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Drawing on the social presence theory, this study aims to explore how supplier–customer social media interactions influence supplier observers’ trust in the customers and what mechanisms contribute to variation in trust experience.

A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese suppliers using WeChat for business-to-business interactions. Data were analyzed in three steps: open coding, axial coding and selective coding.

Findings reveal that varied trust is based not only on the categories of social presence of interaction – whether social presence is embedded in informative interactions – but also on the perceived selectivity in social presence. Observer suppliers who experience selectivity during social and affective interactions create a perception of hidden information and an unhealthy relationship atmosphere, and report a sense of emotional vulnerability, thus eroding cognitive and affective trust.

The findings contribute new understandings to social presence theory by exploring the social presence of interactions in a supplier–supplier–customer triad and offer valuable insights into business-to-business social media literature by adopting a suppliers’ viewpoint to unpack the mechanisms of how social presence of interaction positively and negatively influences suppliers’ trust and behavioral responses.

Currently, online chat is in common use in e-commerce. By adding social interaction to the online context, companies hope to increase customers’ purchasing intentions. However, previous studies have not investigated how social presence is embedded in online business-to-business (B2B) chat conversations between buyers and sellers. Moreover, the functions of online chat in B2B sales have not been investigated.

The data was collected at a case company over the course of four years, from which the authors analyzed 157 online chat conversations between buyers (n = 157) and sellers (n = 9) with a theory-driven thematic analysis. In addition, data from the company’s customer relationship management system was collected to specify buyer types.

The results reveal that social presence was embedded in online B2B chat via buyers’ interactive, affective and relationship maintenance responses. Social presence differed depending on the type of buyer, with only existing customers having relationship maintenance responses. E-commerce B2B chat functions can be described as multiple and changing depending on the buyer–seller relationship stage.

Having data only from one case company limits the results to one type of industry.

The results can be used in sales training and when developing online chat services.

Results bring scientific utility to B2B sales and marketing research, as the authors build a bridge between social presence, the existing theoretical model on B2B buyer–seller relationship development and online chat as a communication medium. Other researchers may use this understanding when exploring B2B buyer–seller interaction in different digitalized communication media.

E-commerce and social media technologies can significantly benefit the food and beverage industry by reducing costs, streamlining supply activities, and, most importantly, engaging users in active interaction and enhancing social presence. This research aims to propose a model to examine the role of trust and social presence on loyalty in the food and beverage industry. Moreover, the mediating role of trust is the link between social presence and loyalty examined in this study.

A survey has been conducted to examine the structural model. The research model is tested using structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The result indicated the effect of Social presence and Trust in social media on Customer loyalty in the context of online shopping. Our finding contributes remarkable insights into the food and beverage industry, particularly in the COVID-19 era, as more consumers buy through e-commerce platforms.

This study expands the understanding of the role of the managers of social commerce websites in maintaining customer loyalty. Hence, the social commerce site managers can use this finding to develop strategies for building customer trust and, ultimately, customer loyalty.

Drawing upon the social presence theory, this paper aims to propose three social presence variables in the brand page context (the brand page as a medium, the presence of other customers and interaction with the brand page manager) and to test their effects on customer engagement behavior (CEB) and customer-brand identification (CBI).

A total of 340 responses were collected via an online research platform and analyzed using structural equation modeling analysis.

The results revealed that both the social presence of the brand page and the interaction with the brand page manager are positively associated with CEB, whereas that of other customers negatively influences CEB, which in turn, positively affects CBI.

This paper presents the underlying process of driving customers’ engagement activities and building psychological closeness between customers and brands by applying social presence theory and social identity theory to Facebook brand pages.

To enhance customers’ experiences on Facebook brand pages, practitioners should visualize brand page managers through diverse types of postings. Brand page managers need to balance the presence of others, as well as bring a sense of human-likeness on the pages using storytelling strategies.

This research sheds light on the human side of a non-human world. The results suggest that the sense of a human presence in virtual brand communities is essential to engage customers with online activities toward brands while also building a closer customer–brand relationship.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between social presence and consumer purchase intention in the context of livestreaming commerce and test the mediating role of immersive experience and the moderating role of positive emotions.

The authors used a convenience sampling method to select 408 college students from a university in Ganzhou as the participants. They employed structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses, as well as Hayes' PROCESS to test the mediation and moderation effects.

The authors found that immersion experiences partially mediate the relationship between social presence and consumers' purchase intentions and positive emotions moderate the “social presence–immersion experience–consumer purchase intentions” path. Therefore, social presence constitutes a moderating mediating effect on consumer purchase intentions.

This study offers meaningful insights into how livestreamers and e-retailers can stimulate consumers' buying behavior in livestreaming environments. E-commerce platforms should strengthen consumer interactions and increase consumers' perceptions of social presence. In addition, companies should meet the social and psychological needs of consumers and generate positive emotional resonance.

This research sheds light on the effect of social presence on consumer purchase intentions in livestreaming commerce and extends the social presence literature by investigating the mediation mechanism of immersive experience.

The perception of an inferior learning experience is the main challenge for online learning, which leads to higher dropout rates in online courses. The purpose of this paper focuses on investigating how the multi-dimensional construct of social presence would affect the behavior of online learners.

A conceptual model that describes online learner behaviors is proposed by including the four social presence variables, learning satisfaction and continuance intention, which is examined via the data collected by a survey of 237 online learners from a typical online learning platform in China. The relationships between variables were tested via structural equation modeling.

The results revealed that the intimate and immersive social factors have positive impacts on learning satisfaction, which in turn results in continuous intention in online learning. Thus, online learning platform providers should seriously consider building an intimate and immersive online environment for learners. Furthermore, this research provides a more comprehensive understanding of online learning from a social presence perspective for researchers and practitioners.

The study contributes to a better understanding of the social presence which is conceptualized as a four-dimensional construct, and shows how social factors influence learning satisfaction and continuous intention, providing a deeper understanding of the core relationship between social aspects and learning performance in online learning.

Our econometric research allows for a possible response of a person's hours worked to hours typically worked by members of a multidimensional labor market reference group that considers demographics and geographic location. Instrumental variables estimates of the canonical labor supply model expanded to permit social interactions pass a battery of specification checks and indicate positive and economically important spillovers for adult men. Ignoring or incorrectly considering social interactions in male labor supply can misestimate the response to tax reform by as much as 60%.

Shifting to OLSL classes during the pandemic can bring learners ambivalent experiences: negative, positive or both appraisals toward the technologies. However, few studies have examined how ambivalent experiences can influence students' learning behaviors, specifically cyberslacking and active participation. Using the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study investigates the impact of challenge and hindrance appraisals on these learning behaviors.

This study uses a mixed methods approach to answer research questions. An interview was conducted to identify the key components of ambivalent appraisals, and a survey was conducted to empirically examine the impact of challenge and hindrance appraisals on learners' behaviors in online live streaming learning (OLSL) contexts. The data of 675 university students were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This study found that hindrance appraisal leads to cyberslacking while challenge appraisal leads to active participation, but it can also cause cyberslacking. Social presence has a double-edged effect, acting as both a facilitator and inhibitor, strengthening the effect of hindrance appraisal on cyberslacking and the impact of challenge appraisal on active participation.

Prior studies have primarily focused on the negative side (techno-distress) of technology appraisals. This study simultaneously examines the positive side, techno-eustress, on learners' behaviors in OLSL contexts, and explores the moderating effects of social presence. This study contributes to the technostress and technology adaptation literature by revealing how technology-induced ambivalent appraisals impact behavioral responses. It offers important theoretical and practical implications for education tool designers.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that a fundamental cause of market booms and busts is that investor risk attitudes change during market booms. Specifically, the authors propose that an investor’s risk aversion falls as (s)he attempts to “keep up with the Joneses.” This paper studies changing risk attitudes induced by social interactions, and shows that risk-seeking behavior that is initially successful may induce copycat behavior and lead individuals in the same peer group to reduce their degree of risk aversion to attempt to obtain similar rewards, a phenomenon we call “Gain attraction in the presence of social interactions.”

The authors propose a new theoretical model that incorporates the social interaction term into the value function of prospect theory. The modified value function empowers the standard prospect theory by introducing the idea that people often compare themselves to others and then compare their gains to the gains of others. The model predicts that, if people exhibit some degree of envy, they will treat the observed utility achieved by others as destination points and will reposition themselves to the new reference points, and at that point their willingness to accept risk dramatically increases.

The theoretical model is tested empirically against experimental data and survey data. Consistent with the theoretical prediction, the experimental results suggest that, after subjects observed the behavior of the leading investor in the controlled laboratory condition, there was a significant increase in risk-taking behavior. The survey results further confirm that envy is an emotional force behind the dissatisfaction and disappointment among investors when they miss available opportunities that others were able to take advantage of.

This study provides evidence that investment decisions are not made in a social vacuum by isolated individuals, but rather in social settings in which individuals are influenced by the actions and outcomes of their peers. The study also opens up a new research avenue that the reduction in risk aversion induced by peer effects may be an important element explaining how greed is transmitted across the economy during times of financial boom, thus helping to fuel the flames of financial crises.

This study aims to propose a theoretical model to determine factors affecting an individual’s intentions to use social commerce (SC) in generating and sharing information on a vendor’s products and services. This, however, involves the application of three fundamental aspects including social interaction, social technology and personal trait used in constructing SC to propose these factors.

A cross-sectional time approach of the quantitative field study was used with the data collected from 874 users of SC in Indonesia using questionnaires.

The results showed social technology to be the dominant aspect influencing users’ intention to use SC followed by social experience and personality traits while, in detail, perceived enjoyment was discovered to have the most influence and this is in line with the findings of previous studies. Moreover, new results were also identified based on direct, indirect and moderating effects of gender, age and experience.

This research is different from previous ones because of its proposal of an extensive model that combines three main perspectives used in constructing SC and its emphasis on the theoretical and practical importance of studying not only the direct but also the indirect and moderating effects.