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Abstract

Compared to traditional e-commerce, the live streaming e-commerce model can provide consumers with a more direct and authentic buying experience, encouraging them to make purchases sooner. Recently, live streaming e-commerce has become a new channel for business development. This study looked at five aspects that influence consumers behavior under Chinas live streaming e-commerce model, including ease of use, marketing factors, personal attitude, community influence, and consumer behavior. The study employed a quantitative method, with two questionnaires to collect data from 130 consumers who had live streaming buying experiences. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Model. The results confirmed that ease of use, marketing factors, community influence, personal attitude, and consumer behavior strongly influence consumer purchase behavior. To make the analysis brief, this study investigated theories that would explain consumer behavior, such as the Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory (SOR), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and involvement theories. In summary, this study investigated the factors that influence the consumers behavior under the live streaming e-commerce mode. In summary, this study confirmed the factors that influence the consumers behavior under the live streaming e-commerce mode.

Introduction

In the age of social media, a new type of e-commerce has emerged: social commerce. It shares many of the same qualities as social media, allowing customers to quickly access any product information they want and even engage with manufacturers over the internet. User contribution and social interaction are two major aspects of social commerce that are developed from social media elements (Fu, 2021). In this model, sellers and consumers directly interact, such as by inviting celebrities to endorse products, publishing cryptic social dynamics, and live-streaming sales, all of which can invisibly shape the audiences attitude.

In 2016, e-commerce live streaming services such as Taobao, Mogujie, and Jumei became a new online marketing technique in Chinese e-commerce websites. The success of such a service may be due to its distinct traits, which we will discuss next, which serve to alleviate lifestyle fit uncertainties for online users. The first distinguishing feature is that the service content is IT-mediated and lifestyle-focused. The second feature is mirrored in an ICT-enabled information retrieval system that allows online viewers to search for and obtain information provided by service content. In a live streaming performance, there is frequently a public scrolling text screen (Chen, Cenfetelli, and Benbasat, 2019). An online viewer can type a message in a dialog box provided by the information retrieval system. The message is shown on a public screen, where the internet celebrity and all online viewers may see it. The online celebrity then answers to the shows question, providing the viewer with the information they want. Meanwhile, other online viewers who are viewing the show get the information and choose what is relevant to them in order to make a purchase choice.

Global retail e-commerce sales were $4.9 trillion in 2021, and e-tail revenues are expected to climb to $5.4 trillion in 2022, indicating the influencer marketing channels enormous potential (International Trade Administration, n.d.). Adding a new influencer marketing channel, however, necessitates paying hefty fees to the influencer and may result in demand cannibalism among current channels (Luo et al., 2020). As a result, merchants should carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of using an influencer marketing channel before making a choice.

In recent years, China has seen a rise in live streaming e-commerce. It blends live streaming video with online commerce to give customers commodity-related video content to influence their buying decisions and encourage buyers and sellers to complete deals (Yang and Lee, 2018). The term live streaming commerce refers to a new kind of e-commerce that incorporates real-time social engagement via live feeds (Cai et al., 2018). Traditional web stores are gradually disappearing, giving way to a more advanced and interactive social arena where people are increasingly ready to learn about items and services from one another rather than from photographs and text (Ho and Rajadurai, 2020). Many companies are seeing the value of social commerce and live streaming to improve intimacy (social presence and engagement), communication, and co-creation. As a result, live streaming and social interaction have given academia, corporations, and consumers new opportunities and difficulties (Felix et al., 2017).

Chinas live-streaming commerce industry reached $305 billion in 2021, accounting for more than 15% of e-commerce sales in 2021 and more than 20% by 2022 (Hallanan, 2020). The fact that live streaming commerce combines social commerce and social media features explains its popularity (Cai and Wohn, 2019). As customers participate in real-time dialogues with e-vendors, live streaming improves digital marketing credibility by pushing consumers to pay attention to the focus product. Small merchants might use live broadcasting to build a stronger relationship with their customers. The introduction of e-commerce live streaminginfluencer marketing channels and merchant live broadcast channelshas given e-tailers new ways to sell to customers. It is crucial to remember that having a deeper relationship with e-vendors is critical when purchasing as it stands as an important retail strategy.

In China, e-commerce overtook supermarkets and department shops as the leading sales channel. For instance, online retail sales of physical items accounted for 24.5 percent of overall retail sales of consumer goods in 2021 and contributed 23.6 percent of retail sales growth (The State Council of The Peoples Republic of China, 2022). In addition, Chinas consumption market observed an upgraded trend in 2021, with customers increasingly favoring healthy, green, and high-quality goods. Sales of smart home devices increased by 90.5 percent year over year in 2021, while sales of organic vegetables increased by 127.6 percent.

E-commerce, as a new economic paradigm, has shown great promise and has become a key measure of a countrys economic success and long-term viability. Today, everyone is familiar with live streaming as a new trend. Due to its growing popularity, many forms, and multiple platforms, it has become a hot issue. China is, in terms of data, a country with a truly mobile Internet, and its network architecture is rather extensive. Live streaming offers all the benefits of network resources, such as speed, convenience, and interactivity, in a world where global e-commerce has taken on a colorful pattern. Audiences are engaged, so they develop interests that are satisfied by using live streaming to market or report items. Surprisingly, the burgeoning live-streaming sector, together with numerous Internet-based enterprises, has grown fast across the world, particularly in China.

Research Aim

The purpose of the research is to identify the behavior under the live streaming e-commerce model of Chinese consumers and put forward suggestions for the development of live streaming e-commerce.

Research Objectives

The exhibiting and game industries were the first content categories for the live streaming platform, and there is limited interest in other fields. Users rapidly lose time and space constraints as mobile Internet and intelligent hardware become more common, and they may use their mobile devices to live stream and watch live streaming at any time. According to previous e-commerce live streaming research, Chinas e-commerce live streaming transactions reached $480 billion by the end of 2021 (Koetsier, 2022).

The number of people who create live streaming videos has also risen dramatically. Live streaming platforms have been popular among the post-90s and post-95s generations (Zhang, 2018). The internet live streaming platform has revolutionized the way information is distributed and set a new standard for real-time engagement with disseminated data. E-commerce platforms have steadily been interested in this function of online live broadcasting (Huang and Suo, 2021). Live streaming is a tool for e-commerce platforms to carry out branding and infrastructure creation from a strategic standpoint.

Even though e-commerce live streaming has grown swiftly and effectively in China in just a few years, there is now a tendency to slow down, and possible dangers to its further development are progressively disclosed.

According to Polchlopek (2021), live streaming is one of the new paths for merchants to explore new conversions and monetize traffic. Live streaming e-commerce is still inseparable from combining the three elements of people, goods, and fields. The difference is that live e-commerce innovates people and fields and integrates participants such as anchors and MCN institutions. The basis of the product details page enriches marketing scenarios and promotes the closer integration of the three elements. Compared with traditional e-commerce, live-streaming e-commerce optimizes people, goods, and markets, driving the upgrade of the user shopping experience, and has obvious advantages in terms of marketing effects and user conversion.

Therefore, this research paper will:

Examine the state of development of the live streaming e-commerce model and the consumer status quo, as well as the state of development of the three market routes, centered on people, product, and market.
Research consumers purchasing behavior and develop a model of influencing factors of consumers purchasing.
Investigate how consumers make purchasing decisions and develop recommendations for the continued growth of the live streaming e-commerce business.

Influencing Factors

Perceived ease of use
Marketing factors
Community influence
Personal attitude
Consumer behavior

Research contribution

The model of live streaming + e-commerce has seen great development in 2020. It is no longer a supplement to e-commerce or live streaming and has begun to become independent, refined, and professional. There are a few pieces of research that studied this topic. Although there are a lot of studies on e-commerce and live streaming, live streaming + e-commerce is different among the two. Due to the unique experience between online shopping and offline shopping in the live streaming + e-commerce model, consumer behavior under the live streaming + e-commerce model is different. This paper will adapt to this particularity to carry out investigation and research, understand consumer behavior and its influencing factors under the model, and theoretically enrich the framework and content of consumer behavior research.

The live streaming + e-commerce model solves the dilemma of traditional e-commerce and traditional live streaming, and enterprises are willing to apply it widely. From a practical point of view, consumers are the main body of purchasing behavior, and the research on the influencing factors is helpful in understanding the process and to understand the key factors that determine their decision.

Research questions

Based on the objectives following research questions were proposed:

What are the influencing factors of consumer behavior under the live streaming e-commerce model in China?
What are the advantages of live streaming e-commerce?
How do influencing factors impact consumers behavior under the live streaming e-commerce model?

Literature Review I Industry/Sector Overview

The nature of live streaming e-commerce

This study combines many research sources to focus on the factors that influence the consumers behavior under live streaming e-commerce in China. The growth of live streaming e-commerce is getting more active with information technology development. There are several definitions of the live streaming e-commerce model based on its academic meaning. Many studies have described live streaming e-commerce by examining its history, essential elements, characteristics, and structure. For instance, Hou (2020) defines e-commerce live streaming as a new concept of economics, allowing consumers to determine all the aspects of the products more directly and improve the shopping experience, attract popular traffic, and realize precision marketing. Meanwhile, Lu and Siegfried (2021) define e-commerce live streaming as a type of online streaming through which product sellers propagate their products, brands and events to achieve brand awareness and product sales objectives.

Live streaming e-commerce provides significant pricing and engagement advantages over traditional e-commerce. Consumers may interact directly with brands and factories under the live streaming e-commerce model, removing the cost of intermediary connections. Comparing these two models, e-commerce has the virtual presence brought by live streaming, which is used to depict the subjective experiences of being engaged in a virtual environment in the same way as offline consumption situations are described (Dong, Zhao and Li, 2022). If traditional e-commerce allows for only one-to-one interaction, live streaming e-commerce allows for real-time multidimensional interaction (Ma, Gao and Zhang, 2022). Moreover, visualization and entertainment are greatly improved in the live streaming e-commerce model, letting consumers interact with the streamers directly.

Relationship among live streaming e-commerce attributes

Most of the research is based on the user-perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and other perspectives. Information Resources Management Association (IRMA) (2021) added perceived ease of use, enjoyment, trust, and cost to the traditional e-commerce model to more comprehensive research on the live streaming e-commerce model. The essential variables influencing users mobile e-commerce are customer personalized services and user interaction.

Sociality is an essential aspect of consumer buying, and internet shopping cannot directly provide a solid social interaction between product sellers and customers. From the perspective of social presence, e-commerce is a shopping mode that is used to present products to consumers and, at the same time, respond to their inquiries in real-time through social media platforms (Wang et al., 2021). Wang et al. (2021) also state that e-commerce can replicate the traditional model and change the consumers behavior through social presence. The mechanism of social presence includes control factors, reality factors, dispersive factors, and sensory factors. Live streaming e-commerce directly depends on the technological affordability of the consumers. If the business and marketing strategy involves a live streaming e-commerce model to increase the purchasing, technological and IT affordability should be considered at first. Sun et al. (2019) discuss the influence of the live streaming e-commerce model of business from the perspective of IT affordance. They state that information technology affordance has a positive influence on consumers purchase intentions through live streaming e-commerce, for which visibility, meta voicing, and guidance shopping are considered the most important aspects.

Live streaming facilitates real-time interactions among sellers, users, and peers online by enabling real-time seller and customer interactions on e-commerce platforms. This is likely to alleviate the physical separation between sellers, users, and products in cyberspace (Wang, X., and Wu, D., 2019). Live streaming has been embraced by the e-commerce industry to break through the interaction boundaries between product sellers and customers. Therefore, it is crucial to look at the topic from both e-tailers and consumers perspectives. Zheng, Li, and Na (2022) define e-commerce as the fastest-growing new form of shopping mode, and e-tailers must rethink their digital strategies when selling the products online based on the customers behavior and engagement. From the consumers perspective, Addo and Fang (2021) explain that because customers participate in real-time dialogues with e-vendors, live streaming improves digital marketing credibility by pushing consumers to pay attention to the focus product. Hu and Chaudhry (2020) also report that consumer involvement in the live streaming e-commerce model is vital for operators to create relationships. Social ties, including interpersonal interactions, also positively enhance customer engagement. Barari et al. (2020) also support the idea that consumers have a more significant impact on others purchase decisions, and new technologies, for example, social media, mobile applications, and augmented and virtual reality, are making it possible providing a network for consumers interactions.

Nowadays, commercial ads may be found almost wherever. Many people, however, are resistant to receiving a large volume of advertising material, therefore, the desired effect may not be realized. By providing original advertising material in the form of live streaming and connecting authentically with viewers, e-commerce live streaming has revolutionized the shape of commercials (Yang and Siegfried, 2021). Consumers will benefit from the new method of information transmission not just because it is more current but also because it is more easily accepted. As a result, the efficacy of advertising may be more readily achieved through e-commerce.

E-commerce live streaming may also properly identify the target customer group. The viewers that are most interested in the merchandise are the ones who enter the live room first. As a result, e-commerce live broadcasting successfully collects users who are interested in making the same transaction.

Cross-border e-commerce and live streaming e-commerce

What makes China different in the study of live streaming e-commerce is the governments involvement in both supporting the independent development of industry and regulating and developing standardized guidelines. From the governments perspective, the government has shaped economic growth and urban development. Si (2021) states that the governments plan is to use the urban areas and commercial live streams as economy-stimulating tools. The author also reports that the government of China has already made regional policies regarding live streaming e-commerce and strategies for the development of the industry in certain urban areas.

Chinas cross-border e-commerce has matured in recent years, with steady increase in industry size, greater integration of supply chain processes, progressive transition to more refined and localized operation, and continued penetration of innovation models such as new retail and live-streaming marketing (Cheng, 2021). The widespread adoption of online consumption patterns has fueled the rapid growth of the worldwide e-commerce retail business, resulting in a steady increase in penetration and sales. However, as a result of COVID-19, more individuals stayed at home than in prior years, resulting in a surge in demand for live streaming shopping (Guo et al., 2021). As a result, cross-border e-commerce emerged to live streaming e-commerce.

Literature Review II Research status of consumer behavior and its influencing factors

Research content of consumer behavior

Impulsive purchasing is characterized by a strong, abrupt, and persistent desire to acquire anything without hesitation, quickly, and kinetically. Online buying is more likely than conventional shopping to lead to impulsive purchases (Wu et al., 2020). Online transactions lead to many customers overpaying due to the virtual process providing them with the appearance of not spending their own money. Impulsive buying refers to a quick and hedonically complicated purchasing activity in which the urge that leads to the purchase is undertaken without any consideration of alternative or future implications (Gulfraz et al., 2022). As a result, impulsive purchasing might be considered a form of illogical conduct on the part of clients. Notably, a purchase may be classed as impulsive if it satisfies three criteria: first, it is unplanned and spontaneous (Gulfraz et al., 2022). External stimuli such as product-related marketing and suggestions from past purchasers are noted, causing live streaming shoppers to stand out among online shoppers. Live streamers show every aspect of a product, demonstrate how to use it, and communicate with viewers in real-time (Ming et al., 2021). Because both sides of the screen are tugging in the direction of purchase, this type of interaction between live streamers and viewers, as well as thorough product presentations, can easily stimulate impulsive buying behavior (Wongkitrungrueng and Assarut, 2018).

The media plays an essential role in transmitting information and promoting goods. Hsu (2019) explains that according to the media richness theory, the goal of arranging information processing is to eliminate ambiguity and confusion. The Media Richness theory is based on information processing theory and claims that richer media are more successful than less rich media in coping with ambiguous signals (Song and Liu, 2021). Based on the literature, using media richness as a stimulus in investigating risk perceptions in a real retail environment is relevant for this study.

Liu, Li, and Gao(2022) discuss live streaming e-commerce from the perspective of grey system theory, saying that the theorys correlation and prediction models have been widely employed in scientific investigations across a wide range of sectors including business. It is a useful mathematical tool for analyzing tiny samples of data and addressing issues with little information. Because live streaming e-commerce is a new business with limited yearly data, it is difficult for China to establish scientific rules. As a result, the employment of grey system theory is critical to the research of the future size of live streaming e-commerce. Consumer evaluations were classified using grey relational degrees, with the classifications being realized using grey relational degrees that had the highest relationship with the reference evaluation terms. Some customer views, on the other hand, may contain material that is relevant to more than one class. Because grey relational degrees reveal levels of similarity to the reference, this approach may be used to assess evaluations that are represented by many classes (Fidan, 2020). In this case, the research can be broadened to yield more than one class.

The idea describes users hedonic feelings, which is critical for gadget adoption. A novel integrated model based on flow theory is developed, which contains exogenous antecedents that represent the features of streaming devices and services. Yang and Lee (2018) explain the flow as the condition in which individuals are so engrossed in a task that nothing appears to matter. While perceived usefulness is concerned with users extrinsic motivationthe desire to participate in activities because they are thought to lead to valued results, flow is concerned with users intrinsic motivationthe want to engage in activities for doing them.

Studies have proposed flow experience theories to explicate consumer behaviors in online shopping as a result of extensive studies on consumers online consumption experiences. Consumers consumption intentions are directly influenced by flow experience, as evidenced by cognition, attitude, intention, and conduct (Wang et al., 2021). Because of the comparatively cheap switching costs, demanding standards, and utilitarian character of online buying, online customers have a greater position in the purchase process than offline shoppers.

Research on influencing factors of consumer behavior

Theory of reasoned action

Customers future desire and plan to acquire the items or services they want is referred to as purchase intention. According to the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), a persons behavioral purpose is influenced by their attitude toward the action and subjective judgements about the actions execution (Guo et al., 2021). Purchase intention refers to a consumers choice to buy cross-border items or services from merchants via live streaming in this article (Sun et al., 2019).

In cross-border live streaming e-commerce, the immediate presentation of commercial information such as brands, items, pricing, and promotional strategies saves customers time searching and comparing and improves their decision-making efficiency. On the other hand, streamers rely on their professional talents to promote cross-border items to consumers (Hu and Chaudhry, 2020), leading consumers to assume that information obtained through live streaming is more reliable than information obtained through standard e-commerce web pages. Cross-border live streaming e-distinctive, commerces professional, and tailored services enable consumers to fully comprehend cross-border items usage and functional details, easing their purchasing selections.

E-commerce has been exploding in popularity. Future commercial transactions are expected to take place over the Internet. The idea of reasoned action is applied to online transactions between e-sellers and customers. It is believed that confidence in using a credit card, subjective norms, and previous behavior are all important factors in determining online buying intent. As a result, the growth of the Internet alters and affects the way business is performed. Business transactions are expected to shift from marketplace to market space in the future. Without the impediments of international borders, business transactions may be undertaken effortlessly through the Internet. Citizens in one country can acquire items from firms in another country with simplicity and comfort.

Theory of Planned Behavior

Attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, according to TPB, impact a persons behavioral intention. The idea of perceived behavioral control was created to address situations where persons lack total volitional control. Perceived behavioral control is a function of control beliefs and perceived facilitation and relates to peoples perceptions of how easy or difficult it is to accomplish the activity of interest. The impression of the availability or lack of resources and opportunity to carry out the conduct is known as control belief. According to Ajzen and Kruglanski (2019), the theory of planned behavior explains aspects such as physical activity, consumer behavior, and technology adoption, privacy protection.

The TPB model provides more detailed information on why people make their decisions. To capture distinctive diversity in intention, TPB uses social effects along with normative variables. TPB has also been shown to be effective in predicting intents and behaviors (Ajzen, 2020). TPB performs better in describing social interaction-related behavior, according to Cheng (2019). TPB is a good fit for live streaming because of its focus on social interaction.

Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory

The Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory (Figure 1) states that external circumstances would generate a specific cognitive or emotional reaction, which would then lead to changes in consumer behavior. With the rapid growth of live streaming e-commerce in recent years, experts have investigated the influence of live streaming on customers purchase intentions and behaviors using the SOR model (Guo et al., 2021). The concept developed a method to explain human behavior by evaluating how environmental stimuli affect peoples cognitive and emotional states (Ming et al., 2021).

Figure 1. Stimulus-Organism-Response Model

The functions and features of live streaming include the ability to achieve real-time interaction through the comprehensive use of text, sound, and image, as well as the ability to deliver true and reliable information to consumers from multiple perspectives, allowing them to clearly evaluate product performance (Zhou et al., 2018). Cross-border live streaming e-commerce combines the benefits of multiple media, allowing sellers to not only transmit detailed and rich product information in real-time but also to communicate with customers about the feel, appearance, or smell of the products. Consumers feel closer to cross-border items in place and time because of the authenticity, visualization, and engaging performance presented through live streaming.

According to the SOR theory, consumers cognitive responses will be influenced by live streaming features as an external stimulus. In nature, cognition may be separated into two dimensions: positive cognition and negative cognition, according to previous research (Guo et al., 2020). Guo (2020) also thinks that when customers make purchasing selections, they consider not just the price, but also the advantages and expenses of various items. As a result, this paper will examine the influence of live streaming features on customers buy intentions in cross-border livestreaming e-commerce from the two perspectives of perceived value and perceived uncertainty.

Technology Acceptance Model

Individuals adoption of technology is impacted by extrinsic reasons, such as perceived utility. However, TAM omitted a concept that assessed peoples intrinsic motives. Many people seek intrinsic gratification when they utilize specific technologies, according to Camilleri and Falzon (2021). Non-utilitarian gratifications, such as enjoyment and amusement, might influence users behavioral intentions to keep using technology like mobile phones.

TAM aims to explain why consumers embrace or reject technology as it was proved to be more appropriate to adopt technology for utilitarian rather than hedonic or intrinsic objectives (Camilleri and Falzon, 2020). In essence, TAM proposes that peoples views of the ease of use and utility of specific technologies may predict whether they would use them again in the future. According to the original model, the users attitude has a direct impact on the use of a new information system, the goal of which is to assess the users acceptance of the system (Nagy, 2018).

The technology adoption model has been broadened to include information quality, system quality, service quality, and contemporary technology, all of which are connected to online marketing. The importance of current technology, social networks, mobile applications, and contextual advertising is the fundamental theoretical contribution of our research study. It has been proven that using current technology to communicate enhances the possibility of purchase, resulting in a bigger number of visitors (Fedorko, Bacik and Gavurova, 2018).

Involvement theories

The live-streaming business has four distinct characteristics compared to social commerce: interaction, visualization, entertainment, and professionalization. A streamer can interact with customers through virtual face-to-face communication based on live streaming, display a product in all directions, including try-on, organize fun activities like prize draws and cash voucher g

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