Design Antecedents of Telepresence in Virtual Service Environments

Abstract

This study integrates Kaplan and Kaplan’s framework on informational variables (mystery, complexity, legibility, and coherence) with construal level theory to examine how managers can use the visual design of virtual servicescapes to achieve a sense of telepresence (the subjective experience of being in a computer-mediated environment, even when one is physically elsewhere). Three studies using mixed methods and diverse samples show that informational variables vary in their capacity to evoke telepresence and thus in their impact on consumer behavioral intention. Study 1, a content analysis, uses expert judges and a global pool of virtual servicescapes to provide initial evidence that informational variables impact telepresence. Study 2, a commercial survey, shows that telepresence mediates effects of mystery and complexity (sensorially richer variables) on consumer intentions to approach. Study 3 uses a consumer sample to replicate the mediating role of telepresence and to show that a person’s visual processing style moderates effects of mystery and complexity. The effects are robust in the presence of an alternative process path through aesthetics and occur regardless of consumers’ familiarity with the servicescape, category knowledge, and involvement. Managerial implications focus on how to increase mystery and complexity for higher telepresence.

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