What inspires impulse buying in live-streaming commerce? Insights from social commerce entrepreneurs

Purpose This study aims to investigate the psychological processes underlying impulse purchasing in live-streaming commerce. Drawing on signaling theory and inspiration theory, this study explored the antecedents of customer inspiration, represented by the characteristics of content, streamer, seller and influencer that lead to impulsive buying behavior. Design/methodology/approach The current study targeted 325 customers on live-streaming commerce platforms in Malaysia. “Partial least squares structural equation modeling” (PLS-SEM) and “fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis” (fsQCA) were used as quantitative and qualitative approaches, respectively. Findings The PLS-SEM results show that signals from content, streamers, sellers and influencers significantly shape customer inspiration and that this effect unfolds through a sequential mechanism from “inspired by” to “inspired to,” which in turn drives impulsive purchasing behavior. Notably, the fsQCA results further reveal that impulse buying does not arise from a single dominant factor alone, but from alternative configurations of cross-source signals that jointly inspire consumers. The qualitative approach identified five core solutions, emphasizing the combination of content, streamers, sellers and influencers to inspire customers and drive unplanned purchases. Content diagnosticity emerged as the most influential driver of impulse buying, followed by trustworthiness and attractiveness. The fsQCA solutions were ranked from weakest to strongest, with configuration three identified as the optimal pattern. Research limitations/implications Live streaming practitioners should strengthen vicarious expression, source credibility, empathy, real-time interaction, perceived symmetry, responsiveness, attractiveness, expertise and inspired-to mechanisms to stimulate impulse purchasing. Originality/value This study advances inspiration research by unpacking specific inspirational sources in live streaming commerce. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to examine how distinct inspirational triggers in live streams jointly drive impulsive buying.