• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.93-99
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons why college students use Facebook and the ways in which they feel of social presence while using Facebook. In fact, the study aimed to specify the links between motivations for using SNS and a sense of 'being together'. The findings of this study suggest that major motivations of SNS use were social interaction, entertainment, self-presentation, and information-seeking. Specifically, results from a survey of 280 respondents revealed that college students used Facebook to seek maintenance and connection with friends, to express themselves, to get information about school activities, and to be entertained. These findings are consistent with the existing literature regarding SNS as a primary channel to maintain the existing social relationships among college students. The study also found that all motivation factors, except information-seeking factor, were positively and significantly related to social presence. The strongest correlations were between social presence and Facebook use for social interaction and entertainment needs. It seemed that users who seek social interaction and entertainment needs are more likely to feel a sense of being with others while users who seek to get information are less likely to feel a sense of social presence. These findings implied that to some extent, a sense of social presence occurs in the context of Facebook and that the experience of social presence depends on what college students seek from Facebook use. In addition, the results showed a positive relationship between Facebook use and social presence; the more college students use Facebook, the more they are likely to experience sense of social presence. Given that Facebook provides college students with a place where they can share thought and feelings among friends, it can be concluded that Facebook contributes to the sense of belonging among users. And such feeling may enhance a sense of presence with others while using Facebook. These findings suggest that uses and gratifications researchers should consider the concept of social presence as an important variable in explaining what audience members do with media.

• The Journal of Korean Association of Computer Education
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.69-78
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• 2015

This study aims to analyze differences in the social presence of instructor by instructor's social intervention, the effects of the social presence of instructor on learning satisfaction, and learner characteristics related to the social presence of instructor. Data including subjects' demographic information, interactions, social presence of instructor, social presence of the course, and learning satisfaction were collected from 119 adult learners in an online university in Korea. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, the social presence of instructor was higher in the higher-aged group or active group on intranet message board than the lower-aged group or inactive group on the board. Second, instructor's social intervention increased the level of perceived social presence of instructor. However, the active group on the board has shown the highest level of perceived social presence of instructor, without instructor's social intervention. Third, there was a high correlation between instructor's social intervention and the social presence of instructor, while the variables affecting learning satisfaction were the social presence of instructor and social presence of the course. From the results of this study, it is suggested that instructors' social interventions be provided systematically for those who are not active in social interaction to enhance their learning satisfaction.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.111-137
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• 2021

Embracing the important roles of presence, this study focused on exploring how to enhance online learners' learning engagement and learning achievement in distance higher education settings. More specifically, this study examined the structural relationships among university students' teaching presence, social presence, learning engagement, and perceived learning achievement in online learning environments using structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 206 university students enrolled in online courses in the second semester of 2020 at two large universities. According to the results of the data analysis, there was a significant relationship between teaching and social presence. Teaching presence and social presence predicted learning engagement that positively affected perceived learning achievement. Teaching presence was strongly associated with perceived learning achievement while social presence had a negative impact on that. Additionally, learning engagement had a mediating effect on the relationship between teaching presence and perceived learning achievement. This study found that students who perceived higher levels of teaching and social presences tend to more engage in learning, leading to perceiving better learning achievement. The findings suggest that the design, development, and implementation of effective online instruction should be needed to promote learning engagement, which can be linked to enhancing students' learning achievement. Implications and discussion are addressed in this article.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.27-38
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• 2023

Objectives: This study explores the impact of age groups on social presence and trust among users of medical artificial intelligence chatbots. Furthermore, we investigate the existence of gender differences within these relationships. Method: We collected data through a survey from people who had interacted with general hospital chatbot services, either by making reservations or seeking consultations. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between general characteristics of study population and social presence and trust of artificial intelligence chatbots. Additionally, we conducted stratified analysis to confirm the presence of gender differences within these relationship. Results: Among 300 participants, those aged 50 and older had higher social presence of artificial intelligence chatbots and greater trust of artificial intelligence chatbots (social presence, 𝛽=0.543, p=0.003; trust, 𝛽=0.787, p=0.000). In stratified by sex, women aged 50 and older had higher social presence and trust of artificial intelligence chatbots compared to those in their 30s age group (social presence, 𝛽 = 0.925, p=0.002; trust, 𝛽=0.645, p=:0.007). However, there was no statistically significant relationship between age and chatbot social presence and trust in men. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that advanced age plays a significant roles in users' social presence and trust in medical artificial intelligence chatbots. Futhermore, our findings reveal gender differences with women aged 50 and older showing the most substantial levels of social presence and trust. Therefore, it is expected that this finding can serve as valuable evidence to enhance the satisfaction of medical institution service users, offering crucial insights into the effective utilization of chatbot services.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.1188-1202
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate what communication phenomenon social viewing is associated with, and how satisfaction with using live commerce affects, taking into account that live commerce is a form of content consumption based on social viewing. In particular, social viewing is classified in this study as message production and sharing activities that influence users' satisfaction with live commerce viewing, as well as how two-dimensional social viewing behaviors are associated with users' perception of social presence. Then, the impact of these factors on improving viewing satisfaction is determined. It is also designed to investigate the moderating effect of social presence and viewing satisfaction as a function of the size of users' social networks by taking into account how social viewing affects the degree of social exchange among users. The findings of the analysis are as follows. First, social viewing behaviors. i.e., sharing and production behavior were identified as strong factors that have a direct impact on social presence and viewing satisfaction. Second, social presence plays a moderating role in the relationship between social viewing behavior and viewing satisfaction. Third, the impact of sharing behavior on social presence and viewing satisfaction was greater than the that of production behavior. Fourth, network size (number of followers and followings) had no direct effect on social reality or viewing satisfaction, but it had a moderating effect on the relationship between production behavior and social presence. Based on the findings, the implications and recommendations were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.878-892
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• 2020

This study investigates the influence of social exclusion type and presence of others on consumers' on-going purchase intention when purchasing fashion luxury goods. This study also identifies the moderating role of self-efficacy in which the interaction effect of social exclusion type and presence of others on on-going purchase intention. For the experiment, 2(social exclusion type: being ignored vs being rejected)×2(presence of others: presence vs absence)×2(self-efficacy: high vs low) factorial design was used. The findings of this study are summarized as follows. First, the result showed that there was no difference in on-going purchase intention according to social exclusion type. Second, the result showed that there was a significant interaction effect between social exclusion type and presence of others. Third, the three-way interaction effect of social exclusion type, presence of others, and self-efficacy was statistically significant. The results of this study provide useful information on which direction is needed to mitigate negative consumer behavior caused by social exclusion at the service interface.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.997-1007
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• 2010

This study examines the role of consumer perception of social presence in e-tailing websites. The study proposes that the perception of social presence influences the variables that are important for e-tailers to build a relationship with consumers, which are the attitudes of consumers toward an e-tailer and patronage intentions toward the e-tailer. This study hypothesizes that the attitudes of consumers are influenced by individual perceptions of social presence that guide their patronage intentions. Consumer trust and their affective states are hypothesized to serve as mediators in the relationship between consumer perception of social presence and the attitudes toward an e-tailer. Sixty-one female students were used to test the proposed model. The findings from regression and mediation analyses supported all hypotheses, suggesting that the perception of social presence plays a significant role in consumer shopping habits for apparel: consumer perception of social presence influences consumer trust and affective states that modify attitudes toward an e-tailer and consumer patronage intentions. The theoretical and managerial implications for apparel e-tailers are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.583-599
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• 2022

This study aims to clarify the implications of rapidly growing live commerce in China by examining the multifaceted aspects of social presence, in particular to help small commerce operators and platform companies. It examines the effect of cognitive and affective social presence on consumer engagement by evaluating consumption values and trust in streamers. In this survey study, the responses of 221 individuals residing in large cities of China were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that cognitive social presence had a positive effect on consumer engagement by mediating the utilitarian value and trust in streamers. Furthermore, affective social presence had a positive effect on consumer engagement through the hedonic value and trust in streamers. Thus, our research provides a new perspective to approaching a multidimensional social presence and understanding consumer behavior in live commerce. Moreover, it contributes to the application and expansion of social presence theory in this field.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2008

One of the challenges that online learners face is feeling of isolation and diminishing desire of maintaining active participation during e-learning. Social presence, that is considered to be a vital factor in e-learning, is recently started to receive a support from the field. Although research indicated a significant role of social presence in both learning process and learning outcome, there is no widely accepted measurement scale of social presence. This study, therefore, developed a new scale to measure social presence based on the existing theories and validated it against 723 participants. Nineteen self-report items with three dimensions, co-presence, influence, and cohesiveness, were identified and validated using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) in a preliminary and a follow-up study.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.23-51
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• 2023

Purpose: Live commerce is a new type of electronic commerce in combination with live streaming services. It is expected to increase virtual presence in the context of online shopping by overcoming a lack of social interactions between sellers and buyers which have been raised as a limitation in electronic commerce. Drawing on the studies of communication media, this study examines how live commerce contributes to the increase of virtual presence which consists of telepresence and social presence. Telepresence refers to a buyer's perception that he or she is present at the physical shopping mall during live shopping streaming whereas social presence refers to a buyer's perception of social interaction with a seller which is human warm, social, sensitive, and personal. In this study, we verify key determinants of virtual presence and its consequences. More specifically, this study proposes virtual presence contributes to the increase of buyers' trust in products and further purchase intentions. Furthermore, we verify influential factors of virtual presence from the technical and influencer perspectives of live commerce. Design/methodology/approach: To test the proposed hypotheses, the partial least squares (PLS) analysis is conducted with a total of 250 data collected on users with experience in the TaoBao live streaming shopping platform. Findings: The results show that first, telepresence and social presence are increased by visibility, media richness and attractiveness in the context of live shopping streaming. Second, buyers' trust in product trust and purchase intentions are positively influenced by telepresence and social presence. Finally, buyers' trust in product has a direct, positve effect on their purchase intentions. Overall, the findings offer new insights into the studies of electronic commerce by introducting the concepts of virtual presence and media richness from the literature of communication media in the field of live commerce.