Research On The Effect Of E-Commerce Anchor Recommendation On Consumers’ Purchase Intention

In recent years,the rapid development of digital technology has promoted the popularity of e-commerce live shopping.The authenticity and strong interactivity of e-commerce live shopping increase the importance of e-commerce anchor recommendation in influencing consumers’ purchase decisions and behaviors.As an important source of information for consumers to understand products,e-commerce anchors not only play a decisive role in consumers’ purchase intentions,but also provide a favorable guarantee for enterprises to improve product sales.The value of e-commerce anchors depends on whether recommenders can use their own characteristics to attract traffic and convert traffic into sales.However,the existing research shows that the characteristics of e-commerce anchors cannot fully explain consumers’ purchase decisions.One important reason is that consumers’ purchase decisions will be affected by the multiple factors of recommender,recommendation information and recommendation platform,which makes consumers’ perception of e-commerce anchor recommendation behavior present integrity.In addition to using their own characteristics to attract traffic,e-commerce anchors’ accurate and objective evaluation of products is also one of the factors that affect potential consumers to make effective purchase decisions,and the type of e-commerce live broadcast platform will also affect consumers’ judgment on the source of usefulness of e-commerce anchors’ recommendations.In general,the existing research on e-commerce anchor recommendation has some deficiencies as follows:(1)The impact of e-commerce anchor recommendation on consumers’ purchase intention is not enough.At present,it only focuses on the impact of e-commerce anchor characteristics and attributes,neglects the investigation of anchor recommendation information behavior,and the existing empirical research conclusions are divergent;(2)The research on the impact of the type of e-commerce live broadcast platform(“e-commerce+live broadcast” platform vs “live broadcast+e-commerce” platform)on consumers’ purchase intention is insufficient.At present,only some scholars have carried out a case study taking an e-commerce live broadcast platform as an example.The research methods mostly stay at the qualitative level,and the research conclusions have not been deepened into practical application;(3)The existing research has failed to break through the quantitative analysis method of Structural Equation Modeling(SEM),which only examines the bottleneck of the linear relationship between the multiple elements of the anchor and the consumer’s purchase intention,and ignores the consumer’s combined perception of the e-commerce anchor recommendation factors.Based on the lack of the above research,this paper focuses on the following three research issues:(1)What are the factors that affect consumers’ purchase decisions?(2)Is there any difference in consumers’ perception of the usefulness of e-commerce anchor recommendation factors among different e-commerce live broadcast platforms?(3)Is there a combination of factors that affect consumers’ purchasing decisions in e-commerce anchor recommendation? Focusing on these three issues,this paper first divides the recommendation dimensions of e-commerce anchors based on the perspective of word-of-mouth recommendation and combined with the theoretical system of online word-of-mouth,and then sorts out the research on the relationship between the source of recommendation information,recommendation information and recommendation channel dimensions and perceived usefulness,trust and purchase intention in order to form the theoretical model of this paper.The following two empirical studies were carried out using SEM and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fs QCA).Based on the empirical research of SEM,525 valid questionnaires were issued and retrieved to consumers with shopping experience in Taobao,Tmall(“e-commerce+live” platform)or Tiktok,Kwai(“live+e-commerce” platform)in the past three months.Based on Smartpls3.0 software,the influencing factors of e-commerce anchor recommendation affecting consumers’ purchase intention were verified.The regulatory role of e-commerce live broadcast platform types is discussed through multi-group analysis.This study shows that:(1)anchor popularity,anchor professionalism,and anchor interactivity,as well as recommendation information quality,recommendation objectivity,and recommendation consistency,all positively and significantly affect consumer perceived usefulness;(2)Consumers in the“e-commerce+live broadcast” platform are more likely to be affected by the e-commerce anchor recommendation information factor,while consumers in the “live broadcast+e-commerce” platform are more likely to be affected by the e-commerce anchor recommendation information source factor;(3)The popularity of the anchor,the quality of the recommendation information,the objectivity of the recommendation and the consistency of the recommendation have a positive and significant impact on trust,but the professionalism of the anchor and the interaction of the anchor have no significant impact on trust;(4)Perceived usefulness and trust both positively and significantly affect consumers’ purchase intention.Based on the empirical research of fs QCA,this paper reveals the combination path of various influencing factors of e-commerce anchor recommendation to trigger consumers’ perceived usefulness,trust and purchase intention.This study shows that:(1)there are four types of configuration paths that trigger the perceived usefulness of consumers under the “e-commerce+live broadcast” platform,which are recommendation information-oriented,practice application-oriented,celebrity sensitive and atmosphere sensitive;(2)There are two types of configuration paths that trigger consumers’ perceived usefulness under the “live broadcast+e-commerce”platform,which are shopkeeper self-broadcast oriented and opinion leader oriented;(3)There are two types of configuration paths that trigger consumer trust,namely fans’ adoration and experts’ sensitivity;(4)There are two types of configuration paths that trigger consumers’ purchase intention,which are product information sensitive and multifactor sensitive.The innovation and theoretical contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in the following three aspects:First,based on the perspective of word-of-mouth recommendation,the e-commerce anchor recommendation dimension is divided,the influencing factors of consumer purchase intention are clarified,and the role of recommender factor and recommendation information factor in the formation of consumer purchase intention is clarified,which will help us understand the e-commerce anchor recommendation behavior.Second,the study found that the differences in consumers’ shopping motivations between the “e-commerce+live broadcast” platform and the “live broadcast+e-commerce” platform will lead to the inconsistent sources of perceived usefulness of e-commerce anchor recommendation information,making the research conclusions more targeted.Thirdly,the influence of various factors combination of e-commerce anchor recommendation on consumer purchase decision was discussed for the first time,and eleven types of consumers were identified,so as to make the matching results scenarioized,and at the same time,a more reasonable explanation was given for the differences in the influence of the existing anchor interaction and popularity on consumer trust.