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.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
