The influence of mere virtual presence with product experience and social virtual product experience on brand attitude and purchase intention: Conformity and social ties as moderators

單純虛擬在場產品經驗與社交虛擬產品經驗對品牌態度與購買意圖之影響──以從眾行為與社會連結為干擾變數

The purpose of the present study is to expand on the findings of previous studies by comparing the brand community effect of mere virtual presence with product experience (MVPE) and social virtual product experience (SVPE). Moreover, by employing conformity and social ties, the present study aimed to analyze various virtual product experience types (MVPE, SVPE) to determine the differences in brand community effect. This study employed a factorial online experimental design to test these hypotheses on Facebook. It conducted a 3 (MVPE, gift-giving SVPE-C2C, exchange SVPE-B2C) × 2 (conformity: high/low) × 2 (social ties: strong ties/weak ties). The results provide evidence that different virtual product experience types will determine the differences in brand community effect. The results also show indirect effects for the two moderators between virtual product experience types (MVPE, SVPE) and brand community effect. In addition, regardless of whether the social ties are high or low, with the conformity of interactive interference, SVPE brand community effects are better than those of MVPE. Although the importance of these virtual experiences is continuously increasing, there is still a lack of studies that empirically analyze the effects on consumer behavior from the combination of machine interaction and interpersonal interaction of VPEs.