Exploring consumers’ impulse buying behavior on social commerce platform: The role of parasocial interaction

Is online shopping addiction still a depressive illness? -- the induced consumption and traffic trap in live E-commerce

While immersive shopping has injected new vitality into China's e-commerce, it has also resulted in consumers' over-reliance on online shopping. Psychological studies have linked online shopping addiction with depression, but business practices challenge this conclusion. This study, grounded in addiction theory, developed a theoretical model, and conducted an online survey with 214 live-streaming shoppers using structural equation modeling for validation. The primary focus was on determining whether consumers truly become addicted to online shopping in the four stages of the addiction model. The study unveils the process of consumers becoming addicted to online shopping. It explores the moderating role of perceived risk in the relationship between utilitarian and hedonic purchases and online shopping addiction. The findings suggest that through tactics such as traffic promotion, traffic trapping, anchor feature utilization, and incorporation of consumer aesthetics, merchants may induce utilitarian and hedonic purchases, leading to addiction to live-streaming shopping among consumers. Furthermore, perceived risk significantly and negatively moderates the relationship between utilitarian purchases and online shopping addiction. Our research indicates that merchants intentionally create external stimuli, enticing consumers to indulge in online shopping, suggesting that online shopping addiction is not merely a simple psychological state but may be influenced by external factors. This study provides novel insights into the phenomenon of online shopping addiction while offering valuable recommendations for consumers seeking to avoid succumbing to its allure.

Impulse buying behavior during livestreaming: Moderating effects of scarcity persuasion and price perception

This research aimed to identify the factors that influence impulse buying behavior during livestreaming and advance the existing literature based on a proposed conceptual framework grounded in the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model. We also tested the moderating effects of price perception and scarcity persuasion. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 837 Chinese participants aged over 18 years. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling using Smart-PLS version 4.0. The findings showed that susceptibility to social influence, impulse buying tendency, cognitive reactions, affective reactions, and the urge to buy impulsively are statistically significant predictors of impulse buying during livestreaming, with price perception and scarcity persuasion as moderators. The study expands the S-O-R model for livestreaming impulse buying in e-commerce context, highlighting its multifaceted nature and revealing the mediating role of Urge to Buy Impulsively in translating cognitive and emotional factors into impulse buying behavior. These insights offer practical guidance for marketers to design tailored strategies that leverage psychological triggers and external cues to enhance consumer engagement and encourage desired behaviors, ultimately leading to more effective marketing campaigns and improved consumer experiences.

Exploring the world of food with families: perspectives of low-income families on factors influencing their food choices

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate the social and environmental factors involved in the food decision-making processes of families living on lower incomes on the Island of Ireland.

DESIGN

A qualitative design was employed for this study, using photovoice and creative mapping methods. Parents were requested to take photos and draw maps of their food environments. Interviews were then conducted with parents, using the materials produced by parents as a cue to discuss their food environments, influences and decision-making processes around food choices.

SETTING

The participants were interviewed online via Microsoft Teams.

PARTICIPANTS

The participants were parents or guardians of children between the ages of 2 and 18 who self-defined as 'living on a tight budget'.

RESULTS

Twenty-eight participants were recruited and interviewed for this study, including twelve parents in Northern Ireland and sixteen in the Republic of Ireland. The findings were mapped on to Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory and showed that multiple, overlapping and intersecting factors at the individual, micro-, meso-, exo-, macro- and chrono-system were implicated in family food choices. Upstream factors in particular, including structural, policy and commercial determinants, appear to be significant drivers of behaviour.

CONCLUSIONS

While the findings suggest that a complex range of factors are involved in family food choices, it is clear that policy measures and regulations are needed to stave off the impacts of rising social inequality and food poverty. Health promoters should strive to find non-stigmatising interventions to bridge the nutritional divide experienced by lower-income families.

Gift-giving intentions in pan-entertainment live streaming: Based on social exchange theory

Pan-entertainment live streaming combines video with two-way communication and real-time viewer participation, allowing viewers to send virtual gifts to their favorite streamers. Drawing on social exchange theory, this study investigates the factors that influence viewers' gift-giving intentions in live streaming from the perspectives of both viewers and streamers. It also explores the moderating role of streamers' deceptive self-presentation. The theoretical framework is tested using AMOS and PROCESS Macro based on survey responses collected from 331 TikTok users in China. The results suggest that streamers' attractiveness, expertise, parasocial interaction, and the viewers' deceptive self-presentation significantly affect viewers' gift-giving intention, and that streamers' deceptive self-representation moderates the relationship between attractiveness, expertise, parasocial inter-action and the viewer's consumer intention. These findings contribute to social exchange theory by highlighting the importance of streamers' deceptive self-presentation in moderating the effects of attractiveness, expertise, parasocial interaction, and the viewer's deceptive self-presentation on the viewer's gift-giving intention.

The impact of social exclusion on impulsive buying behaviour of consumers on online platforms: Samples from China

Social exclusion is a common phenomenon in modern social life that has significant negative effects on those who were excluded. The excluded may adopt strategic impulsive consumption behaviors in order to gain a sense of belonging and repair social relations, and the rapid development of online shopping platforms has intensified the occurrence of impulsive purchasing behaviors. Therefore, the internal mechanism between the two needs to be clarified. This study utilised SPSS 26.0, Mplus8.0 and HLM6.08 to analyse the data from 417 questionnaires, focused on exploring the internal mechanism between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour, and yielded the following conclusions. (1) Social exclusion is positively correlated with impulsive purchasing behaviour. (2) Relative deprivation plays a mediating role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. (3) The need to belong plays an intermediary role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. (4) Self-control plays a moderating role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. These conclusions could provide a basis for enterprises to formulate rational marketing strategies and create consumer demand.

Expanding the UTAUT2 framework to determine the drivers of mobile shopping behaviour among older adults

In the current severe aging of the population, the problem of "digital divide" of the elderly has become increasingly prominent, and the elderly market represents a vast demographic that is increasingly becoming an important customer segment for mobile shopping in the future. However, there is currently insufficient attention given to the research on mobile shopping behavior among older adults. This study tries to answer what are the driving factors of mobile phone shopping behavior among the elderly? The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that drive the elderly's mobile phone shopping behavior, and to establish a mobile phone shopping acceptance model for the elderly to predict the factors of the elderly's behavioral intention of using smart phones. Based on the second edition of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology theory (UTAUT 2), this study proposed a mobile phone shopping acceptance model for the elderly. The study collected valid data from 389 Chinese elderly people through questionnaires and analyzed them using structural equation models. The results showed that utilitarian, anxiety, trust, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and habit directly impact the older adults' intention to engage in mobile shopping. Additionally, facilitating conditions, habit and the older adults' intention to engage in mobile shopping act as driving factors for actual use behavior. This study further expands the UTAUT theoretical model, provides a theoretical basis for the research of mobile shopping behavior of the elderly, and enricues the application groups and fields of the UTAUT theoretical model. The results of this study provide inspiration for the development, design and marketing of age-appropriate mobile shopping products, and contribute to the realization and further adoption of age-appropriate mobile shopping, and also contribute to promoting the active aging of the elderly.

The role of scarcity promotion and cause-related events in impulse purchase in the agricultural product live stream

Harvest agricultural products are perishable. If they cannot be sold, there will be serious grain loss and food waste. It is an important issue related to human sustainable development and urgent to address. As the most popular way of shopping, live shopping has achieved remarkable achievements, while the existing research is relatively silent on how to promote the sales of agricultural products in the context of live streams. Based on S-O-R theory and dual-system theory, three studies investigated the intrinsic mechanism of consumers' impulse purchase intention (IPI) in live streams. The results show that scarcity promotion (SP) and cause-related events (CRE) are positively correlated with consumers' IPI through arousal and moral elevation. Interestingly, when SP and CRE are presented at the same time, the impact of CRE on IPI is no longer significant. Overall, the proposed model could be used to predict consumers' willingness and provide the choice of marketing strategy to promote the sale of agricultural products, which has significant theoretical and practical value.

The influence of communication language on purchase intention in consumer contexts: the mediating effects of presence and arousal

Panoramic visual, tactile, and auditory interactions have been widely used to create scene-based immersive experiences to enhance consumer experience and stimulate emotional responses, thereby increasing purchase intentions. Guided by scene marketing theory and the archetypal theory of mind-flow experience, this article introduces the concepts of presence and emotional arousal to examine how communication language causes emotional fluctuations in potential consumers, leading to purchase intentions. Therefore, from the interaction experience of “external perception - scene language” and “internal sensing - communication language”, the dual chain of mediation of presence perception and emotional arousal is selected to construct a consumer. The results reveal that the pathway of consumers’ purchase intentions is not always the same in the context of consumer language perception. In addition, the results demonstrate that the vividness and richness of the presentation of scene language in a consumer language perception context have positively influenced the relationship between communication language and presence perception. Compared to the direct effect on purchase intention, communication language tends to have an indirect positive effect on consumers’ purchase intention through the single mediation of presence perception and the chain mediation of emotional arousal. The increasing prevalence of interactive linguistic experiences, where emotional arousal has become an essential trigger for consumers’ purchase intentions, is an important representation of the specificity and complexity of consumer language elements. Thus, this research provides crucial theoretical guidance for the design of immersive experiential marketing and linguistic scenarios.

The impact of social presence and facilitation factors on online consumers' impulse buying in live shopping – celebrity endorsement as a moderating factor

Purpose

Although prior studies have studied the relationship between online consumers' attitudes and buying behaviour, the research focussing on online consumers' impulse buying behaviours and exploring the role of celebrity endorsement is limited. Drawing on the social presence and the social facilitation theory, this paper establishes a research model based on the stimuli–organism–response (S–O–R) model and the motivation theory. It explores how live streamers impact online consumers' impulse buying behaviours under specific social and cultural backgrounds, with celebrity endorsement as a moderating variable.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the research model, the online questionnaire method has been conducted in this study. This paper utilises Chinese online consumers as samples and promotes an online survey. Using the variance-based structural equation modelling and partial least squares path modelling (SEM-PLS), 433 valid questionnaires have been analysed on SmartPLS.

Findings

First, live streamers' attractive appearance positively correlates with online consumers' hedonic attitude and positively impacts their utilitarian attitude to live shopping. Second, live streamers' real-time interaction positively affects consumers' utilitarian attitudes because of their professional marketing and communication skills. Third, their hedonic and utilitarian attitudes positively influence online consumers' impulse buying behaviours. Finally, this paper presents that celebrity endorsement negatively moderates the relationship between online consumers' hedonic attitudes and impulse buying during live shopping.

Originality/value

This research combines the S–O–R model and the motivation theory and analyses related social influencing factors to study online consumers' impulse buying behaviours. Meanwhile, it explores the celebrity endorsement factor as a moderate role and identifies the different effects between live streamers and celebrities in live shopping, which is of great significance to the strategy of live shopping marketing and the literature on online consumers' behaviours.

How active and passive social media use affects impulse buying in Chinese college students? The roles of emotional responses, gender, materialism and self-control

Social media plays a vital role in consumers’ purchasing decision making. There are still gaps in existing research on the relationship between divided dimensions of social media use and impulse buying, as well as the mediating and moderating effects therein. This study explored the mediation and moderation effects in the relationship between different social media usage patterns, emotional responses, and consumer impulse buying. Data from 479 college students who were social media users in China were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that active and passive social media use were significantly and positively associated with users’ enjoyment, whereas passive social media use significantly increased depression. Both enjoyment and depression were significantly and positively associated with users’ impulse buying. Materialism positively moderated the relationship between enjoyment and impulsive consumption, while self-control significantly reduced the effect of depression on impulse buying. These findings that emotion mediated and personality traits moderated relationships between social media use and impulse buying expand impulsive purchase literature and provide insights for guiding college students’ healthy use of social media and rational consumption.

Who one is, whom one knows? Evaluating the importance of personal and social characteristics of influential people in social networks

Purpose

This study examines opinion leadership's personal and social characteristics to see which one is more effective in opinion leadership in four different industries: fashion, travel and tourism, wellness and book and literature. The specific subject of this investigation is how largely openness, exhibitionism and competence in interpersonal relationships and status and attitude homophily affect the opinion leadership and the decision-making of opinion leaders' followers.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model was tested with the questionnaire shared via stories featured on Instagram among followers of four micro-influencers in different industries. For the purpose of testing the offered hypotheses of this study, the partial least squares method was used.

Findings

The findings show that openness, exhibitionism and competence in interpersonal relationships have a substantial effect on opinion leadership. It was also evident that status and attitude homophily impact opinion leadership. The model supports the effect of both personal and social characteristics on opinion leadership; however, based on the results, the effect of personal characteristics on opinion leadership is more remarkable, both in a direct relationship and through the mediating role of para-social interaction.

Originality/value

This study is novel in categorizing opinion leaders' attributes in two different extents of personal and social characteristics. The authors defined a model of the effectiveness of each personal and social characteristic on opinion leaders. The model investigates whether the personal or social characteristics have the most effect on opinion leadership, particularly with the mediating role of para-social interaction.

The Impacts of Mobile Wallet App Characteristics on Online Impulse Buying: A Moderated Mediation Model

The adoption of cashless payment methods compels impulse buying. This research studies impulse purchase behavior by focusing on E-wallet app characteristics, a field where empirical research is still scarce. This paper is aimed at developing and testing a theoretical model to examine a moderated mediation model of mobile wallet app characteristics and impulse buying through perceived enjoyment moderated by mobile wallet user experience. An online survey acquired 208 valid responses from active E-wallet users. The framework was empirically analyzed by using Smart PLS-SEM. Findings indicate that perceived interactivity and visual appeal have positive relationships with perceived enjoyment and impulse buying, respectively. Perceived enjoyment is positively associated with impulse buying, and perceived enjoyment mediates the relationship between visual appeal and impulse buying. The impacts of perceived interactivity on perceived enjoyment and impulse buying are moderated by user experience. Moreover, user experience moderates the relationship between visual appeal and perceived enjoyment. This study identifies differences in consumer behavior between more experienced and less experienced E-wallet users. More experienced E-wallet users emphasize the app’s interactivity, while less experienced users pay more attention to the app’s appealing design. Practical implications are offered for E-wallet system developers and designers to attract new users and, at the same time, retain existing users.

Evaluating the impact of social media on online shopping behavior during COVID-19 pandemic: A Bangladeshi consumers' perspectives

Background of the study

Nowadays, the business pattern is changing globally. The business organization is influenced customers to purchase their necessary goods and services from online businesses. The online-based business takes promotional activities through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Purpose

The aim of the research was to investigate the impact of social media on online shopping behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of Bangladeshi consumers.

Research methods

Quantitative type research was applied and the study used descriptive research design. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect 350 data points from Bangladeshi consumers using an online purposive sampling method. A partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to evaluate the data and test the hypotheses.

Results

PLS-SEM analysis method demonstrated that celebrity endorsement, promotional tools, and online reviews had a positive significant impact on online shopping behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in the perspective of Bangladesh.

Conclusion

The research paper provides practical guidelines for online-based business organizations on how to effectively use social media platforms for business target advertising and promotional activities. The customers are also motivated to purchase through social media because of positive online reviews and trustworthy celebrity endorsements.

Understanding gift-giving in game live streaming on Douyu: An evaluation of PSR/social presence

In China, live streaming has grown rapidly in recent years, with gift-giving, a unique business model in live streaming, driving the development of many industries. This article explores the association between gift-giving behavior in game live streaming and viewers' live streaming experience. Specifically, this study aims to explore the correlation between Para-social Relationships, Social Presence, and gift-giving in the context of China. Based on the survey and interview of the viewer on Douyu, a Chinese live streaming platform, this study found that there is only a weak to a medium correlation between para-social relationships and viewers' gift-giving behavior. The correlation between social presence and gift-giving was even weaker. Although the conclusion of this study may be affected by the sample size limitation, it can still provide a reference for the current research on gift-giving on Chinese live streaming platforms.

Impact of online convenience on generation Z online impulsive buying behavior: The moderating role of social media celebrity

This research aims to determine which dimensions of online convenience influence generation z consumers’ cognitive and affective attitudes and online impulsive buying behavior. The moderating effect of social media celebrity is also investigated to examine the attitude-behavior gap. A total of 348 responses from Chinese users who followed digital celebrities were received using purposive sampling. Data analysis and hypothesis testing were carried out using SmartPLS, version 3 (partial least squares). The results indicated that relationship convenience, possession convenience, post possession conveniences, transaction convenience, and evaluation convenience have a crucial impact on cognitive and affective attitudes. Similarly, cognitive and affective attitudes are significant and positive predictors of generation z consumers’ online impulsive buying behavior. Moreover, empirical results supported the moderating role of social media celebrities that aid marketers in selecting a product endorser. The implications for marketers and policymakers are discussed based on the above research findings. Moreover, future research directions are suggested.

Effects of Interface Design and Live Atmosphere on Consumers’ Impulse-Buying Behaviour from the Perspective of Human–Computer Interaction

Since its introduction, live e-commerce has shown rapid growth, especially in regions such as China, where the total market size has exceeded trillions of RMB. However, e-commerce live streaming has also caused widespread consumer impulse-buying behaviour during the development process. Therefore, based on stimulus–organism–response theory, from the perspective of human–computer interaction, this paper develops an impulse-purchase model for live e-commerce consumers, uses partial least squares structural equation modelling to process and analyse 339 valid questionnaires and, finally, validates the proposed hypotheses. The findings show that consumers’ visual appeal, perceived arousal and engagement play a mediating role in the relations among interface design, live atmosphere and impulse purchase. To promote the sustainability of a live-streaming economy, live-streaming platforms need to design attractive live-streaming interfaces, build a pleasant live-streaming atmosphere and enhance consumers’ positive emotions, while preventing their irrational purchasing behaviour. An in-depth analysis of the formation mechanism of this behaviour can help in alleviating the limitations of the lack of rich research results and a single perspective in this field. In addition, it can help stakeholders promote the sustainability of e-commerce live streaming in practice.

The Dark Side of Social Media: Content Effects on the Relationship Between Materialism and Consumption Behaviors

This study contributes to the emerging literature on the negative effects over consumption that social media users may develop as a consequence of being engaged on social media platforms. The authors tested materialism's direct and indirect impacts on compulsive, conspicuous, and impulsive buying, adding two novel mediators: attitudes toward social media content (SCM) and social media intensity (SMI). The study uses a convenience sample of 400 Thai social media users analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results confirmed the well-established positive relationships between materialism and each of the three-negative consumption behaviors also in the social media domain. A novel finding showed the important role played by SMI which was found to be a strong predictor of each of the three negative consumption behaviors and it was also found to significantly mediate the relationship between materialism and the three-negative consumption behaviors. An additional contribution of the study was found on the role of attitudes which, contrary to what is commonly believed, were often not significant in predicting any negative behavior.

A Literature Review of Social Commerce Research from a Systems Thinking Perspective

The paper aims to investigate social commerce systems from a systems thinking perspective. It proposes to model the social commerce process and outlines how Following, Communicating, Purchasing, and Sharing are systematically connected with each other in the social commerce process. The paper describes an exploratory review study using the systematic literature review method, including 384 social commerce research papers, which were published from 2011 to 2021. The data are refined by documentary analysis, including Study Selection Criteria and Quality Assessment processes. The paper systematically develops a conceptual framework for understanding social commerce. Previous research on social commerce mainly focuses on one or more particular key success factors (such as trust) in social commerce, and a few of them investigate social commerce as an integral business system. This review provides a more comprehensive basis for future social commerce research.

How Do Comeback Korean Pop Performers Acquire Audience Empathetic Attachment and Sustained Loyalty? Parasocial Interactions Through Live Stream Shows

Live stream platforms have transformed the production and consumption of music, allowing KPop music to expand globally. Successful KPop idols are contrasted with large numbers of retired KPop performers, some of whom live in undesirable conditions. Drawing on the attachment theory, loyalty theory, and parasocial interaction theory, this study focuses on a unique group, comeback KPop performers, to examine how they acquire empathetic attachment and sustained loyalty from audiences through live stream shows, and the antecedents (i.e., sustained attractiveness, nostalgic experience, and parasocial interactions) of these two variables. Answering these questions seems important because comeback KPop performers have to interact with audiences without the financial and marketing support from entertainment agencies. The structural equation modeling of 288 responses from 176 Chinese and 112 Korean KPop audiences confirmed that empathetic attachment and sustained loyalty are positively associated with audience purchase intentions; sustained attractiveness and parasocial interactions function as antecedents of these two factors. The findings shed light on the comeback KPop performers who co-create value with audiences through live stream platforms, with theoretical contributions to the three theories mentioned above and managerial suggestions to KPop entertainment agencies, comeback KPop performers, and managers of live stream platforms.

How Does Adolescents' Usage of Social Media Affect Their Dietary Satisfaction?

In order to improve the health status of adolescents, studies are needed to illuminate the essence of their general and dietary lifestyle. Thus, we conducted this study to verify meaningful relationships between adolescent usage of social media (USM), which plays an important role in their life, their food consumption behavior (FCB), and their dietary satisfaction. This study used two analysis methods: t-tests and structural equation modeling (SEM). This study verified whether there was a significant difference in adolescent FCB depending on their USM using t-tests. This study proposes that the following FCBs showed significant differences between users and non-users of social media in adolescents: a tendency to try new types of food (t = 2.134, p < 0.05), a tendency to avoid foods with harmful risks such as suspected spoilage (t = 3.513, p < 0.001), a tendency to eat bread or fruit for a simple breakfast (t = −3.893, p < 0.001), and a tendency to often use home meal replacements (HMR), eat out or have food delivered (t = −3.245, p < 0.01). Furthermore, this study used SEM to verify the causal relationship between adolescent USM and their dietary satisfaction. According to the results of SEM, adolescents’ USM mediated by the FCB of preferring convenience fully mediates the negative relationship between adolescent USM and their dietary satisfaction (p < 0.01). It is necessary to reverse the situation in which adolescent dietary satisfaction decreases as their FCB of preferring convenience increases. Government regulations for food companies and autonomous efforts for quality improvements on their part are needed.

Be my friend! Cultivating parasocial relationships with social media influencers: findings from PLS-SEM and fsQCA

Purpose

The emergence of social media has brought the influencer marketing landscape to an unprecedented level, where many ordinary people are turning into social media influencers. The study aims to construct and validate a model to yield strategic insights on the relevance of content curation, influencer–fans interaction and parasocial relationships development in fostering favorable endorsement outcomes (i.e. purchase intention).

Design/methodology/approach

The present study analyzes data from a survey of 411 consumers using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to understand the net and combined effects of content attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships on purchase intention.

Findings

PLS-SEM results reveal that content attributes (i.e. prestige and expertise) and interaction strategies (i.e. interactivity and self-disclosure) positively influence parasocial relationships, and in turn, lead to high purchase intention. Findings from fsQCA indicate six solutions with different combinations of content attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships that sufficiently explain high purchase intention.

Originality/value

The present study demonstrates the roles of content attributes and interaction strategies in engendering parasocial relationship and the endorsement outcome (i.e. purchase intention) from both linear and non-linear (complexity) perspectives.

Antecedents of Online Impulse Buying: An Analysis of Gender and Centennials’ and Millennials’ Perspectives

Impulse buying continues to be a relevant topic for retail management, yet few studies have examined the role of online impulse buying. This study analyzes the effect of impulse buying tendency on online impulse buying behavior through the mediation of normative evaluation and the urge to buy impulsively on the Internet. As a secondary objective, we aim to identify whether gender and generation influence the model. The research was conducted in Mexico with millennials and centennials who had previously bought products on the Internet. We used quantitative, explanatory, non-experimental, cross-sectional research. We applied an electronic survey, and, for the statistical technique, we used PLS. According to the results, impulse buying tendency both directly and indirectly influences online impulse buying behavior through the mediating roles of normative evaluation and the urge to buy impulsively on the Internet. Moreover, we found that gender does not have an effect on the model. Regarding generation, two significant differences were found between centennials and millennials.

Understanding Online Health Community Users’ Payment Intention

Users often lack the motivation to pay for health information and services in online health communities (OHC). This may undermine the sustainable development of OHC. Integrating both perspectives of perceived value and trust, this research identified the factors affecting OHC users’ payment intention. The results indicated that payment intention is influenced by both functional value and trust. Functional value includes price utility and information quality, whereas trust includes trust in doctors and trust in community. We did not find the effect of emotional value and social value on payment intention. The results imply that OHC need to create a trustworthy climate and offer utilitarian value to users in order to facilitate their payment intention.

Exploring the Social and Systemic Influencing Factors of Mobile Short Video Applications on the Consumer Urge to Buy Impulsively

With the progress of digital and mobile technologies, mobile short video apps (MSAs) have been booming in recent years. These MSAs are expanding their role in social commerce, which has aroused scholar’s and practitioners’ attention. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response model,this study proposes an integrated model to examine the impact of social factors (perceived expertise, similarity, and familiarity) and systemic factors (personalization, serendipity, and visual appeal) on the formation of utilitarian value and flow experience, and their subsequent effects on impulsive buying. The results suggest that both social factors and systemic factors can influence utilitarian value and flow experience. Further, utilitarian value and flow experience can positively affect consumers’ impulse buying independently. The contributions of the study to both academia and practice are discussed.

Examining Online Health Community Users' Information Adoption Intention

Due to the doubt on information credibility, users often hesitate to adopt the health information posted on online health communities (OHC). This may undermine the sustainable development of OHC. The purpose of this research is to identify the determinants of OHC users’ information adoption intention. The results indicated that both information factors and social interaction affect the adoption intention. Information factors include argument quality and source credibility, whereas social interaction includes perceived similarity and familiarity. The results imply that OHC need to ensure information quality and support users’ interaction in order to facilitate their information adoption.

How KOLs Influence Consumer Purchase Intention in Short Video Platforms

In recent years, Key Opinion Leader (KOL) marketing opens up a new mode of social commerce by effectively integrating social networking and marketing since it has been successfully taking advantage of KOL’s high popularity to promote products. This study expands the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model by combining the communication persuasion theory with the flow experience theory. Our model considers the characteristics of KOLs and published content features as independent variables, consumer perception as the mediating variable and consumer purchase intention as the dependent variable. This study also refines the measurement dimensions of each variable and analyzes KOL impacts on consumer purchase intention on short video platforms. After analyzing 357 valid questionnaires, we find that the variables –reputation, perceived fit, aesthetic quality and content richness have significant impacts on consumer purchase intention where virtual touch and emotional response play intermediary roles. This study provides insights into KOL marketing.

The Moderating Role of Anticipated Regret and Product Involvement on Online Impulsive Buying Behavior

Online impulsive buying behavior has drawn an increasing amount of attention from researchers and marketers as well; however, little research has explored how cognitive aspect and emotional aspect effect online impulsive buying together. The study examines the role of product involvement (cognitive aspect) and anticipated regret (emotional aspect) on the online impulsive buying behavior of the consumer. The results indicate that consumers who experienced downward anticipated regret showed more online impulsive buying behavior than those who experienced upward anticipated regret. Moreover, anticipated regret moderates the relationship between product involvement and online impulsive buying behavior, for participants who experienced downward anticipated regret showing more online impulsive buying behavior than those who experienced upward anticipated regret in the low product involvement group, but there is no differential between downward and upward anticipated regret in the high involvement product group. These findings suggest that anticipated regret helps consumers make more deliberative online shopping choices. The implications for both future research and online consumers are discussed.

The Continued Use of Social Commerce Platforms and Psychological Anxiety-The Roles of Influencers, Informational Incentives and FoMO

Why does the continued use of social commerce platforms fail to promote consumer wellbeing? This study explores the roles of influencers, informational incentives and fear of missing out (FoMO) in the relationships between social commerce platform use and consumer mental health. Data were obtained through questionnaires, as well as constructing a research model. Statistical analysis and path analysis of the structural equation model were performed by the software IBM SPSS and AMOS, and the following results were obtained. (1) Influencer expertise and interactivity, informational incentives and FoMO have a significant impact on consumers’ continued use of social commerce platforms. (2) Materialism has no significant effect on consumer social commerce platform use. (3) FoMO mediates the relationships between informational incentives and continued use of social commerce platforms. (4) Consumers’ continuous use of social commerce platforms has a strong relationship with mental health. (5) Continued use of social commerce platforms can lead to intense social engagement, as well as more severe outcomes such as psychological anxiety and compulsive buying. The findings of the paper have important implications for the development of social business theory and management practice.

What contributes to online communities' prosperity? Understanding value co-creation in product-experience-shared communities (PESCs) from the view of resource integration

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors influencing content generation and community initiative in PESCs. Taking advantage of an emerging PESC – Xiaohongshu APP, the study identifies three antecedent resources, including customer-owned knowledge, harmonious passion to shopping and perceived information usefulness, that affect content generating and further community initiative.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the service-dominant (S-D) logic model and resource integration related work, the authors proposed a conceptual framework empirically tested using data of a survey and the real content-generating behavior from 347 respondents.

Findings

This paper identifies three resource antecedents of content generating behavior with significant influence. Furthermore, there is a moderating effect of perceived information usefulness among these three resources, which echoes the concept of resource integration. Content generating has a significant and positive influence on community initiative.

Originality/value

First, the paper identified customer and platform resources promoting the prosperity of PESCs, enhancing the research on antecedents of community prosperity. Second, the paper empirically quantifies the process and outcome of resource integration conceptual model. Third, it enriches the understanding of C2C interaction by investigating the value creation process on PESCs. Moreover, findings in the study provide insights for community managers to improve the operation of PESCs.

Social Commerce

The present study performs the bibliometric analysis of the social commerce (s-commerce) literature, highlights the major research themes, and suggests future research directions. The HistCite software has been used for bibliometric analysis on a sample of 660 s-commerce papers obtained from the ISI Web of Science database. This study analyses these papers to present the details about the influential journals, authors, and universities regarding s-commerce research. Following research themes have been identified based on the content analysis as well as citation mapping of the top-cited 53 s-commerce papers: 1) S-commerce – Purchase Intention, 2) S-commerce – Sharing Intention, 3) Social Media – Marketing and Consumer Engagement, 4) S-commerce – User Preferences and Concerns. Subsequently, a multi-dimensional conceptual model has been developed to highlight the coupling and flow between s-commerce growth drivers, practice indicators, and performance metrics. Finally, future research directions have been recommended.

Social commerce isn’t the cherry on the cake, its the new cake! How consumers’ attitudes and eWOM influence online purchase intention in China

Purpose

In the recent decade, social media popularity and growth have boosted the development of social commerce (SC). This study aims to explore the significant impact of guanxi (关系) elements (ganqing 感情, renqing 人情 and xinren 信任) on online purchase intentions. Furthermore, this study investigated the moderating role of social support between electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and online purchase intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was conducted on 309 consumers who had online purchasing experience through WeChat, a famous social media application in China. Structural equational modeling was used to test all hypotheses.

Findings

The results indicate that guanxi elements are positively related to eWOM, affective attitude and online purchase intentions in SC. Additionally, social support has a significant moderating role between eWOM intention and online purchase intention.

Practical implications

Considering the effects of guanxi elements on eWOM affective attitude and online purchase intention in Chinese SC, online retailers are advised to carefully develop their marketing strategies to retain and attract new consumers. Furthermore, online retailers can use the findings from this study to understand the consequences when online purchase intention is strongly influenced by guanxi elements.

Originality/value

This research extends the current literature by applying the notion of guanxi components to the sense of SC and relating the notion of guanxi components and consumer decisions. The results show an understanding of the reality by which guanxi elements may affect the intention of eWOM sharing and boost online purchase intention.

Research on the Impact of Online Promotions on Consumers’ Impulsive Online Shopping Intentions

Online shopping has developed rapidly, but recently, the sales of some online stores have suffered due to the decrease in people’s income caused by the epidemic. How to grasp the psychology and behavior of consumers and formulate effective marketing strategies is important for increasing sales. This paper puts forward a research model and eight hypotheses based on the research on the promotion situation and the types of products promoted on consumers’ impulse shopping, and uses regression analysis, t-test, stepwise regression and analysis of variance to conduct data analysis. The results show that online promotion has a significant impact on consumers’ willingness, and the anticipated regrets in different directions have totally different effect on willingness; the type of product promoted, and the impulsive characteristics of consumers play a moderating role; online promotion affects consumers’ impulsive online shopping intentions through the intermediary effect of expected regret. The influence of anticipated regrets on impulsive online shopping intention is proposed creatively, and the results also provide e-commerce merchants and customers with new insights in managing and treating online promotions. Managerial implications like controlling the duration of promotions and the number of preferential goods are put forward based on our analysis.

Exploring the Relationship Between Visual Aesthetics and Social Commerce Through Visual Information Adoption Unimodel

The visual revolution and attention economy of the digital world have put visual aesthetic communication into the primary position of social media marketing. However, this phenomenon remains underexplored within social commerce research. This study thus develops a visual information adoption unimodel (VIAUM), to explore the relationship between visual aesthetics and social commerce intentions. Users with social commerce experience are invited to complete our online survey, and 321 valid data are collected. The results reveal that visual aesthetics has direct and indirect (via perceived usefulness) effects on the social commerce intention of users. Besides, interdependent self-construal (InterSC) strengthens the direct effect between visual aesthetics and social commerce intention. In contrast, independent self-construal weakens the mediation effects of perceived usefulness. This study is among the first attempts to empirically examine the intervening mechanism and boundary conditions between the visual aesthetics of self-presentation of micro-celebrity and the social commerce intention of consumers.

A Meta-Analysis of Online Impulsive Buying and the Moderating Effect of Economic Development Level

Online impulsive buying has become increasingly prevalent in e-commerce and social commerce research, yet there is a paucity of systematically examining this particular phenomenon in the paradigm of information systems. To advance this line of research, this study aims to gain insight into online impulsive buying through a meta-analysis of relevant research. Derived from 54 articles, this meta-analysis categorized the critical factors that influence online impulsive buying into the website, marketing, and affective stimuli. This study further explores the moderating effect of economic development level. The empirical results reveal that the chosen 13 main factors are significantly and positively related to online impulsive buying except for website security, price, novelty, and negative emotion. Moreover, economic development level moderates the relationship between several factors (i.e., website visual appeal, ease of use, price, promotion, pleasure, and positive emotion) and online impulsive buying. This study contributes to both theory and practice. It not only extends the impulsive buying literature to the online context by emphasizing the IT-supported website stimuli, but also provides implications for future research on online impulsive buying behavior across different economic development levels. Moreover, it provides guidelines for practitioners on how to leverage information technology to induce online impulsive buying.

Impulse Buying Behaviors in Live Streaming Commerce Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response Framework

Live streaming commerce, which evolved from social commerce, has continued to flourish rapidly over the past few years in China. It is a new business model that allows vendors to directly face and interact with consumers. This study focuses on the impulsive buying behavior on consumers in live streaming commerce. We proposed a research model based on the stimulus organism response (S-O-R) framework to explore the reaction and behavior of consumers after certain stimuli factors. A total of 433 valid sample questionnaires with the shopping experience in the live streaming platform were taken. This research adopted PLS-SEM statistical analysis as an empirical research evaluation. After the empirical investigation, we found that perceived enjoyment positively affects the urge to buy impulsively. Perceived usefulness positively affects perceived enjoyment. However, perceived usefulness does not positively affect the urge to buy impulsively. Attractiveness and expertise positively affect perceived enjoyment. Product usefulness and purchase convenience positively affect perceived usefulness. We found that consumers in live streaming commerce are easier to have impulsive buying through the presentation and urging of the live streamer in a short period. In this paper, we build a model for impulsive buying in live streaming commerce. We verify this model under the Chinese context. The findings of this paper provide concrete suggestions to vendors.

Understanding Consumers’ Purchase Intentions in Social Commerce through Social Capital: Evidence from SEM and fsQCA

Social commerce has become a fiercely competitive environment. Understanding consumers’ purchase intentions can help social commerce platforms retain and attract more consumers. Social capital is one of the primary resources that plays a critical role in facilitating consumers’ purchase intentions in social commerce. Here, complex relationships between different dimensions of social capital are further clarified and its impact on consumers’ purchase intentions are discussed. Based on a survey of 302 social commerce users, this study utilizes an SEM and fsQCA approach to validate the effect of social capital on consumers’ purchase intentions. The SEM results reveal that the effect of structural social capital on consumers’ purchase intentions is fully mediated by relational and cognitive social capital. The fsQCA results confirm the significance of consumers’ social capital as determinants and provide the configurations that can lead to high purchase intentions. Though previous studies have discussed the factors influencing consumers’ purchase intentions, this study takes the first step toward enhancing the understanding of the configurations that link dimensions of social capital to consumers’ purchase intentions in s-commerce using fsQCA approach.

How Emotional Interaction Affects Purchase Intention in Social Commerce: The Role of Perceived Usefulness and Product Type

Purpose

On the basis of stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, this study extends the work of Lee and Kwon by examining the concept of perceived usefulness as a mediator between emotional interaction (familiarity and intimacy) and purchase intention. The consumer purchase decision model, in which product type plays a moderating role in the linking mechanism, is also explored.

Methods

We proposed a consumer purchase decision model, and empirically examined it by means of an online questionnaire survey. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling with bootstrapping estimation were conducted using the data obtained from 269 social commerce users.

Results

Familiarity and intimacy positively affected the users' purchase intention in social commerce. Perceived usefulness mediated the relationship between emotional interaction and purchase intention. Moreover, product type moderated the following relationships: between familiarity and purchase intention, between intimacy and purchase intention, and between perceived usefulness and purchase intention.

Conclusion

The results support this study's hypotheses and SOR theory. Purchase intention could be enhanced by improving emotional interaction and perceived usefulness.

The Influences of Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction on Dissatisfactory Consumers’ Repetitive Purchases in Network Communities

Consumer-to-consumer interaction is an important activity in network communities. Consumer-to-consumer interaction involves information interaction and social interaction, which greatly influences consumers’ experience and behaviors. The model of stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) is usually applied to explain how environmental stimulus affects consumer behavior through the internal state. Thus, this research takes dissatisfactory consumers as the object, sets information interaction and social interaction as a stimulus, consumer knowledge and trust as an organism, and repetitive purchases as a response. It constructs a theoretical model that consumer-to-consumer interaction influences repetitive purchases through consumer knowledge and trust. In this study, the model and hypotheses were tested by analyzing 328 valid questionnaires. The results show that information interaction had a significant positive effect on consumer knowledge, while social interaction had no significant effect on consumer knowledge. Information interaction and social interaction each had significant positive effects on consumer trust. Consumer knowledge and trust each had significant positive effects on repetitive purchases. Consumer knowledge and trust played a partial mediating role between information interaction and repetitive purchase, respectively. Consumer knowledge had no mediating role between social interaction and repetitive purchases, while consumer trust played a complete mediating role between social interaction and repetitive purchases. The results revealed that the deep mechanism of consumer-to-consumer interaction’s influence on dissatisfactory consumers’ repetitive purchases in network communities further enriched consumers’ purchase behaviors, at least theoretically. This research also provided insights for network community marketing.

Promoting healthy foods in the new digital era on Instagram: an experimental study on the effect of a popular real versus fictitious fit influencer on brand attitude and purchase intentions

Background

Most studies on social influencer marketing techniques have focused on the promotion of unhealthy foods whereas little is known about the promotion of healthier foods. The present experimental study investigated whether a popular real versus fictitious fit influencer is more successful in promoting healthy food products. In addition, we examined the role of parasocial interaction as an underlying mechanism of healthy food product endorsement.

Methods

We used a randomized between-subject design with 154 participants (mean age: 24.0 years). Viewers’ product attitude and purchase intention were tested after exposure to an Instagram post by a popular real fit influencer (n = 77) or fictitious fit influencer (n = 77).

Results

Results showed that parasocial interaction mediated the relation between the type of influencer and product attitude as well as purchase intention. Parasocial interaction was higher for participants exposed to the popular real fit influencer compared to the fictitious fit influencer, leading to higher healthy food brand attitude and purchase intention.

Discussion

The findings showed that it is crucial for social influencers to establish a warm personal relationship and connection with the their followers when promoting a healthy product successfully. We suggest that the promotion of healthy foods could be more successful in public health when using popular fit influencers.