THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL PRESENCE ON EVALUATING PERSONALIZED RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS

Providing recommendations is acknowledged as an important feature of a business-to-consumer online storefront. Although many studies have been conducted the algorithms and operational procedures relating to personalized recommender systems, empirical evidence demonstrating relationships between social presence and two important outcomes of evaluating recommender systems, reuse intention and trust, remains lacking. To test the existence of a causal link between social presence and reuse intention, and the mediating role of trust between these two variables, this study conducted experiments varying the levels of social presence while providing personalized recommendations to users based on their explicit preferences. This study also compared these effects in two different product contexts: hedonic and utilitarian products. Interactions of social presence and customer reviews were also investigated in these experiments. The results show that higher social presence increases both reuse intention and trust in recommender systems. In addition, the influence of social presence on reuse intention in the context of recommending utilitarian products is less than that in the context of recommending hedonic products

The Influence of Visual Social Media, Online Customer Reviews, and Personal Communication on Young Adults’ Purchase Intention: A Mixed Methods View into Consumer Socialization

Due to an increase in visually-oriented online social media websites and other user-generated content, such as online customer reviews, young adults are learning and using consumer-related knowledge differently than in the past. Traditionally, individuals emulated their consumption style after behaviors modeled by family, peers, and traditional forms of mass media.  Since the popularity of visual social media and online customer reviews have gained a stronghold on young adults, it was hypothesized that individuals gain consumer knowledge of products through visual social media and other user-generated customer reviews. Explanatory sequential mixed methods were used to investigate which resources young adult consumers consult when searching for product information. Survey results indicate that young adults rely on visual social media and online customer reviews for information about products. Family members and peers were consulted for products as well, with findings from individual interviews indicating that mothers were the most influential resource. Keywords: Consumer socialization; Online customer reviews; Visual social networking website