Affiliations: [a] Industrial and Engineering Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel, Tel.: +1 972 7 647 2226; E-mail: noamt@bgumail.bgu.ac.il | [b] Division of Accounting and Information Systems, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA, Tel.: +1 210 458 5786; Fax: +1210 458 4322; E-mail: crao@utsa.edu
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author.
Abstract: Buyer-seller interactions have significant social dimensions. Shopping on the Internet is mediated by technological interfaces, which are thought of as tools that suppress the social nature of the shopping activity. However, Reeves and Nass argue that technological media, such as computers, are ‘fundamentally social and natural’. Thus it is both important and intriguing to understand the social characteristics being projected by the interface or perceived by the Internet shopper. We draw from three domains – theories of social psychology, retail theories and practices, and the concept of computers as social actors – to provide theoretical basis for this thesis. Specifically, we demonstrate our approach by furnishing theoretical arguments for the need to pay attention to the following social dimensions in Web-based stores: politeness, flattery, self-evaluation and other-evaluation, expertise and aesthetics.
Keywords: Internet shopping, Web-store design, media equation, politeness, flattery, self- and other-evaluation, expertise and aesthetics
