• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.31-51
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• 2020

During the last decade, social live streaming service like Periscope, Ustream, and YouNow has developed from a niche market into a mainstream activity. In this media environment, social live streaming service has a tremendous impact on the social behaviors of users. Despite the rapid development, there are a lack of studies to make better understand the media environment changes through social live streaming service. This study adopted an affordances approach that leads us to identify six distinctive social affordances (visibility, accessibility, information sharing, social interaction, role-taking, interactive revenue) for user engagement in social live streaming service. Specifically, this study explores the impact of social affordances on perceived flow, followed by user engagement including passive and active engagement. Empirical data analysis with 258 questionnaires suggests that social affordances affected users' flow perception, and flow has an effect on active as well as passive engagement. Contrary to the expectation in a hypothesized research model, only the impact of accessibility on flow was rejected.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.43-57
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• 2021

Purpose: This study focuses how motivations influence interactivity in the live streaming commerce context. Live streaming commerce involves the provision of e-commerce activities and transactions via a live streaming platform that offers real-time interaction, entertainment, social activities, and commerce. The purpose of study is to examine effects of motivations on perceived interactivity and the effects of perceived interactivity on attitude and intention to use the live streaming commerce. Research design, data and methodology: The study investigates key questions about consumers' motivation to use live streaming commerce and perceived interactivity by surveying 300 users of live commerce. Participants were asked whether they were live streaming commerce users who had experienced live streaming commerce before participating in the survey. The full survey required live streaming commerce users to respond to all the questions. Results: The study uncovered motivations for using live streaming commerce by finding information, entertainment, pass time, fashion/status and real time and perceived interactivity in the live streaming commerce. The results indicated motivation to use live streaming commerce positively influenced perceived interactivity. Perceived interactivity had positive effects on attitude toward brand. Attitude toward brand had positive effects on intention to use. Conclusions: Live streaming commerce is getting increasing attention from marketers because live streaming commerce has seamlessly integrated commerce, social activities, and hedonic factors. This study clarifies motivations and perceived interactivity in the live streaming commerce context. The study uncovers the relationships between motivations, perceived interactivity, attitude, and intention to use that contributes to the theoretical foundation and practical implications for marketing and management in the live streaming commerce context. Specifically, the study develops the theoretical contributions to perceived interactivity in the in the live streaming commerce context. The results also contribute to the practical implications for new marketing strategies that provides dynamic real-time interaction, exact information, and social and hedonic factors to attract consumers to indulge in the consumption processes. Marketing practitioners will obtain insights that can help them develop and manage brand strategies by understanding the influence of motivation and perceived interactivity in the live commerce context, which offers opportunities for contactless marketing and management.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.23-51
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• 2023

Purpose: Live commerce is a new type of electronic commerce in combination with live streaming services. It is expected to increase virtual presence in the context of online shopping by overcoming a lack of social interactions between sellers and buyers which have been raised as a limitation in electronic commerce. Drawing on the studies of communication media, this study examines how live commerce contributes to the increase of virtual presence which consists of telepresence and social presence. Telepresence refers to a buyer's perception that he or she is present at the physical shopping mall during live shopping streaming whereas social presence refers to a buyer's perception of social interaction with a seller which is human warm, social, sensitive, and personal. In this study, we verify key determinants of virtual presence and its consequences. More specifically, this study proposes virtual presence contributes to the increase of buyers' trust in products and further purchase intentions. Furthermore, we verify influential factors of virtual presence from the technical and influencer perspectives of live commerce. Design/methodology/approach: To test the proposed hypotheses, the partial least squares (PLS) analysis is conducted with a total of 250 data collected on users with experience in the TaoBao live streaming shopping platform. Findings: The results show that first, telepresence and social presence are increased by visibility, media richness and attractiveness in the context of live shopping streaming. Second, buyers' trust in product trust and purchase intentions are positively influenced by telepresence and social presence. Finally, buyers' trust in product has a direct, positve effect on their purchase intentions. Overall, the findings offer new insights into the studies of electronic commerce by introducting the concepts of virtual presence and media richness from the literature of communication media in the field of live commerce.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.6-20
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• 2016

In the last few years, a new type of synchronous social networking services (SNSs) has emerged—social live streaming services (SLSSs). Studying SLSSs is a new and exciting research field in information science. What information behaviors do users of live streaming platforms exhibit? In our empirical study we analyzed information production behavior (i.e., broadcasting) as well as information reception behavior (watching streams and commenting on them). We conducted two quantitative investigations, namely an online survey with YouNow users (N = 123) and observations of live streams on YouNow (N = 434). YouNow is a service with video streams mostly made by adolescents for adolescents. YouNow users like to watch streams, to chat while watching, and to reward performers by using emoticons. While broadcasting, there is no anonymity (as in nearly all other WWW services). Synchronous SNSs remind us of the film The Truman Show, as anyone has the chance to consciously broadcast his or her own life real-time.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.76-86
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to provide insights into live streaming consumer purchase intention by drawing on congruence between consumer and influencer factors and live shopping contents factors during the spread of COVID-19. We surveyed 348 individuals who have watched Fresh Hema's live streaming. SPSS and AMOS were used for data analysis. We determined that only actual congruity between influencer and consumer significantly influenced the consumer social experience. On the other hand, both the informativeness and entertainment value of live shopping contents positively impacted the consumer social experience. Additionally, social experience was significantly related to consumer co-experience and purchase intention. Moreover, the significant mediation effect of social experience was found amongst congruence between consumer and influencers, live shopping contents, co-experience, and purchase intention.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.996-1011
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• 2023

This study introduces an effective marketing strategy for fashion SMEs and small designer brands utilizing Instagram as a social networking platform. The research compared the impact of two information delivery types (native advertisements vs. live streaming after native ads) and two types of promotional messages (scarcity vs. price discount) on SNS consumption value, and product attitude toward fashion designer brands. The study involved surveying 251 Korean women aged 25-55 with experience in buying designer products and using SNS. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 26.0 and Process Macro v3.5. Results indicated that both native advertisements and live streaming enhance economic and social values in SNS consumption. Live streaming with price discount messages generates higher perceived SNS consumption values compared to scarcity messages. Consumers showed a more favorable attitude toward designer brand products when watching the live streaming of price discount messages rather than scarcity messages. The findings emphasize that the broadcast host actively induced participation to reveal viewers' social presence through comments or emphasized discount messages such as ultra-special prices during live streaming on Instagram.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.70-83
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• 2021

Live-streaming commerce is attracting attention as a noticeable trend in the retail industry. It is a new mobile shopping service platform developed by combining live streaming with e-commerce technologies. This study examined the impact of para-social interactions on consumer impulse buying behavior and investigated the impact through task complexity as well as perceived amount of information. To achieve this goal, 203 women using a mobile commerce participated in an online survey after experiencing beauty live-streaming commerce. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0, AMOS 23.0, and SPSS PROCESS Macro program. The results of the study revealed that para-social interactions negatively influenced task complexity, positively influenced perceived amounts of information, and positively influenced impulse buying behavior. In addition, impulse buying behavior was negatively influenced by task complexity versus positively that was influenced by perceived amounts of information. The impact of para-social interactions on impulse buying behavior is mediated by task complexity and perceived information. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical extension of para-social interaction on impulse buying behavior in the context of live-streaming commerce. The implications of the findings suggest practical marketing strategies for digital media commerce retailers.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.719-737
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• 2020

Live-streaming commerce business is growing as the consumption of video content and Smartphone shopping increases. This study examines the following three aspects: whether para-social interaction influences perceived interactivity; whether seller trust affects satisfaction with the experience; whether relationships are controlled by a moderated mediator of self-image congruity. An online survey was conducted with 203 women aged 20-30 years. They were asked to respond to the survey after watching a beauty category live-streaming commerce broadcast. The results revealed that the para-social interaction had a significant effect on perceived interactivity, seller trust and satisfaction with the experience. The findings also indicated that the perceived interactivity and seller trust mediated the relationship between para-social interaction and satisfaction with the experience. Regarding the mediated moderation effect of self-image congruity, it was statistically significant between para-social interaction and perceived interactivity through seller trust. A higher level of consumer's self-image congruity influenced the greater effect of para-social interaction on live commerce experience. This study makes important theoretical contributions to the para-social interaction in mobile commerce industry by emphasizing the mediating role of perceived interactivity and seller trust. This is achieved by examining the moderating effects of self-congruity on satisfaction with the experience. The results also verify the seller's crucial role in live-streaming commerce market which leads to the consumers greater fulfillment.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.65-84
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• 2017

Three most popular information services, Periscope, Ustream, and YouNow, vicarious for all Social Live-Streaming Services (SLSSs), are investigated to analyze their streamers' motivations and the user-generated content. Additionally, we collected demographic data (gender and age). More than 7,500 streams by users from the U.S., Germany, and Japan were observed. Main streamer motivations on SLSSs are boredom, socializing, the need to reach a specific group, the need to communicate, and fun. Important content categories on all three SLSSs are chatting, sharing information, 24/7, and 'slice of life.' We were able to identify differences between users from the U.S., Germany, and Japan as well as between the users of Periscope, Ustream, and YouNow. The main motive to stream in the U.S. is to reach a specific group, while in Japan it is socializing, and in Germany boredom. The top content category for both, YouNow as well as Periscope, is to chat; on Ustream it is 24/7 (i.e., webcams).

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2022

Participants in real-time online sessions, be it (business) meetings, virtual school lessons, or social live streams, all engage in cyber social interactions. Unlike parasocial interactions, cyber social interactions are characterized by reciprocity and temporal proximity. In contrast to social interactions, they lack spatial proximity and bodily contact. This is a fairly new concept in information science that rose from technological advances and unprecedented circumstances (e.g., the rise of digital economy and knowledge workers being able to work remotely or, more recently, global lockdowns and contact restrictions). As a result, the past ways of working and socializing were transformed by making them, in some cases predominantly, virtual. Regarding the example of social live streaming we exhibit the importance of cyber social interactions for information behavior research. This conceptual article is a plea for information science to engage more in human-human online relations and interactions.