Research on the motivation for viewer addiction to live streaming: a cross-cultural investigation of China and the USA
Abstract
Purpose
With the increasing popularity of live streaming, the exploration of online behaviors on live streaming platforms has become a research hot spot in academia. However, the literature lacks cross-cultural investigations into live streaming addictive (LSA) behaviors among viewers. To address this gap, based on stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory and motivation theory, this study investigates how information seeking, sensation seeking and community commitment (stimulus) affect hedonic and utilitarian motivation (organism), which in turn influence viewers’ LSA behaviors (response). This study also compares American and Chinese viewers to understand how LSA behaviors differ across national cultures.
Design/methodology/approach
We surveyed live stream viewers in both nations, collecting 758 valid samples including 377 Chinese respondents and 381 American respondents for use with the research model. A partial least squares (PLS) approach is employed for data analysis.
Findings
The results show that information seeking increases utilitarian motivation, sensation seeking increases hedonic motivation, and community commitment strengthens both hedonic and utilitarian motivation. Both hedonic motivation and utilitarian motivation positively affect LSA behaviors. In addition, based on cross-cultural analysis, we found that there was a significant mediating path common to the respondents in China and the USA (i.e. sensation seeking ? Hedonic motivation ? LSA).
Originality/value
The findings of this study make theoretical contributions to live streaming research and offer practical guidance for live streaming firms to formulate proper marketing strategies. Last, this study outlines several limitations and possible directions for future research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This study was supported by research grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 72072130); “Innovative Design and Intelligent Manufacturing Discipline Group” project (grant no. F2207); The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (grant no. 22120220297) and The 2023 Interdisciplinary Joint Research Project (grant no. 2023-6-ZD-01).
Citation
Wang, D. and Wang, L. (2024), "Research on the motivation for viewer addiction to live streaming: a cross-cultural investigation of China and the USA", Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-03-2023-0126
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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