Characterizing Chinese consumers’ intention to use live e-commerce shopping

Abstract

Live e-commerce shopping has attracted widespread attention in the global market, and China is the markets with the most active users. Despite the exponential growth of live e-commerce shopping, there are still challenges to understand the customer psychological determination mechanism. We proposed an extended theoretical model from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) and performed a cross-sectional survey of the e-commerce consumers. In total, 972 valid responses were collected from four cities in mainland China. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the factors that influence consumers to adopt live e-commerce shopping. The empirical results confirm the theoretical model explains 78.5% of participants’ behavioral intention and 79.2% of use behavior. Performance expectancy (β = 0.325), effort expectancy (β = 0.202), facilitating conditions (β = 0.097), hedonic motivation (β = 0.213), habit (β = 0.228), and trust (β = 0.218) are significantly related with behavioral intention, while social influence (β = −0.036) and price value (β = 0.022) are not significant factors. Facilitating conditions (β = 0.206), habit (β = 0.203), trust (β = 0.392), and behavioral intention (β = 0.317) are the significant determinants of use behavior toward live e-commerce shopping. Four demographic variables, including gender, age, education, and income, release the significant moderating effects in the theoretical model. This research helps e-commerce platforms and retail stores develop effective strategies to activate consumers' adoption of live e-commerce shopping.