Research on the Purchase Intention of Social Commerce Consumers in Video Streams: Dual Pathways of Affection and Rationality

Abstract

Social commerce blurs the boundary between online social interaction and online shopping. The emergence of video streams introduces novel marketing modalities to social commerce. However, there is a paucity of comprehensive studies investigating the impact of emerging marketing techniques such as short videos and live streaming on consumer purchase intention. This study employs Bourdieu’s conceptual framework to construct a Field Theory-based model, investigating the impact of atmospheric and capital characteristics of social commerce platforms on consumer purchase intention through affective and rational pathways, respectively. A survey involving 515 Chinese social commerce consumers demonstrates that atmospheric characteristics (emotion and social presence) and capital characteristics (information quality and quantity) in video streams enhance similarity and power. Both similarity and power are associated with an increase in consumer purchase intention. This study validates the dual-path influence of social commerce characteristics and discusses theoretical and managerial implications.