| Research on virtual product experiences (VPE) has received increased scholarly attention in the area of information systems, however, efforts toward understanding these socio-technical experiences, specifically the complex interrelationship between technology, individual, and embodied content in the context of VPE, are in their infancy. Central to VPE is the concept of presence. Presence is defined as a cognitive state where individuals perceive computer-mediated, or digitally embodied, objects as being real, natural, immediate, and direct.; Within this growing body of literature, scholars have conjectured as to the possible antecedents to and consequences of presence, however, until recently, few of these assertions, beyond technology characteristics, have ever been systematically or empirically investigated. As such, this dissertation set out to accomplish two lofty goals. First, to establish the nomological net of presence and, second, to develop a parsimonious and theoretically justified framework to further investigate how, why, and under what conditions virtual experiences influence consumers.; To address the first goal, the current research drew upon the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior. Next, the dissertation theoretically merged many of the primary tenants of these two expectancy value theories with constructs gleaned from the virtual reality literature. In the end, a comprehensive, yet parsimonious, theoretically justified framework for evaluating consumer psychology and behavior in the context of VPE emerged.; A controlled laboratory experiment methodology was used to test the framework's relationships. SEM was used to test the overall fit of the model and to test the model's posited relationships across six different interface treatments. The proposed framework, virtual product experience and intention model (VPEIM), emerged as an excellent fit as well as being quite descriptive.; In sum, the dissertation represents an important first step in the pursuit of predicting, measuring, and understanding the complex interaction between consumer, technology, and content (e.g., mediated and embodied) characteristics during computer-mediated product trials and experiences. |
