The Determinants of Purchase Intention on Agricultural Products via Public-Interest Live Streaming for Farmers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In order to sell unmarketable products and alleviate farmers’ economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, public-interest livestreaming for farmers with the property of altruism has been emerging as a new way of mobile commerce and has attracted a huge amount of attention among Chinese consumers. In this paper, based on the theory of reasoned action, we intend to explore the influencing factors from the levels of the platform, product, and consumer that affect consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards agricultural products via public-interest livestreaming. We have collected 475 valid responses from Chinese consumers (especially from youth) who experienced the public-interest livestreaming for farmers and then constructed a structural equation model using the partial least-squares method. The results show that consumers’ attitudes towards agricultural products have a significant positive impact on their purchase intentions with respect to livestreaming. Perceived interactivity, perceived endorsement, product familiarity, subjective norms, altruistic value, and the livestream shopping experience all significantly positively affected consumers’ attitudes toward the agricultural products in the mobile livestreaming. Moreover, subjective norms can also directly impact consumers’ purchase intentions. We can see that the proposed influencing factors from the platform, product, and consumer levels provide a better explanation of the attitudes and purchase intentions, respectively. This paper aims to expand the empirical research on the purchase intentions of agricultural products and then to provide insights into the phenomenon of public-interest livestreaming during COVID-19, which can assist farmers in addressing the dilemma caused by the epidemic and promote rural economic development by mobile commerce. Additionally, the insights from this case study in China can also be extended to other countries where farmers have suffered from the impact of COVID-19.

A Multi-group Analysis of Gender Difference in Consumer Buying Intention of Agricultural Products via Live Streaming

“…According to Roseira's study [30] , the higher level of purchase intention that consumers generate, the more possibility that consumers will make an actual purchase. Thus, purchase intention is deemed the most critical step for the food industry [2] . The first antecedent is the personal attitude, a willingness generated from past experience that influences a person's response to a particular object or situation [27,31] .…”

“…Agricultural products refer to "any agricultural commodity or product, whether raw or processed, including any commodity or product derived from livestock for human or livestock consumption" [1] . Generally, fresh products like vegetables and fruits are easily perishable [2] . In this case, an effective agricultural product supply chain is critical.…”

“…In this case, an effective agricultural product supply chain is critical. For example, if perishable products can be sold and quickly delivered to consumers in the shortest possible time, the losses of farmers can be significantly reduced [2] . Hence, live-streaming commerce plays a crucial role.…”

“…Hence, live-streaming commerce plays a crucial role. Yu and Zheng (2022) [2] defined live streaming as "an emerging online social and commerce tool", and live streaming commerce emerged when many anchors used live streaming as a means of real-time interaction with customers to sell products [3] . Therefore, live-streaming commerce is deemed the latest trend in e-commerce [4,5] .…”

How to interact with consumers to enhance their purchase intention? Evidence from China’s agricultural products live streaming commerce

“…Interaction is a crucial aspect of live-streaming commerce (Kang et al, 2021), and it significantly influences consumers' purchasing decisions during live-streaming events. Among recent relevant studies, Dong et al (2022) and Yu and Zhang (2022) have shown that live interaction can positively affect consumers' purchasing decisions for agricultural products. However, current research has not addressed how to interact to improve consumers' purchasing decisions for agricultural products, which is essential for practitioners to address the practical challenge of low audience engagement or lack of orders in live sessions.…”