Xu et al.

: What Drives Consumer Shopping Behavior in Live Streaming Commerce

WHAT DRIVES CONSUMER SHOPPING BEHAVIOR IN LIVE

STREAMING COMMERCE?

Xiaoyu Xu
School of Economics and Finance
Xi’an Jiaotong University
74# Yantaxi Road, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, 710061, P.R. China
xuxiaoyu@xjtu.edu.cn

Jen-Her Wu*
Department of Information Management
National Sun Yat-Sen University
70# Lien-Hai Road, Kaohsiung, 804, Taiwan
jhwu@mis.nsysu.edu.tw

Qi Li
School of Economics and Finance
Xi’an Jiaotong University
74# Yantaxi Road, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, 710061, P.R. China
liq@xjtu.edu.cn

ABSTRACT

Drawing upon the stimulus–organism–response framework, this study investigates contextual and
environmental stimuli effects (streamer attractiveness, para-social interactions, and information quality) from a live
streaming commerce context on viewer’s cognitive and emotional states (cognitive assimilation and arousal) and
their subsequent responses (hedonic consumption, impulsive consumption, and social sharing). Based on 300 valid
survey data, we found 1) the three stimuli have direct effects on cognitive and emotional states, and cognitive and
emotional states have direct effects on three responses, 2) the streamer attractiveness and para-social interaction
effects on the three responses are mediated by arousal. However, cognitive assimilation only mediates the
information quality effect on the three responses. These findings provide insights into how live streaming stimuli
influence consumer’s cognitive and emotional states, in turn influencing consumer behavior in a live streaming
commerce context.

Keywords: Live streaming commerce; Stimulus-Organism-Response; Para-social interaction; Arousal; Social

sharing

1. Introduction
E-commerce development is experiencing an evolution through the adoption of various types of emerging novel
applications to enhance customer participation and achieve greater economic value [Huang and Benyoucef 2013].
As an interactive multimedia platform providing entertainment, social and commercial activities, live streaming has
gained in popularity since 2011 [Hilvert-Bruce et al. 2018]. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau [IAB,
May 2018], 47% of live streaming viewers worldwide spend more time watching live streaming compared with a
year ago [Emarketer 2018]. From a retailer’s perspective, taking advantage of live streams opens up a wealth of
opportunities in marketing, customer service, and revenue. There is no wonder that major retailers like Amazon and
QVC operated their own live video shopping platforms in 2019 [Wowza Media Systems 2019]. China had up to 433
million live streaming viewers in August 2019 [CNNIC 2019]. The use of live streaming to promote brands and
products is “exploding” in the E-commerce field in China [Aliresearch 2020]. For example, during the “June 18”
event in 2019, Taobao’s live streaming platform drove sales of 13 billion yuan, with the number of merchants
broadcasting live streaming increasing by nearly 120% year-on-year. The number of broadcasts grew by 150% year-

*
Corresponding Author

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