The influence of internet celebrity anchors’ reputation on consumers’ purchase intention in the context of digital economy: from the perspective of consumers’ initial trust

Abstract

ABSTRACT At present, the digital economy platforms develop rapidly. Cross-border live streaming e-commerce platforms with Internet celebrity anchors playing as the core of sales conversion, attract particular attention. This paper constructs a relevant theoretical model based on the TAM model and initial trust theory, introduces gender as a moderating variable, and uses structural equation and linear regression methods to conduct empirical analysis. The results show that, the reputation of Internet celebrity anchors significantly affects consumers’ propensity to purchase on cross-border live streaming e-commerce platforms, and initial trust acts as a partial mediating variable between the Internet celebrity anchors’ reputation and consumers’ propensity to purchase, which the mediating effect accounts for 73.59% of the total effect. Besides, gender also has significant moderating effect on the relationships between consumers’ initial trust and propensity to purchase.