Immersion or social presence? Investigating the effect of virtual reality immersive environments on sommelier learning experiences

Figures & data

Table 1. Selected immersive environment literature regarding immersion and social presence.

Study	Context and method	Theory base	Immersive variable(s)	Process variables	Boundary conditions	Dependent variables	Key findings
Theme: Immersive experiences and immersion
Kang, H. J., Shin, J. H., & Ponto, K. (2020).	VR in shopping experiences; mixed methods experiment	Intrinsic enjoyment, escapism, decision control	Interactivity, Visual-spatial cues	Perceived playfulness and informative-ness	Graphics quality	Purchase intention, hedonic attributes	Interactivity and Visual-spatial cues positively affect playfulness and informativeness. Playfulness enhances hedonic products preference and informativeness increases purchase intent.
Kim, G., Jin, B., & Shin, D. C. (2022).	VR as a promotion tool for small independent stores; mixed methods experiment	Flow theory	360-degree based VR videos vs web based	Flow state	–	Interest, intention to visit	VR compared to website enhanced the flow state, which increases interest and intention to visit.
Ying, T., Tang, J., Ye, S., Tan, X., & Wei, W. (2022).	VR in destination marketing; lab experiment	Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) Model	Telepresence, social presence	Cognition; affection	Social presence	(Re)visit intentions	Higher telepresence increases visit intentions, where social presence does not.
Theme: Immersive experiences and social presence
de Back, T. T., Tinga, A. M., Nguyen, P., & Louwerse, M. M. (2020).	Immersive collaborative learning in CAVE-based virtual reality; lab experiment	Social constructivism and experiential learning theory	CAVE conditions vs textbook learning	–	Spatial ability	Learning gains	Improved learning gains with immersive learning utilizing CAVE benefits compared to textbook study.
Huang, Z., Zhu, Y., Hao, A., & Deng, J. (2022).	Social presence and consumer purchase intention in livestreaming commerce; lab experiment	Social presence theory	Social Presence	Immersive experience	Positive emotions	Consumer purchase intention	Social presence’s effect on purchase intentions is mediated via immersion; positive emotions moderate the ‘social presence–immersion experience–consumer purchase intentions’ path.
Grinberg, A. M., Careaga, J. S., Mehl, M. R., & O’Connor, M. F. (2014).	Social engagement and user immersion in a socially based virtual world; lab experiment	Sense of immersion	Social engagement and spatial exploration	–	–	Immersion	High social engagement leads to high immersion, while high spatial exploration to low immersion.
This study	Investigates which immersive environment impacts learning experiences for sommeliers	Immersion and social presence	VR headsets vs. CAVE	Immersion and social presence	Ambient sound	Learning experience

Figure 1. Conceptual framework.

Figure 2. Italian vineyard in CAVE system.