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NTU Management Review Vol. 32 No. 1 Apr. 2022

Straight into Your Heart: The Effect of Live-Streaming
E-Commerce on Consumer Engagement

Yu-Xian Wu, Institute of Marketing Communication, National Sun Yat-sen University
Ya-Ching Lee, Institute of Marketing Communication, National Sun Yat-sen University

1. Purpose of the Research

In recent years, live-streaming e-commerce has increased consumer engagement,
boosted sales, and created considerable economic benefits. Therefore, to understand the
identity consumers acquired through the livestreaming, to see why this results in higher

participation, and to perceive how to bring the best benefits of the livestreaming economy
into play.
Customer engagement refers to the contact intensity of individuals with content or
activities initiated by consumers or organizations, which reflects the psychological state of

consumers’ active involvement and interaction with focus objects (such as brands) (Islam,
Rahman, and Hollebeek, 2017). Customer engagement represents the cognitive, emotional
and behavioral engagement generated by the interaction between consumers and brands
(Addo, Fang, Asare, and Kulbo, 2021). Customer engagement can enhance purchase

intention, customer response, and recommendation, making it an important brand strategy
that can create competitive advantages and enhance the customer relationship.
However, few studies have explored customer engagement in livestreaming
e-commerce. According to the Meaning Transfer Model proposed by McCracken

(1989), a celebrity contains a variety of meanings from the characters, traits, values, or
achievements in their profession or personal life. He/she then transfers the meanings to
the endorsed product brand and subsequently to the consumers who purchase the product/
brand. The meaning transfer may simultaneously trigger a sense of identity (Brown,

2015). In the context of live-streaming e-commerce, consumers may identify with the
live-streamer, community, and brand to be associated with the characters, traits, values,
or achievements of that live-streamer, community, and brand. In this study, by combing
parasocial relationships, self-verification theory, social identity theory, and Fear of

Missing Out (FOMO), we are able to consider the co-occurring mutual influence of live-

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