The role of live streaming in building consumer trust and engagement with social commerce sellers

Abstract

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. Live streaming services (e.g., Facebook Live), whereby video is broadcast in real time, have been adopted by many small individual sellers as a direct selling tool. Drawing on literature in retailing, adoption behavior, and electronic commerce, this paper proposes a comprehensive framework with which to examine the relationships among customers’ perceived value of live streaming, customer trust, and engagement. Symbolic value is found to have a direct and indirect effect via trust in sellers on customer engagement, while utilitarian and hedonic values are shown to affect customer engagement indirectly through customer trust in products and trust in sellers sequentially. Elucidating the role of live streaming in increasing sales and loyalty, these findings suggest different routes through which small online sellers can build customer engagement with two types of trust as mediators. Theoretical and managerial implications of this analysis for social commerce are further discussed at the conclusion of this paper.