Increasing Consumers’ Purchase Intentions for the Sustainability of Live Farming Assistance: A Group Impact Perspective

Abstract

Live farming assistance, which is an important channel for emerging agricultural sales, alleviated the challenges of disrupted agricultural sales caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in past years. As the final purchasers of products, consumers are directly related to the sales conversion rate of live farming assistance. Unlocking the potential influence of consumers’ purchase intentions in live farming assistance and exploring ways to improve consumers’ purchase intentions will help the sustainable operation of live farming assistance. The hidden quality of agricultural products, the public welfare nature, and the high interactivity of live farming assistance make consumers more susceptible to the group effect during the shopping process. This paper analyzes the impact of the group effect on consumers’ purchase intentions based on reference group influence theory and emotional contagion theory. Data is obtained through questionnaires for empirical testing. Three kinds of group effects are examined: informational effect, normative effect, and emotional effect. The research results indicate that the group effect has a positive and direct impact on consumers’ purchase intentions, and experience value plays a critical mediating role in this relationship. We further predict a moderated-mediation model, whereby the indirect effect of the group effect on consumers’ purchase intentions, through experience value, is moderated by tie strength. The research findings contribute to the study of consumer buying behavior in live e-commerce, and provide insights for practitioners to improve the conversion rate of live farming assistance and promote sustainable operation of live farming assistance.