Social-oriented versus task-oriented streamer interaction styles on live streaming e-commerce: Empirical research in China

Live streaming commerce has seen significant growth in recent years. While the interaction style of streamers with consumers is crucial in influencing engagement behaviour, there is limited understanding of how a streamer's interaction style affects consumer engagement. This study, based on epistemic vigilance mechanisms, explores the effect of streamers' interaction styles (social-oriented versus task-oriented) on consumer engagement. It also investigates the mediating role of epistemic vigilance and the moderating role of consumer expertise. The study's findings, derived from three experiments, are as follows. First, social-oriented interaction styles, compared with task-oriented styles, are more likely to boost consumer engagement. Second, task-oriented interaction styles lead to increased consumer epistemic vigilance, which subsequently decreases their engagement. Third, social-oriented interaction styles enhance engagement intentions among consumers with high expertise compared to those with low expertise. These insights will provide live streaming commerce managers with a better understanding of consumers' psychological activities, enabling them to effectively design streamers' interaction strategies for marketing activities.