Untangling the relationship between influencers’ expertise and consumer purchase intention on live streaming social commerce

Abstract

The rapid growth of the Internet and the advancement of modern technology have led to the development and population of social commerce in the last few years. Many individuals and business firms use social commerce to give live streaming with the purpose of providing products and services to consumers. Some people become influencers on live streaming social commerce because they have a lot of fans who are willing to follow and purchase from these influencers. Given the popularity of the influencers on live streaming social commerce in today’s online environment, this study uses the stimuli-organism-response (SOR) model as the theoretical foundation to investigate the effect of influencers’ expertise on consumer trust and consumer engagement, which affect consumer purchase intention on live streaming social commerce. To test the research model and hypotheses, this study adopts a quantitative survey questionnaire to collect a sample data of 434 consumers from different live streaming rooms of some TikTokers in Vietnam. The sample data was screened by SPSS statistical software. Structural equation modeling with SmartPLS is also used to analyze the sample data and test the research hypotheses. Empirical results indicate that influencers’ expertise is positively related to consumer trust. Similarly, influencers’ expertise is also positively related to consumer engagement. In addition, consumer trust is positively related to consumer engagement. Consumer trust is also positively related to purchase intention. Furthermore, consumer engagement is positively related to purchase intention. This study extends SOR model to clarify how the expertise of influencers influence consumer trust, engagement, and purchase intention. The findings provide evidence for researchers and business practitioners to understand the relationship between influencers’ expertise and consumer behavior in the live streaming social commerce in emerging markets.