Effects of Background Fitting of e-Commerce Live Streaming on Consumers’ Purchase Intentions: A Cognitive-Affective Perspective

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of the background fitting of e-commerce live streaming on consumers’ purchase intentions and the relevant internal psychological mechanism from the cognitive-affective perspective. METHODS: In this study, a theoretical framework model of SOR comprising six variables is established. SPSS and SmartPLS are used to test the model and analyze data collected from a comprehensive questionnaire survey of 424 Chinese online consumers. RESULTS: Results demonstrate that the impact of background fitting in e-commerce live streaming on consumers’ purchase intentions can be divided into three stages. In the first stage, background fitting (comprised of both product-background fit and anchor-background fit) positively affect consumer cognitive process (perceived trust and perceived value). Perceived trust is mainly affected by anchor-background fit, while perceived value is mainly affected by product-background fit. In the second stage, consumers’ cognitive process subsequently affects their affective process (perceived pleasure). Perceived value also has a greater positive effect on consumers’ perceived pleasure than perceived trust, although perceived trust is a prerequisite for improving perceived value. In the third stage, the affective process further promotes consumers’ purchase intentions. CONCLUSION: Combining both SOR theory and cognitive-affective perspective, this study reveals that the internal influence mechanism of background fitting in e-commerce live streaming on consumers’ purchase intentions is divided into three stages. Theoretically, this study not only expands the application of SOR theory in the research field of e-commerce live streaming from the perspective of external background stimulation, but also importantly contributes to the application of cognitive-emotional perspective in e-commerce live streaming. Practically, the study suggests optimizing background fitting as an effective way to improve consumer purchase intention in e-commerce live streaming, and it is better to optimize background fitting from the perspective of improving perceived trust, perceived value, and perceived pleasure.