Examining the antecedents of customers’ purchase behavior and the moderating role of streamers’ operational strategies in live-streaming commerce

Many streamers aim to sell products using the direct channel of live-streaming video sessions, which brings significant economic value. This study aims to investigate the antecedents of customers’ purchase behavior in live-streaming commerce from both customer and streamer perspectives. Using the data from live-streaming sessions of the top fifty streamers on Douyin, one of the leading live-streaming platforms in China, we conduct regressions to find that customers’ longer watching time of live streaming, as well as streamers’ higher level of product assortment, increases the average purchase value of customers of the live-streaming sessions. Additionally, streamers’ operational strategies, including the three aspects related to channel development, operator configuration, and operations frequency, play an important role in negatively moderating these relationships. Moreover, streamers’ operational efforts, including multi-channel network implementation, multiple live broadcasters’ configuration, and frequent live-streaming session offerings, are worthwhile generating more sales with fewer efforts needed to retain customers’ attention and maintain product variety in the live-streaming sessions. Our findings guide streamers to have a high level of product assortment, retain customers’ attraction for a long time, and use the appropriate operational strategy and efforts to utilize the antecedents of customers’ purchase behavior in the live-streaming context to increase sales.