A picture says more than a thousand words

We present the preliminary results of an ongoing research aimed at investigating the role of social media in the process of trust building, with particular attention to the case of small-medium enterprises (SME). Our findings show that social media contribute to increase the affective trust more than traditional websites. This result suggests that social media have the potential to enhance the business of SMEs other than large companies, by fostering the affective commitment of customers

show abstract

Evaluating the Influence of Country-Related Pictures on the Perception of a Foreign Online Store

Bracamonte

Okada

2016

IEICE Trans. Inf. & Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The sense of presence, that is, the sense of the website being psychologically transported to the consumer, has been identified as an important factor for bringing back the feeling of sociability and physicality that is lost in online shopping. Previous research has investigated how visual content in the design can influence the sense of presence in a website, but the focus has been limited to the domestic electronic commerce context. In this paper, we conduct an experimental study in a cross-border electronic commerce context to evaluate the effect of country-related pictures on the perception of country presence, visual appeal and trust in a foreign online store. Two experimental conditions were considered: country-related pictures and generic pictures, each one evaluated for Thai and Singaporean websites. It was hypothesized that country-related content in pictures included in the design of the foreign online store would result in a higher level of country presence, and that this would in turn result in higher visual appeal and trust in the website. We conducted a survey among Japanese online consumers, with a total of 1991 participants obtained. The subjects were randomly assigned into four groups corresponding to the combination of country-of-origin of the website and picture condition. We used structural equation modeling in order to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The results showed that for both the Thai and Singaporean websites, countryrelated pictures resulted in higher country presence, and visual appeal was positively influenced by this increase in country presence. However, country presence did not have a direct effect on trust; this effect was completely mediated by visual appeal. We discuss these results and their implications for cross-border electronic commerce.

show abstract

A picture says more than a thousand words

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Antecedents and outcomes of virtual presence in online shopping: A perspective of SOR (Stimulus-Organism-Response) paradigm

Antecedents and outcomes of virtual presence in online shopping: A perspective of SOR (Stimulus-Organism-Response) paradigm

A Preliminary Investigation of the Effect of Social Media on Affective Trust in Customer-Supplier Relationships

Evaluating the Influence of Country-Related Pictures on the Perception of a Foreign Online Store

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About