Exploring the Affective Way Leading to Impulse Buying in Social Media Live
Streaming
L. T. Huang
Department of Information Management, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C. & Division of Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
(lthuang@mail.cgu.edu.tw)
Abstract - Social media live streaming commerce is
2021 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM) | 978-1-6654-3771-4/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IEEM50564.2021.9672962
getting popular and performed by brand companies, channel
retailers, and purchasing operators. Utilizing characteristics
of social media live streaming commerce results in viewers’
immersive and engaging shopping experience, as well as
more interpersonal connections. Viewers could be easily
attracted by vivid, attractive, immediate stimulus,
interaction, a sensation of closeness in spatial, temporal, and
social relationship with remote other viewers and so on.
Accordingly, impulse buying in social media live streaming
commerce could be frequently happened. This study
investigates impulse buying in social media live streaming
commerce by considering overall contextual and
atmospheric factors based on the flow theory and
psychological distance. One hundred and sixty records
collected by the online survey are analyzed. Results show
that interactivity, participation, social interaction and social
herding facilitate the vividness and interactive process in
social media live streaming and then reduce the
psychological distance. Social and spatial psychological
distance and social presence as affective organism enhance
viewers’ flow experience and in turn inducing viewers’
impulse buying. Theoretical and managerial implications are
listed.
Keywords - Social Media Live Video Streaming,
Psychological Distance, Social Presence, Social Herding,
Flow Experience, Impulse Buying
I. INTRODUCTION
Live video streaming is an emerging trend in social
network sites and mobile context [1]. Doing live
streaming is so easy in nowadays that almost every one
could have his/her own channel, interact with viewers
from all over the world, and fulfill his/her motivation.
Live video streaming commerce is getting popular and is
performed by brand companies, channel retailers, and
purchasing operators [2]. Live video streaming could
increase the possibility of reaching precise marketing
strategy for social commerce providers. Live streamers
demonstrate products, such as the context and the way of
usage, show all-round display, answer viewers’ questions
immediately, adjust the program by viewers’ response,
arrange live entertaining activities, as well as encourage
customers to buy the demonstrated products [3]. The
context of live streaming commerce provides perfect
conditions for inducing users’ impulse purchasing
behavior. Impulse buying is frequently happened in live
streaming commerce because of strong environmental
stimuli, such as demonstration of product usage and
benefits, other viewers’ real-time comments and
responses, conversation between the streamer and
978-1-6654-3771-4/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universitas Indonesia. Downloaded 1323
on January 23,2023 at 14:41:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
viewers, or other viewers’ purchasing behavior. Impulse
buying is a spontaneous, emotional, irrational, and
unplanned purchasing behavior due to hedonic and
sensory stimulation [4]. These specific environmental
stimuli come from immediate social interaction,
streamers’ performance and immediate response, as well
as integration of video, audio, and text. Live video
streaming on the social network sites creates a co-viewing
experience, in which viewers feel like watching and
playing with other peers [5]. Users share co-viewing
experience and pleasure with remote streamers and other
viewers and have a sense of watching and shopping
together with them in one physical space. And then, users
perceive feelings of social presence and are immersed in
this moment. The feelings could not be replicated in the
context of pre-recorder TC show and TV shopping
because of lacking personal interactivity with streamers
and computer and social interaction in a community.
Social network sites could encourage viewers’
engagement in social viewing and their searches for an
authentic viewing experience [6]. Ang et al. [7]
emphasize the importance of socialization when
performing live video streaming commerce on social
network sites. Live streaming enables social presence and
then increases viewers’ shopping experience and trust
towards streamers, as well as reduces their uncertainty
[8]. Accordingly, this study would like to explore how
viewers perform impulse buying behavior by following
their perception of co-view experience and their
engagement into the interaction and participation.
Although the prospects and popularity of live
streaming in practical, only a few studies explore the topic
of impulse buying in live video streaming. Most literature
related to the topic of live video streaming usually focus Tamba
on understanding viewers’ intention of gift-giving in han
gaming or entertainment shows [9], intention of
continuous watching [1], learning effect [10], motivations Latar
and experience of watching live streaming [1][3]. Belaka
However, the core value of social presence, co-viewing ng
experience, and a sense of community within streaming
channels imposed on live video streaming commerce and
impulse buying should be further confirmed academically
[1]. Not much research focuses on investigating factors of
live streaming for shopping or impulse buying [5][11].
Users’ desire to integrate themselves with live streaming
programs and other viewers lead users to be in the state of
flow and then to perform impulse purchasing behavior.
We propose that social presence is the core value of live
streaming because the context shortens the psychological
distance among users, the streamer, and other viewers.
 Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE IEEM
Shortening psychological distance could increase users’
flow experience. Hence, we investigate what the factors
related to social and live streaming stimuli could shorten
psychological distance, foster users’ social presence, and
induce users’ impulse buying through flow experience
based on the flow theory. Accordingly, we intend to
answer the following research questions:
1) What is the process of inducing viewers’ impulse
buying behavior of live video streaming commerce? Is
psychological distance the starting point of this
process? Is the influence of psychological distance on
impulse buying mediated by social presence and then
flow experience?
2) What contextual and atmospheric factors in social
media live streaming could reduce viewers’
psychological distance towards this context?
II. THEORETIC BACKGROUND AND MODEL
DEVELOPMENT
A. Flow Theory
When people are experiencing flow, they usually
perform some specific state, such as being immersed in an
activity, full concentrating on their activity, losing their
sense of time passing. People feel deep enjoyment,
happiness and excitement in the state of flow [12]. Flow
theory is appropriate for explaining users’ intention and
behavior in the online environment [13].
In social media live streaming, impulse buying could
be frequently happened because viewers could be easily
attracted by characteristics of this specific context and
have a sensation of closeness in spatial, temporal, and
social relationship with remote other viewers. When users
are in the state of flow and immersed into the situation,
they could likely lose their rational mind and perform
impulse buying behavior. Hence, we propose:
H1: Users’ flow experience is positively associated with
their impulse buying.
B. Framework of Flow Theory
Hoffman and Novak [14] proposed that the high balance
of two control characteristics, including skills and
challenges, could induce an individual’s of flow
experience. Besides, the two content characteristics,
including interactivity and vividness, could also lead an
individual to be in the state of flow directly and indirectly
through focused attention and telepresence [14]. We treat
contextual and atmospherics characteristics as the
extension of interactivity and vividness. In Hoffman and
Novak’s [14] framework, interactivity and vividness
mainly measure the users’ perception towards the
interaction with user interface of information systems.
However, in social media live streaming, viewers not only
interact with streamers and other viewers, but also act as a
member of one community and observe co-viewers’
responsive behavior. Accordingly, we include
interactivity with streamers, participation in a community,
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universitas Indonesia. Downloaded 1324
on January 23,2023 at 14:41:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
social interaction with co-viewers and social herding for
observational learning from co-viewers.
In addition, we also extend the mediating role of
telepresence, which focus on users’ experiencing of
interacting with computers in Hoffman and Novak’s [14]
framework because we also consider the influence of
social presence and psychological distance derived from
the characteristics of social media live streaming.
C. Interactivity and Participation
Viewers will keep their eyes on live streaming
programs, so as to be able to discuss the content with
other viewers as soon as possible. Interactivity indicates
communication and response between streamers and
viewers. Streamers will change the topic or contents by
viewers’ response and request immediately at any time.
Viewers have feelings of co-creation towards the live
streaming program and then are willing to be more
engaged in watching this streaming program. Hence, we
propose the following:
H2: Users’ perceived interactivity is positively associated
with their perception of reduction of temporal
psychological distance.
H3: Users’ perceived interactivity is positively associated
with their perception of reduction of spatial
psychological distance.
When individuals actively participate in live video
streaming programs, they like to share their own opinions
or comments with other viewers, to discuss with
streamers, to add comments to others posts, or to post
questions related to the host company’s products [15] and
then feel that other members are be with them. Hence, we
propose the following:
H4: Users’ perceived participation is positively associated
with their perception of reduction of temporal
psychological distance.
H5: Users’ perceived participation is positively associated
with their perception of reduction of spatial
psychological distance.
D. Social Interaction and Social Herding
By the social interaction, viewers could have feelings
of co-experience with the streamer and other viewers
about the content, product or service and then have sense
of doing something together. “Social herding” describe
individuals’ uniform behavior in social and economic
situations [16]. This phenomenon of social herding
reveals that users usually imitate previous users’ choice,
no matter what information they have [17]. Hence, we
propose the following:
H6: Users’ perceived social interaction in social media
live streaming is positively associated with their
perception of reduction of social psychological
distance.
H7: Users’ perceived social herding in social media live
streaming is positively associated with their perception
of reduction of social psychological distance.
 Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE IEEM
E. Psychological Distance and Social Presence
The presence of other individuals and psychological
distance between individuals and others during social
interaction could change individuals’ thought, emotions
and behaviors [7]. Psychological distance includes spatial
distance, temporal distance, and social distance. When
individuals perceive to be closer to other people spatially,
temporally, and socially, they tends to evaluation the
interactions between them with others as high quality [18]
and then have a sense of co-presence. The reduction of
social distance allows users to feel more friendly and
intimate with each other [19]. Hence, we propose the
following:
H8: Users’ perception of reduction of spatial
psychological distance is positively associated with
their perceived social presence.
H9: Users’ perception of reduction of temporal
psychological distance is positively associated with
their perceived social presence.
H10: Users’ perception of reduction of social
psychological distance is positively associated with
their perceived social presence.
Gunawardena [20] defined social presence as “the
degree to which a person is perceived as a ‘real person’ in
mediated communication.” Ang and Anaza [7] stated that
individuals’ social viewing experience primarily comes
from their awareness towards other viewers’ digital
presence. Fang et al.’s [5] study indicated that social
presence has a positive effect on the individuals’ affective
experience in the context of online live video streaming.
Hence, we propose:
H11: Users’ perceived social presence is positively
associated with their flow experience.
We propose that psychological distance, social
presence and flow experience are critical to induce
impulse buying because of the co-viewing experience
among the streamer, the viewer and other viewers. as
shown on Fig.1.
Fig. 1. Research Model
III. METHODOLOGY
We conducted an online survey for data collection in
the context of Facebook. Measures in our questionnaire
are from pre-validated measurements in literature and
revised to fit our research context. The survey requests to
solicit participation who have experiences of watching
and shopping in social media live streaming channels. We
conducted a pretest for pursuing content validity of the
instrument. In addition, for assuring the usability of
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universitas Indonesia. Downloaded 1325
on January 23,2023 at 14:41:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
returned data, we arranged some items in the
questionnaire for filtering valid returned data. One
hundred and sixty valid records were identified for data
analysis during two weeks.
IV. RESULTS
A. Measurement Model
The measurement model is assessed by confirmatory
factor analysis using SmartPLS 3.3.2. After testing
reliability and validity, we deleted 3 items, including 1
item in sub-dimension active control of interactivity and 2
items in sub-dimension discounting own information of
social herding. The composite reliability are acceptable,
range from 0.874 to 0,954. The convergent validity are
acceptable. Factors loadings of indicators in all constructs,
excluding interactivity-active control and social herding-
discounting own information, are all above the acceptable
level of 0.7 and significant (p<=0.01), range from 0.696
to 0.932. the discriminant validity is accpetable based on
Fornell-Larcker’s [21] criteria, indicating that correlations
between any two distinct construct are lower than the
square root of the average variance extracted of each
construct. The constructs of interactivity, transparency,
social herding, and flow state are treated as second order
constructs and all of them are reflective-formative
constructs.
Structural Model
The structure model is analyzed by SmartPLS 3.3.2.
We calculated interactivity, transparency, social herding,
and flow state by repeated measure technique. Results
show that almost all hypotheses are supported except for
the insignificant relationship of temporary psychological
distance and social presence, as shown in Fig. 2. Shorten
spatial and social distance increase social presence.
Interactivity and participation are determinants of short
temporal and spatial distance. Social interaction and
social herding are determinants of short social distance.
Among these antecedents, participation and social
interaction exert great impacts on shortening spatial and
social distance, respectively. The high path coefficient
between social presence and flow experience emphasizes
the importance of social presence. The explained variance
of temporal distance, spatial distance, social distance,
social presence, and flow state are all great, 59.8%,
68.6%, 55.8%, 68.0%, and 46.1%, respectively. The high
explained variance of these dependent variables indicates
that the significant antecedents in this model are all
critical to dependent variables. Results reveal the critical
affective way to inspiring viewers’ impulse buying from
spatial and social distance, social presence to flow
experience.
 Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE IEEM
Fig. 2. Results of Hypotheses Testing
V. DISCUSSION
A. Conclusion
This study investigates impulse buying in social
media live streaming commerce by considering contextual
and atmospheric factors based on the flow theory. We
consider participation, social interaction and social
herding as facilitating vividness and interactive process in
social media live streaming. Additionally, we add on
psychological distance and social presence as affective
organism process between stimuli and outcomes. Three
main findings are drawn from the analysis of collected
data and some of them are contrary to our expectation.
1) Contextual factor shorten psychological distance
and the effects of social interaction and participation
are so great. Participation and interactivity reduce
temporary and spatial psychological distance.
Interactivity indicates the fluency of interacting with
streamers and participation refers to the feeling of being
a member of one group. Interactivity and participation
enable viewers to have feelings of just being at the
scene of the live program and ignore the temporary and
spatial distance. Social interaction and social herding
shorten social psychological distance. These two factors
bring viewers an illusion that they are watching live
streaming programs together with co-viewers and
opportunities of learning from observation. Social
interaction and participation are especially important to
shorten social and spatial distances.
2) Spatial and social distance play equally important
role of shaping flow experience through social
presence. The insignificant influence of temporary
distance may be because co-viewers care more about
the contextual atmospherics and the feeling of being
together, rather than the immediately or synchronous
response during interactivity. It demonstrates the
relative importance of three types of psychological
distance. Shorten social distance is the most important
way to increase viewers’ perception of social presence.
3) Psychological distance, social presence and flow
experience play important mediating role between
contextual factors and impulse buying. Contextual
and atmospheric factors promote the viewers’ mental
organism process and then induce their impulse buying
behavior.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universitas Indonesia. Downloaded 1326
on January 23,2023 at 14:41:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
B. Academic Implications
Three academic implications are proposed.
1) This study demonstrates the appropriateness of
applying flow theory in this area. Studies related to the
intention of unplanned purchasing in live video
streaming for social commerce are just in the starting
phase. Results in this study show that the affective
factors related to psychological status towards overall
context are especially important to inducing viewers’
flow state in social media live streaming channels.
2) This study shows the critical roles of psychological
distance during the process of enhancing viewers’ flow
experience in social media live streaming. Especially,
the social and spatial distance are equally important.
This study proposes the organism phase, which
describes the successive effect of reducing
psychological distance (perception), social presence
(perception) and flow experience (experiencing
emotion).
3) This study shows the relatively important influence
of co-viewers in social media live streaming.
Literatures may focus on interactions among co-viewers
and streamers. However, this study shows that the
influence of co-viewers is not only from social
interaction, but also from a sense of belonging
(participation) and observational learning (social
herding). The co-viewers’ influence is different from
the construct of social influence in literature because
the former is determined by loose-weak ties, and the
latter is determined by medium-strong ties.
C. Practical Implications
Our findings lead to suggestions for streamers and
viewers of social media live streaming channels.
1) Streamers could try to build a warmth and caring
atmosphere when they are hosting live video streaming
program because this atmosphere could increases
viewers’ feeling of social presence. It could push
viewers into the state of flow and then increase their
intention towards the streamer, program, brand, or
products.
2) Streamers could enhance viewers’ participation to join
a co-creation process for designing the live video
streaming program. The co-creation process could
increase viewers’ engagement and immersion. So,
streamers have to observe viewers’ response towards
the content, understand viewers’ thought about the
demonstration and product, and then adjust the progress
of demonstration for fitting viewers’ needs.
3) Viewers could try to redirect the influence co-viewing
experience, psychological distance and social presence
to other behaviors, rather than impulse buying. The co-
view experience is increased by intensive social
interaction and participation.
 Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE IEEM

REFERENCES [16] A.V. Banerjee, “A simple model of herd behavior,”

Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 107, no. 3, pp. 797–
[1] M. Hu, M. Zhang, and Y. Wang, “Why do audiences 817, 1992.
choose to keep watching on live video streaming [17] L. R. Anderson, and C. A. Holt. “Information cascades in
platforms? An explanation of dual identification the laboratory,” American Economic Review, vol. 87, pp.
framework,” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 75, pp. 847–862, 1997.
594–606, 2017. [18] S. Lim, S. Y. Cha, C. Park, I. Lee, and J. Kim, “Getting
[2] C. C. Chen, and Y. C. Lin, “What drives live-stream usage closer and experiencing together: Antecedents and
intention? The perspectives of flow, entertainment, social consequences of psychological distance in social media-
interaction, and endorsement,” Telematics and enhanced real-time streaming video,” Computers in
Informatics, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 293–303, 2018. Human Behavior, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 1365–1378, 2012.
[3] Z. Lu, H. Xia, S. Heo, and D. Wigdor, “You watch, you [19] Y. Bar-Anan, N. Liberman, Y. Trope, and D. Algom,
give, and you engage: A study of live streaming practices “Automatic processing of psychological distance:
in China,” in Proc. of the 2018 CHI Conf. on Human Evidence from a stroop task,” Journal of Experimental
Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, pp. 466. Psychology, vol. 136, no. 4, pp. 610–622, 2007.
2018. [20] C. N. Gunawardena, “Social presence theory and
[4] S. E. Beatty, and M. E. Ferrell, “Impulse buying: implications for interaction collaborative learning in
Modeling its precursors,” Journal of Retailing, vol. 74, no. computer conferences,” International Journal of
2, pp. 169–191, 1998. Educational Telecommunications, vol. 1, no. 2/3, pp. 147–
[5] J. Fang, L. Chen, C. Wen, and V. R. Prybutok, “Co- 166, 1995.
viewing experience in video websites: The effect of social [21] C. Fornell, and D. F. Larcker, “Evaluating structural
presence on e-loyalty,” International Journal of Electronic equation models with unobservable variables and
Commerce, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 446–476, 2018. measurement error,” Journal of Marketing Research, vol.
[6] A. M. Hede, R. Garma, A. Josiassen, and M. Thyne, 18, no. 1, pp. 39–50, 1981.
“Perceived authenticity of the visitor experience in
museums: conceptualization and initial empirical
findings,” European Journal of Marketing, vol. 48, no.
7/8, pp.1395–1412, 2014.
[7] T. Ang, S. Wei, and N. A. Anaza, “Livestreaming vs pre-
recorded: How social viewing strategies impact
consumers’ viewing experiences and behavioral
intentions,” European Journal of Marketing, vol. 52, no.
9/10, pp. 2075–2104, 2018.
[8] N. Hajli, “Social commerce constructs and consumer's
intention to buy,” International Journal of Information
Management, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 183–191, 2015.
[9] B. Li, F. Hou, Z. Guan, and A. Y. L. Chong, “What drives
people to purchase virtual gifts in live streaming? The
mediating role of flow,” in Proc. of the 22nd Pacific Asia
conf. on Information Systems, Atlanta, GA, pp. 3434–
3447, 2018.
[10] K. Payne, M. J. Keith, R. M. Schuetzler, and J. S.
Giboney, “Examining the learning effects of live
streaming video game instruction over Twitch,”
Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 77, pp. 95–109, 2017.
[11] A. Wongkitrungrueng, and N. Assarut, “The role of live
streaming in building consumer trust and engagement with
social commerce sellers,” Journal of Business Research,
vol. 117, pp. 543–556, 2020.
[12] M. Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal
Experience, Harper and Row, NY, 1990.
[13] T. P. Novak, D. L. Hoffman, and Y. F. Yung, “Measuring
the customer experience in online environments: A
structural modeling approach,” Marketing Science, vol.
19, no. 1, pp. 22–42, 2000.
[14] D. L. Hoffman, and T. P. Novak, “Marketing in
hypermedia computer-mediated environments: Conceptual
foundations,” Journal of Marketing, vol. 60, no. 3, pp, 50–
68, 1996.
[15] E. Pöyry, P. Parvinen, and T. Malmivaara, “Can we get
from liking to buying? Behavioral differences in hedonic
and utilitarian Facebook usage,” Electronic Commerce
Research and Applications, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 224–235,
2013.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universitas Indonesia. Downloaded 1327

on January 23,2023 at 14:41:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.