The Effect of Herd Behavior on Consumer Intention in Live Streaming E-Commerce: The Moderating Role of Interaction

Abstract This study investigates how herd behavior affects consumers’ consumption intention and continuous watching intention in live streaming e-commerce. We also consider how consumer–anchor interaction and consumer–consumer interaction moderate the effects of herd behavior on consumption intention and continuous watching intention. We specifically targeted users who watched Taobao live streaming to participate in our questionnaire, resulting in 296 valid responses. Our findings show that herd behavior positively affects consumption intention and continuous watching intention. Consumer–anchor interaction negatively moderates the link between herd behavior and both consumption intention and continuous watching intention. Consumer–consumer interaction positively moderates the relationship between herd behavior and consumption intention, but not the relationship between herd behavior and continuous watching intention. Furthermore, our findings show that herd behavior has a more pronounced impact on consumption intention than on continuous watching intention. Our results provide pertinent and beneficial implications for anchors, online merchants and platforms.