Revisiting the concept of person interactivity through social psychology and social telepresence theory

Abstract

This paper continues investigations into the meaning of person interactivity in online shopping. A survey was conducted to validate an initial scale of person interactivity obtained from two focus group studies and to ensure that the scale was separate and distinct from that used to measure social telepresence. The results show that person interactivity and social telepresence were two distinctive constructs. It also indicates that person interactivity involves not only a two-way interaction between buyer and seller, but also an interaction between buyer and buyer via online communication.