What makes impulsive buying in tourism live streaming e-commerce?

Abstract

Live streaming e-commerce, which offers an interactive and reliable online transaction platform between potential buyers and sellers, swept the globe and has become a vital marketing means for the tourism industry. Although commonplace, the phenomenon of tourism live commerce has received limited scholarly attention. A solid understanding of the latent motivations facilitating consumers’ positive emotions and behavioral intentions is still needed. To address this gap, this study takes Ctrip live commerce as a case to determine tourists’ perceptions toward tourism live streaming e-commerce and their subsequent behavioral intention by applying Aristotle's rhetorical theory and the stimulus–organism–response theory. Data were collected from 476 participants, and structural equation modeling was conducted using SmartPLS 3.0. Results show that the three attributes of Ctrip live commerce, namely, information quality, celebrity effectiveness, and serendipity, have a positive persuasive effect on audiences’ trust in online travel agencies and their intention to buy impulsively. Additionally, impulsiveness is a crucial factor that stimulates audiences’ intention to buy in the context of tourism live commerce. Based on these results, this study offers theoretical and practical implications for understanding consumers’ perceptions toward tourism live streaming e-commerce.