The Formation and Transformation Mechanisms of Deep Consumer Engagement and Purchase Behavior in E-Commerce Live Streaming

Abstract

With the intensification of competition, it is of great significance for businesses and platforms to explore the formation and transformation mechanisms of deep consumer engagement and purchase behavior in an e-commerce live streaming environment. With the help of Hovland’s persuasion theory and the uses and gratifications theory, this study constructed a model of these formation and transformation mechanisms via the grounded theory coding of interview data from 42 consumers. Our study shows that demand drives consumers to use e-commerce live streaming, and attraction factors, such as the e-commerce anchor (source), the product message (message), and the live streaming medium (channel), can influence consumers’ attitudes, thus reinforcing deep engagement and purchase behavior. This behavior creates feedback to consumer demand generates new purchase motivation in the consumer, and eventually, forms new purchase behavior. Finally, the theoretical contribution of this study to understanding consumer behavior in e-commerce live streaming is discussed; it could be of practical use for merchants and platforms and also highlights directions for future research.