Exploring the Influence of Shopping Values on Live Streaming Purchase Intention: A Multi-Group Analysis of Purchase Frequency

Live streaming shopping (LSS) is a social commerce model that has attracted much attention from the public in recent years. This study aims to use shopping value theory and theory of reasoned action as the foundation to investigate how consumers’ perception of the utilitarian and hedonic values of LSS affect their LSS attitude and purchase intention. This study extends the utilitarian value of LSS to include price discount and two key technological features of LSS, namely, visibility and interactivity, to explore how these factors affect LSS purchase intention through LSS attitude empirically. Further, this study conducts a multi-group analysis (MGA) based on LSS purchase frequency. The results indicate that LSS attitude is positively related to purchase intention. Besides, utilitarian value is more likely to increase consumers’ positive LSS attitude than the entertainment value. Among the three types of utilitarian value, price discount has the greatest impact, followed by the visibility and interactivity of LSS. The MGA results unveil that the effect of price discount on LSS attitude is greater among high-purchase frequency buyers; the entertainment value of LSS affects LSS attitude only among low-purchase frequency buyers. The main contribution of this study lies in the discovery that different dimensions of utilitarian value have different effects on LSS attitude and LSS purchase frequency plays an important moderating role in the relationship between perceived values and LSS attitude. The results of this study can be a reference for streamers when developing an LSS sales strategy.