Impact of Telepresence on Consumer Learning: A Consumer Information Processing Approach

Based on the communication literature, telepresence is defined as “a mediated experience that creates for the user a strong sense of presence and entails an illusion of non-mediation”. The main body of previous studies serves industrial communication where technology is of vital concern. However, in the context of e-commerce, the appropriate focus of telepresence should be the human experience rather than the technology. Therefore, it is pertinent to discuss the impact of telepresence on consumer cognitive responses and activities. Consumer learning plays an important role in consumer purchase decision. Helping consumers learn has been proven to be an efficient marketing communication goal and lead to the long-term profit performance. Note that consumer information processing theory lies at the heart of a wide range of consumer cognitive activities including consumer learning. We intend to investigate the concept of telepresence in e-commerce context, and integrate consumer information processing theory around the concept of telepresence to explore its impact on consumer learning.