Purchase decisions and business strategies of different stakeholders on virtual gifts in social live streaming service

Abstract

Social Live Streaming Service (SLSS) is a novel form of e-commerce and social media that enables real-time user interaction through video streaming. Its growing global presence has attracted a wealth of literature exploring its unique affordances and performances in various monetization strategies. However, the research on live-streaming virtual gifting, another primary source of income for platforms and streamers, is relatively less well understood. Existing literature on virtual gifting has mainly focused on single stakeholders or single forms of interactions, resulting in findings that lack generalizability. Additionally, the prevalent use of questionnaires and self-report surveys in current research lacks the robustness of an objective observation of stakeholders' actual behaviors. To bridge these gaps, this thesis takes empirical approaches, examining factors influencing virtual gifting in SLSS from multiple perspectives and interactions among different stakeholders (i.e., viewers, streamers, platforms, and regulators) based on rigorous analysis of real-world data. Four progressive studies were conducted from different theoretical lenses, from inter-viewer interactions to streamer-viewer and regulator-platform interactions. Study 1 and 2 examined drivers of viewers' virtual gifting from longitudinal and horizontal views (i.e., individual viewers’ self-influence and other viewers’ social influence) respectively. Specifically, Study 1 examined the impacts of individual viewers’ free engagement on their subsequent gifting behavior from the lens of self-perception and perceived sunk costs. Results showed that both free-gift sending and Danmu (i.e., Time-synchronized Comments) sending behaviors (i.e., the number and length of Danmu) in the past significantly induced the purchase of paid gifts and that significant gender discrepancies are underlying this self-perception effect. Study 2 examined the impacts of other viewers’ inconsistent gifting behavior on individual viewers’ gifting decisions and related moderating effects. The results showed that others’ inconsistent gifting value (i.e., the variance of gifting value) dampens an individual viewer’s gifting value and that this effect is moderated by two convergence-based social cues (i.e., others’ gifting quantity and value). Study 3 switched from inter-viewer interactions to streamer-viewer interactions, examining how streamers’ income can be affected by viewers’ reactions to streamers under cyberbullying from the lens of social justice. The findings showed that cyberbullying on streamers can lead to some viewers’ economic compensation for their victimization through virtual gifts. However, this compensation effect will diminish as the intensity of cyberbullying increases. Moreover, this compensation effect is subject to the content type, the duration, and the time of streaming. Study 4 went beyond streamer-viewer interactions to regulator-platform interactions, examining the political impacts on live-streaming platforms’ financial status and indirectly revealing regulations' impacts on viewers’ gifting decisions. The findings showed that policies with a higher level of information concreteness (more detailed guidelines) generate a more significant impact on the market than policies with a lower level of information concreteness (less detailed guidelines). Moreover, platforms with higher revenue ratios from live-streaming services experience a more significant impact in response to the tightening policies. This thesis not only contributes to the literature on SLSS by revealing the dynamic and interdependent interactions among different stakeholders and offering a series of novel social factors that influence viewers’ gifting behavior under various scenarios but also addresses the importance of integrated thinking in stakeholders’ decision-making in this emerging business context. It makes theoretical contributions to the literature on critical behavioral theories, including self-perception, social influence, social comparison, social justice, and signaling theory. Most importantly, this thesis provides practical and actionable managerial suggestions to different stakeholders in SLSS, enhancing their understanding and experience in live-streaming services and benefiting the long-term development of this emerging industry.