A Study On The Effect Of The Media Characteristics Of Livestream E-Commerce On Consumer Purchase Intention

Livestream e-commerce has become the dominant e-commerce pattern,and more and more consumers are willing to purchases product via livestream e-commerce.Meanwhile,consumer buying behavior in livestream background has received widespread attention from the industry and academics.Different from the traditional ecommerce,livestream e-commerce is a perfect combination of "livestream" and "ecommerce",and it has the incomparable attraction that traditional e-commerce has not.Thus,it is difficult to apply the traditional pattern of consumer buying behavior in the traditional e-commerce background to the new livestream e-commerce background,and the mechanisms of consumer buying behavior via the livestream e-commerce platform need to be explored in depth.Previously,most research about livestream e-commerce has focused on streamer as the research subject.Livestream e-commerce,with its unique media characteristic,plays an important role in the consumer purchase process,but media characteristic has rarely been considered.In the context of livestream e-commerce,the factors that influence consumer purchase intention have not yet been fully explored,and the mechanism playing in the consumer buying process through livestream need to be further explored.Specifically,the media value of live e-commerce is reflected in the fact that it combines the characteristics of different media,the diversity of technological features enrich consumer shopping needs,increases their satisfaction;and the novel shopping environment enhances consumer shopping experience and stimulates their emotional responses.Therefore,the research firstly explores the impact of the technology affordance of livestream e-commerce on consumer live purchase intention base on consumer gratification;and secondly further explores the impact of environmental cues of the livestream e-commerce in influencing consumer purchase intention from the perspective of consumers emotional responses.The specific research content is as follows.First,based on the technology affordance theory and use and gratification theory,the research explores the impact of technology affordance in livestream e-commerce on consumer purchase intentions.By analyzing the livestream e-commerce,we introduce the concept of technology affordance to the research.Technology affordance refers to the possibility that technology drives user to achieve certain behavior.The research identifies four types of technology affordance(guidance shopping,community,interactivity and navigability affordance)and two types of consumer gratification(information and entertainment gratification)that are closely related to livestream e-commerce.The author constructs a SEM model by employing the technology affordance theory and use and gratification theory to examine the impact of the technology affordance of livestream ecommerce media on consumer gratification and purchase intention.And the author takes consumer price consciousness as a moderating variable in order to explore the moderating role of consumer price consciousness between consumer gratification and purchase intention.Through analysis of the survey data,the results show that(1)excepting that no significant result has been uncovered with the relationship between interactivity affordance and entertainment gratification,the rest relationships of gratification and its antecedents are consistent with our theorization;(2)both entertainment gratification and information gratification have a positive relationship with consumer purchase intention;(3)although price consciousness positively moderates the effect of information gratification on live purchase intention,it typically does not moderate the effect of entertainment gratification on live purchase intention.Second,on the basis of the Stimulus-Organism-Response(S-O-R)theoretical framework,the research explores the impact of environmental cues in livestream ecommerce on consumer purchase intentions.The research identifies four types of environmental cues(streamer charm,aesthetic appeal,membership and review effect)and two types of consumer emotional responses(immersion and arousal)that are closely related to livestream e-commerce.The author constructs a research framework including environmental stimuli,consumer emotional responses and purchase intention by adopting the Stimulus-Organism-Response(S-O-R)theoretical model,and verifies the impact of environmental cues of the livestream e-commerce on consumer live purchase intention,as well as the mediating role played by consumer emotional responses between environmental cues and purchase intention.By analyzing survey data,the results show that(1)the environmental factors in the livestream e-commerce medium have a significant direct effect on consumer purchase intention;(2)the two emotional responses of consumers,namely immersion and arousal,have a co-mediating effect between environmental factors and purchase intentions;(3)in terms of their respective specific mediating effects,the mediating role played by consumer arousal is stronger immersion.The innovations and contributions of this research are as follows.First,this research discusses technology affordances and consumer gratification in the same research framework.Previous studies mostly have understood consumer gratification from the perspective of consumer motivations,and have rarely considered the impact of the technological features of the medium on their gratification.The research provides a promising approach to deeply understand consumer gratification and also extends the application of technology affordance theory and use and gratification theory.Second,this research explores the influence of environmental cues on purchase intentions from the perspective of consumer emotional responses,and identifies virous types of environmental cues that are closely related to the livestream e-commerce.The research enriches the diversity of environmental cues on the livestream e-commerce media to a certain extent.The author employs the S-O-R theoretical framework to validate the mediating role played by consumer emotional responses,providing a firm evidence for researchers to fully understand the relationship between the shopping environmental cues and consumer behavior.