

PU4: This Website is useful for assessing

clothing online

Enjoyment (E)

Sources: Ghani and Deshpande (1994); van der

Heijden (2003); Hwang and Yi (2002)

E1: I found my visit to this Website interesting

E2: I found my visit to this Website entertaining

E3: I found my visit to this Website enjoyable

E4: I found my visit to this Website pleasant

Trust (T)

Sources: Gefen et al. (2003)

T1: I feel that this online vendor is honest

T2: I feel that this online vendor is trustworthy

T3: I feel that this online vendor cares about

customers

T4: I feel that this online vendor would provide me

with good service

ICEIS 2007 - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems