Understanding viewer behaviors in live streaming: the investigations on social live streaming service in China

Live streaming is a new form of video-based social media for live sharing. It has become a mass phenomenon in China due to its astonishing popularity and business potential. Live streaming service is special in terms of how the content is created and produced and its monetization model. In a live stream session, there are two levels of social interaction evolving at the same time. Unlike most conventional social media service, there are two parallel of social interaction and the content is co-shaped between the streamer and viewer crowd in a live stream session. With respect to the monetization model, live streaming in China has introduced a novel business model, namely the purchase of virtual gifts which is different from conventional consumption for digital items or services. Hence, understanding viewer behavior of live streaming has both theoretical and practical significance. The insights would contribute to the literature of live streaming and social media usage as well as provide guidance for practitioners to leverage the business potential of live streaming. Although extent research has already started to explore the live streaming phenomenon, currently the research stream is at its infant stage and further systematic investigation is needed. This thesis intends explore the live streaming phenomena by advancing the understanding of viewer behavior in live streaming. Given that the business purposes for such social live streaming service in China is to increase the viewer base and purchase of virtual gifts. This thesis would focus on two viewer behavior namely the viewing behavior and purchase of virtual gifts in live streaming in China. Three specific research questions were proposed: (1) What contextual factors influence viewers to use social live streaming service in general (i.e. viewer stickness and purchase behavior)? (2)Why viewers would stick to a streamer’s live stream session, given the specific cultural context in China? (3) How to make people purchase virtual gifts in live stream session? The first study is the general exploration of what motivate viewers to use live streaming. It started by qualitative exploration to identify the contextual factors(i.e. humor appeal, sex appeal, interactivity and social status display) that may influence viewer stickiness and purchase behavior, and to categorize live streaming types (i.e. event show, knowledge sharing and personal live show). Then the quantitative assessment was followed to examine the effects of contextual factors on the two viewer behaviors in different categories of live streaming. The survey method was deployed and the partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied for data analysis. The results suggested that the contextual factors would have various effects on viewer behaviors in different category of live streaming. This study provides the contextual insights on live streaming viewer behavior in general. The second study aims to establish a cultural contextual sensitive framework to explain what increases viewer stickiness to a live stream session. Viewer stickiness reflects the viewers’ sustained interest in a live stream session which is the precondition and foundation of live streaming business potential. Given the social-oriented cultural context of China, the second study first conducted a pre-investigation to confirm the salient effects of viewers’ social perceptions (i.e. perceived proximity to the streamer and sense of belonging to the viewer crowd) on viewers’ immersive and entertaining experience (i.e. flow experience) and viewer stickiness. Based on this, a full model was further developed by incorporating the communication based IT factors (i.e. responsiveness, two-way communication and ) and cultural factor (i.e social orientation) as the explanatory variables for the cultivation of viewers’ social perceptions. The survey method was applied and PLS-SEM was used for data analysis.The results stressed that viewers’social perception can explain the viewer stickiness and flow experience can be transferred from other experience (i.e. social perceptions) in the research context. Study 2 contributes to the knowledge about live streaming watching intention by validating a comprehensive theoretical model to explain viewer stickiness. It also contributes to the knowledge of flow theory by extending the antecedents in social media context. The third study proposed and examined a theoretical framework to explain the purchase of virtual gifts. The purchase of virtual gifts can be perceived to be partially transaction with service provider and partially donation to the relational partner. On the one hand, viewers who enjoy themselves in the live stream session is likely to purchase virtual gifts in exchange of more enjoyable content in a live stream session. Such self-reinforcing motivation was captured by cognitive absorption. On the other hand, viewers purchase virtual gifts in support of the streamer and viewer crowd. The viewers’relational experience and behavioral tendency was captured by para-social interaction with the streamer and viewer crowd participation. The IT-related factors (i.e. viewer-streamer interactivity, viewer-viewer interactivity, streamer-level deep profiling, viewer- level deep profiling and design aesthetics) are included to examine what contributes to the development of viewers’ experience in a live stream session. Survey data was collected and PLS-SEM was applied for data analysis. The results stressed that para-social interaction has no effect on purchase intention, yet cognitive absorption and virtual crowd participation would influence the purchase behavior. This study can be one of the first attempt to explore the mechanism about what makes viewers purchase virtual gifts. It also extends the theories of cognitive absorption and para-social interaction by validating their association. To sum up, the three studies advances the understanding of viewer behavior in live streaming from different angles, and provides practical guidance for live streaming industrial practitioners. Overall, this thesis advances the understanding of viewer behavior in live streaming and contributes to the literature of live streaming or social media in general

How Social Experience Encourages Donation Intention to Charitable Crowdfunding Projects on Social Media: Empathy and Personal Impulsiveness

Embedding charitable crowdfunding into social media is a new practice that encourages prosocial behaviors. The rich social experience in charitable crowdfunding on social media distinguishes this context from other conventional contexts like charity fundraising websites. Specifically, this study incorporates social experience, empathy and personal impulsiveness to investigate donation intention in this new context. By analyzing survey data collected in China, this study finds that empathy mediates the effects of interaction with fundraiser and perceived proximity with donatee on a user’s donation intention. Social influence on social media platform is found to have positive influences on empathy and on donation intention. This study also investigates how empathy’s influence on donation intention varies by personal impulsiveness. It contributes to extant literature by highlighting the mediating role of empathy and the moderating role of personal impulsiveness. It also provides practical insights to encourage pro-social behaviors

What drives people to purchase virtual gifts in live streaming? The mediating role of flow

Live streaming, a new form of social media, is growing explosively due to its real-time interaction and new monetization model. Considering its popularity and unique features, it is important to gain a theoretical understanding of live streaming. Yet limited attention has been paid to it. This research investigates what factors may affect people’s consumption intention of virtual gifts in live streaming from contextual and personal dimensions. Based on flow theory, this study also explores the mediating role of flow and the moderating role of gender. The theoretical framework is tested using Structural Equation Modeling based on survey data collected in China. The study contributes to flow theory by highlighting the importance of flow in mediating the effects of interactivity, social presence, curiosity and social media dependence on consumption intention of virtual gifts. It also reveals gender differences in the influence of flow on consumption intention of virtual gifts

What Encourages Purchase of Virtual Gifts in Live Streaming: Cognitive Absorption, Social Experience and Technological Environment

Live streaming has become extraordinarily popular worldwide. As a new form of social media, live streaming enables two levels of real-time interactions (i.e., between viewers and the streamer, and among viewers) and is monetized in a new way-viewers’ purchase of virtual gifts. The new monetization model has achieved a great success, yet there is a lack of understanding about what encourages viewers to purchase virtual gifts in live streaming. To explain such purchase behavior, this study develops a model which investigates the roles of viewers’ holistic experience with the system (i.e., cognitive absorption) and their social experiences (i.e., para-social interaction and virtual crowd experience), as well as how these experiences are developed within the technological environment of live streaming (i.e., interactivity, deep profiling and design aesthetics). The model was validated by using survey data collected from China. We also discuss implications for research and practice emerging out of this study

Evaluating online review helpfulness based on Elaboration Likelihood Model: the moderating role of readability

It is important to understand factors affecting the perceived online review helpfulness as it helps solve the problem of information overload in online shopping. Moreover, it is also crucial to explore the factors’ relative importance in predicting review helpfulness in order to effectively detect potential helpful reviews before they exert influences. Applying Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), this study first investigates the effects of central cues (review subjectivity and elaborateness) and peripheral cues (reviewer rank) on review helpfulness with readability as a moderator. Second, it also explores their relative predicting power using the machine learning technique. ELM is tested in online context and the results are compared between experience and search goods. Our results provide evidence that for both types of products review subjectivity can play a more significant role when the content readability is high. Furthermore, this study reveals that the dominant predictor is varied for different product types

Importance of Community Influence and Meter Message on Brand Value Co-creation: a Study In Social Commerce Research - in - Progress

Social commerce which emphasizes the importance of customer social networks has attracted increasing research attention. However, most previous studies in this area have focused on purchase decisions, and neglected that other customer behaviors can also benefit firms such as brand value co-creation. Despite that the marketing literature has recognized the important role of customers in brand value co-creation, little research has investigated what factors can contribute to customers’ brand value co-creation in social commerce. As social commerce facilitates the social interactions among customers and between customers and marketers, this research tries to explore customers’ brand value co-creation in social commerce from two dimensions: other customers and the marketer. It extends our understanding on social commerce by showing how community influences and marketers’ message framing can impact customers’ intention to co-create brand value in social commerce

Facilitating Supplementary Innovation in the Digital Game Industry: The Role of Modding Toolkits

Game modifications (mods) developed by users are common in the digital game industry, serving as a form of user-driven supplementary innovation that enables game developers to extend the lifespan of their core games. Companies have recognized the strategic value of such innovation and offered official modding toolkits to support users’ endeavors. Nevertheless, the effects of modding toolkits on mod performance are not well understood, as extant literature is fragmented and descriptive, lacking an examination of the relationship between official modding toolkits and mod performance. This study plans to address this knowledge gap by analyzing official toolkit documents and behavioral data from platforms such as Nexus Mod and investigating the effects of modding toolkit features on mod performance. By advancing our knowledge of the supplementary innovation toolkit as a strategic approach in the digital game industry, the study is expected to provide valuable insights into extending product lifespan and utility

Evaluating Charitable Crowdfunding based on Storytelling Linguistic Cues: A Narrative Persuasion Perspective

Charitable crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular way for people to seek help from the public. Yet, many charitable crowdfunding campaigns suffer from underfunding. Given that project description is the primary source of information for fundraisers to present their cause to prospective donors, the platform may preemptively assess the success rate of charitable crowdfunding campaigns based on the narrative elements embedded with such description. Furthermore, though prior research about narrative persuasion (i.e., storytelling) has alluded to generic mechanisms (i.e. identifiable character, imaginable plot, and verisimilitude) in eliciting empathic feeling, limited attention has been paid to scrutinizing the effects of narrative elements in driving donation behaviors in charitable crowdfunding. To this end, this study attempts to elucidate how linguistic cues embedded in the project narratives is associated with donation performance in charitable crowdfunding

Factors influencing people’s continuous watching intention and consumption intention in live streaming: evidence from China

Purpose – This research aims to investigate what factors can affect people’s continuous watching and consumption intentions in live streaming. Design/methodology/approach – This research conducted a mixed-methods study. The semi-structured interview was deployed to develop a research model and a live streaming typology. Survey was then used for quantitative assessment of the research model. Survey data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings – The results suggest that sex and humor appeals, social status display and interactivity play considerable roles in the viewer’s behavioral intentions in live streaming and their effects vary across different live streaming types. Research limitations – This research is conducted in the Chinese context. Future research can test the research model in other cultural contexts. This study can also be extended by incorporating the roles of viewer gender and price sensitivity in the future. Practical implications – This study provides managerial insights into how live streaming platforms and streamers can improve their popularity and profitability. Originality/value – The paper introduces a novel form of social media and a new business model. It illustrates what will affect people’s behavioral intentions in such a new context

Factors influencing people’s continuous watching intention and consumption intention in live streaming: evidence from China

Purpose – This research aims to investigate what factors can affect people’s continuous watching and consumption intentions in live streaming. Design/methodology/approach – This research conducted a mixed-methods study. The semi-structured interview was deployed to develop a research model and a live streaming typology. Survey was then used for quantitative assessment of the research model. Survey data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings – The results suggest that sex and humor appeals, social status display and interactivity play considerable roles in the viewer’s behavioral intentions in live streaming and their effects vary across different live streaming types. Research limitations – This research is conducted in the Chinese context. Future research can test the research model in other cultural contexts. This study can also be extended by incorporating the roles of viewer gender and price sensitivity in the future. Practical implications – This study provides managerial insights into how live streaming platforms and streamers can improve their popularity and profitability. Originality/value – The paper introduces a novel form of social media and a new business model. It illustrates what will affect people’s behavioral intentions in such a new context