Characteristics and roles of streamers in e-commerce live streaming

Shengliang Zhang, Chaoying Huang, Xiaodong Li and Ai Ren

The Service Industries Journal, 2022, vol. 42, issue 13-14, 1001-1029

Abstract: Streamers are the individuals at the core of e-commerce live streaming (ELS), which is a successful influencer marketing strategy. However, a systematic profile of ELS streamers is lacking. This study aims to investigate the roles and characteristics of ELS streamers, as well as their matching relationships, by applying the grounded theory method to analyze semi-structured interviews of 96 consumers. Eight characteristics of ELS streamers (expertise, attractiveness, credibility, interactivity, popularity, price support, affinity, and responsiveness) are identified and further classified into four roles (opinion leader, spokesperson, interactive friend, and salesperson). This study is the first to create a role set for ELS streamers and the first to systematically elucidate the roles of ELS streamers and their corresponding characteristics. It not only supplements e-commerce, influencer marketing, and role theory research by identifying new characteristics and roles of ELS streamers, but it also provides a clear framework practitioners can use to train streamers.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02642069.2022.2068530 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:servic:v:42:y:2022:i:13-14:p:1001-1029

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FSIJ20

DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2022.2068530

Access Statistics for this article

The Service Industries Journal is currently edited by Eileen Bridges, Professor Domingo Ribeiro, Ronald Goldsmith, Barry Howcroft and Youjae Yi

More articles in The Service Industries Journal from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().