The Influence of Online Social and Physical Presence on User Consumption Decisions in TikTok Livestreaming: A Scoping Review

This scoping review aimed to clarify and redefine the concepts of social and physical presence in the context of online livestreaming environments. Physical presence involves technical elements and nonhuman-to-human interaction, factors that inevitably influence social presence, which has human-to-human interactions at its core. Considering one type of presence to the exclusion of the other may not provide sufficiently informed decisions for user consumption. However, most previous studies have only studied either physical or social presence factors; few have systematically examined both to explain their influence. This review examined how the factors under these two presence influenced users' consumption decision-making process in TikTok live-stream retail purchases by synthesizing 60 studies conducted from 2019 to 2023 using Arksey and O'Malley's 5-step framework. Evidence of the specific attributes by which presence affects users' consumption decisions was elicited and reorganized. Using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) framework for scoping review and guided by the joanna briggs institute (JBI) methodological guidelines, the results reveal that out of the 60 studies, 36 were influenced by social presence and 24 by physical presence. When livestreaming online, social presence tends to include the user and anchor perspectives, which prompts users to make consumption decisions. However, online physical presence includes products, technology, and scenes as its main dimensions, and users make consumption decisions through perceptual control. This review clarifies new media livestreaming communication and the key factors influencing users' consumption decision-making systems. It also suggests that integrating online social and physical presence in future research will yield a better understanding of livestreaming purchase decisions.