Antecedent Factors Influencing Purchase Intention in Live Commerce

This study aims to systematically identify the key factors influencing consumers’ purchase intention in the context of influencer marketing. Specifically, it examines the effects of influencer characteristics - attractiveness, expertise, and interactivity - on consumers’ trust and engagement, and empirically investigates the decision-making mechanism through which these psychological factors mediate the relationship between influencer characteristics and purchase intention. To this end, influencer characteristics were conceptualized into three dimensions: attractiveness, expertise, and interactivity. The structural relationships among these variables, mediated by consumer trust and engagement, were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The analytical procedure involved a two-step approach, in which the reliability and validity of the measurement model were first assessed, followed by hypothesis testing of the proposed structural model. The results indicate that influencer attractiveness, expertise, and interactivity all have significant positive effects on consumers’ trust and engagement. In addition, both trust and engagement were found to exert statistically significant influences on purchase intention. Notably, trust demonstrated a stronger effect on purchase intention than engagement, highlighting its pivotal mediating role in the process through which influencer characteristics are translated into consumers’ purchase intention. These findings empirically confirm the validity of the structural pathway from influencer characteristics to purchase intention via trust and engagement. The findings suggest that influencer characteristics function as key drivers of purchase intention by shaping consumers’ psychological responses, namely trust and engagement, rather than merely serving as channels for information delivery. Theoretically, this study extends the influencer marketing literature by structurally elucidating the mediating roles of trust and engagement. From a practical perspective, the results imply that enhancing expertise, attractiveness, and interactivity in a balanced manner should be a central strategy in influencer selection and content development to effectively stimulate consumers’ purchase intentions.