How live streaming influences trust in social commerce: A parasocial relationship perspective

Abstract

Due to the rise of live streaming shopping, building customer trust is essential for online small business sellers. However, prior live streaming shopping research has overlooked the importance of livestream viewers’ parasocial relationship as a bridge to connect trust. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study aims to investigate the antecedents of parasocial relationship including immersion, presence, and perceived enjoyment that have been underexplored previously, as to how they influence parasocial relationship, and subsequently leading to trust and purchase intention. A total of 340 survey questionnaires are collected and data is analyzed using PLS-SEM. The findings demonstrate that presence has the strongest influence, compared to perceived enjoyment and immersion on parasocial relationship. Moreover, parasocial relationship help cultivate consumers’ trust, with stronger effect of trust in the seller than trust in the product, leading to greater purchase intention. In the technology and virtual environment, our findings shed light on the importance of viewers’ perceptual stimuli to develop parasocial relationship, shaping trust and purchase intention. This study informs effective practical implications to online small business sellers.