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Gifting is a typical monetization strategy for live streaming platforms to motivate providers’ live content contribution. However, research regarding the factors that affect individuals’ gifting intention is still at an infant stage. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors that affect individuals’ gifting intention during live streaming.

The authors build a model to uncover the factors that affect individuals’ gifting intention from a streamer–content perspective, and the hypotheses are largely validated by online survey data through structural equation model analysis.

Individuals’ perceived attractiveness of the streamers is significantly and positively associated with gifting intention for leisure-related live streaming, whereas individuals’ perceived similarity with the streamers is significantly and positively associated with gifting intention for leisure-related and non-leisure-related live streaming. For live content-related factors, the individuals’ perceived utilitarian value of content is significantly and positively associated with gifting intention for non-leisure-related live streaming, whereas the individuals’ perceived hedonic value is significantly positively associated with gifting intention for leisure-related live streaming. Perceived symbolic value is insignificantly associated with gifting intention for neither type of live streaming.

The research is an original work and significantly contributes to live streaming and PWYW literature, and the findings derived from this study can guide live streaming platforms to regulate individuals’ gifting intentions/behaviors better.

Although the evidence exists for the effect of promotional frame on repurchase intention, it is unclear whether the timing of repurchase can moderate the effect. In this paper, three experiments were conducted to answer this question.

In Experiment 1, a 2 (framing: bundle vs. gift) × 2 (repurchase target: focal vs. supplementary) × 2 (timing: short vs. long) between-subjects design was used. In Experiment 2, an identical design was used except that repurchase target being the within-subjects factor. In Experiment 3, the design was based on that of Experiment 2 and brand was added a between-subjects factor.

Experiment 1 showed that, with a short interval, repurchase intention under gift frame was higher than that under bundle frame. With a long interval, there was no significant difference between the gift and bundle frames. Experiment 2, however, indicated no effects for expensive products. Experiment 3 showed that brand (private versus national brand) moderate the interaction between framing, repurchase target and timing. Particularly, for private brand, no significant comparisons were found; for national brand, repurchase intention for the focal product was significantly higher than for the supplementary product, but only under the conditions of long interval and gift frame (rather than bundle frame).

Taken together, findings from the current study contributes to the literature by showing for the first time that repurchase timing can moderate the promotional frame effect (i.e. higher repurchase intention under gift framing relative to bundle framing occurs in the short interval but not long interval) and that brand type can moderate the joint effects of framing, timing and repurchase target (i.e. national brand, rather than private brand, paired with long interval and gift frame results in higher repurchase intention for the focal product). The findings provide marketers with important knowledge in terms of how to adjust a promotional frame depending on when consumers repurchase a product and whether the product has a private or national brand.

The purpose of this study is to explore the substitute scarcity appeals (unit scarcity or option scarcity) effect on experiential gift’s purchase intention, based on difference in gift attribute (hedonic or utilitarian gift) and difference in the types of givers (close or distant giver), which is a new consideration.

This study was conducted with two experiments and examined four hypotheses in total. These hypotheses were examined using a 2 × 2 between-subjects designs, and a two-factorial covariance analysis was conducted.

Empirical results show that unit scarcity produces greater purchase intention than the option scarcity of close givers. For hedonic gifts, unit scarcity produced greater purchase intention than the option scarcity.

The originality of this study is to explore the substitute scarcity appeals effect on experiential gift’s purchase intention based on different types of givers and different types of gifts. The result serves as the gift marketing strategy of online platform operators and the future reference for marketers to create more value and purchase intention.

This study aims to investigate the factors that affect an audience's purchase decisions on a new type of social media, namely live video streaming platforms.

This study is based on data from an online survey providing 488 valid responses. These responses are used to test the research model by employing partial least squares (PLS) modeling.

Three antecedents (consumer competitive arousal, gift design aesthetics and broadcaster's image) influence the audience's purchase decisions (impulse buying and continuous buying intention). Chinese impression management (mianzi) acts as a moderator. Self-mianzi, mutual mianzi and other mianzi (i.e. three subtypes of mianzi) moderate the effects of consumer competitive arousal, gift design aesthetics and broadcaster's image on impulse buying.

The findings encourage practitioners developing marketing strategies for live video streaming platforms in the Chinese cultural context to consider peer influence, gift appearance, broadcaster's image and mianzi.

Drawing on the community gift-giving model and face-negotiation theory, this study provides an integrated research model to investigate a new type of social media (live video streaming). It offers insight into virtual gifting behaviors by confirming the effects of three antecedents on the audience's purchase decisions, with mianzi acting as a moderator.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study undertaken to investigate the effect of Chinese traditional cultural values on the gift‐giving behavior of consumers in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and to check the moderating effects of Chinese traditional cultural values on a consumer's purchase intention and self‐consistency.

Using a survey among a large sample of people in four cities, gift‐giving behavior, purchase intention and self‐consistency of the consumer in purchasing decisions were measured by the scale. The Chinese traditional cultural values include Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze the data.

Results indicates that Chinese traditional cultural values have significant moderating effects on gift‐buying intention accords with gift‐giver's image and purchase intention accords with gift‐receiver's image. Consumers with higher value orientation are more careful about consistency between gifts with self‐image and receiver's image.

Research results should be interpreted with caution as the study was limited to several major cities in the PRC. Also the questionnaire has neglected some people who did not fully understand the questions.

This study points out those Chinese traditional values that play an important role in gift‐buying decisions. Results will provide some professional opinion for some insider engage in gift marketing and add new viewpoints.

The paper develops new scales for measuring constructs such as Chinese traditional cultural values, attitude for gift‐giving and gift‐buying intention.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of popularity appeals (appearance popularity and media popularity) on online experiential gift purchase intention based on different types of givers (close or distant givers) and different gift attributes (conspicuous or inconspicuous gifts), a novel research consideration.

This study was conducted with two experiments and examined four hypotheses. These hypotheses were examined using a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, and a two-factorial variance analysis was conducted.

This study found that for close givers, appearance popularity appeals created a greater purchase intention than media popularity appeals. That is, gift-givers faced appearance popularity rather than media popularity, driving them to face a strong feeling of excitement for their idol worship. This finding implies that the human brand theory works.

The empirical results can shed light on brand or product managers in raising the ratio of appearance popularity appeals to marketing in online experiential gift-giving. Gift marketers should accurately understand the current trends and social preferences using a database and big data analysis tools.

This study is the first to investigate whether the two types of popularity appeals affect gift purchase intention in online experiential gifts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and explore the factors that drive users to gift through social network services (SNS).

A questionnaire method was applied to collect data from the sample of the WeChat users who have used mini-program. This paper employed the partial least squares method and used SmartPLS2.0 to analysis sample data, which examined the validity as well as reliability of the sample and further tested the hypotheses by the path coefficients.

The empirical results showed that pleasure, social relationship maintenance, convenience and comprehensiveness are significantly related to SNS gifting behavior, and conscientiousness moderates the relationship between intention and behavior in the context of SNS gifting. However, this study cannot find the effect of symbolic representation, impersonality and gift reciprocity motivations.

Theoretically, this study perfects the research of SNS gifting on the lack of exploring characteristics of comprehensiveness. Practically, this paper lends insights on how SNS providers attract users to adopt gifting.

SNS gifting lacks a complete and effective promotion strategy, resulting in a small number of users as well as low profit. Besides, prior studies have focused on tradition gifting and online gifting. Little research talks about gifting on SNS phenomena, and thus it is necessary to perfect the theory of SNS gifting.

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the determinants of consumers' evaluations and purchase intentions of gift promotions. Factors analysed relate to the promoted product, the gift, the relationship between the product and the gift, and consumer traits and perceptions.

A 2 (product type: utilitarian vs hedonic) × 2 (gift type: utilitarian vs hedonic) × 2 (brand type: high equity vs medium equity) between‐subjects factorial design was undertaken. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 247 respondents in the UK.

Gift attractiveness is the most important driver of consumers' overall evaluation of gift promotions, followed by the attitude toward the promoted brand, the perceived fit between the promoted product and the gift, the hedonic nature of the gift, plus value expression and entertainment benefits perceived by consumers. Results also reveal that deal proneness is positively associated with the hedonic benefits of value expression benefit and entertainment benefit. Finally, the overall evaluation of gift promotions with both brand attitudes and deal proneness positively influences consumers' purchase intentions.

To generalise these findings, future research should use a wider sample.

The findings of this study provide guidelines for marketers designing their gift promotional strategies.

The increased popularity of gift promotions necessitates a better understanding of the factors influencing consumers' evaluations. This study addresses the lack of research in this area by simultaneously investigating the effect of different key factors.

Social network services (SNS) gifting is a new business model, but many SNS providers continue to face challenges as they explore ways to increase their revenues from gifting. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors involved in gift giving via SNS platforms.

This study adopts a mixed methods approach through qualitative and quantitative research. In the first stage (qualitative study), the authors extract factors from interviews with users of SNS gifting services. In the second stage (quantitative study), the authors interpret decisional factors explored in the first stage on the basis of customer value theory, develop a research model and empirically test it.

The results show that five factors – convenience of SNS gifting, symbolic representation of SNS gifting, relationship support of SNS gifting, pleasure of SNS gifting, and an SNS gifting norm – directly or indirectly affect SNS gifting decisions.

This study contributes to electronic commerce research by extending the customer value theory and adding to the literature on SNS gifting and gift giving in general.

The study informs SNS providers regarding the promotion of SNS gifting services for revenue generation.

This study is among the first to comprehensively examine decision-making in SNS gifting through the lens of customer value theory.

Despite the burgeoning popularity of virtual gifting in live streaming, research lacks an in-depth understanding of the drivers behind this behavior. Using para-social relationship (PSR), this study aims to capture viewers’ lively social feelings toward the streamer as the key factor leading to the purchase behavior of virtual gifts. It also aims to establish a theoretical link between PSR and viewers’ holistic experience in live streaming as captured by cognitive absorption and aims to investigates the role of technological features (i.e. viewer–streamer and viewer–viewer interactivity, streamer-level and viewer-level deep profiling and design aesthetics) in shaping viewers’ experience.

Based on 433 survey responses, this study employs a combination of structural equation modeling and neural networks to offer valuable insights into the relationships between the technological environment, viewer experience and viewer behavior.

Our results highlight the salience of PSR in promoting the purchase of virtual gifts through cognitive absorption and the importance of the technological environment in eliciting the viewer experience. This study sheds light on the development of PSR in a technological environment and its relationship with cognitive absorption.

By applying PSR to conceptualize viewers’ perceived connection with the streamer, this study extends the research on purchase behavior in the non-shopping context by providing an enlightened understanding of virtual gift purchase behavior in live streaming. Moreover, by theoretically linking PSR with cognitive absorption, virtual gift purchase and technological features of live streaming, it enriches the theory of PSR and bridges the gap between the design practice of supporting the IT infrastructure of live streaming and research.