Social media influencer streamers and live-streaming shopping: examining consumer behavioral intention through the lens of the theory of planned behavior

Abstract The rapid development of live streaming has given rise to live-streaming shopping, a novel channel of online shopping that has gained considerable market value. While previous studies have explored various factors influencing consumers' intentions to engage in live-streaming shopping, most have focused on factors influencing behavioral intention after consumers have already chosen live-streaming as their online shopping channel. Few studies have focused on the beginning of the entire shopping journey—the intention of consumers to choose live-streaming shopping. To fill this research gap, this study extends the theory of planned behavior by introducing social media influencer streamers as an exogenous variable. We investigated how attitudes toward live-streaming shopping, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and social media influencer streamers collectively influence the consumer’s intention for live-streaming shopping. To achieve those research objectives, the study distributed an online questionnaire across four specific regions in the Chinese market. By using stratified sampling and purposive sampling methods, we garnered 385 valid responses from those four regions. The study employed partial least squares structural equation modelling and SmartPLS 4.0 for data analysis. Consequently, the results show that both attitudes toward live-streaming shopping, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and social media influencer streamers have a significant on consumers’ intention for live-streaming shopping. Moreover, social media influencer streamers exhibit significant influences on consumers’ attitudes toward live-streaming shopping, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control.