From Screens to Shopping Carts: How Information Quality and Interaction Quality in Live-Streaming Commerce Drive Compulsive Buying Behavior

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20578657

Abstract

The rapid proliferation of live-streaming commerce has reshaped consumer–seller relationships, blurring the boundary between entertainment and shopping. While streamers cultivate intimacy with viewers, this same intimacy may exacerbate maladaptive consumption patterns, most notably compulsive buying behavior (CBB). Drawing on Social Presence Theory, Para-Social Interaction Theory, and Social Comparison Theory, this study tests a model in which information quality and interaction quality act as twin streamer-controlled stimuli influencing three parallel psychosocial mediators parasocial interaction (PSI), social presence, and upward social comparison which in turn drive CBB, with self-discrepancy positioned as a moderator. A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed, drawing on survey data from 229 young consumers aged 18 to 35 years in Pakistan who actively engage with live-streaming commerce. Data were analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) in IBM SPSS Statistics (v.27) and IBM SPSS AMOS (v.24), following the two-step procedure of Anderson and Gerbing (1988). The structural model showed that information quality and interaction quality significantly predicted PSI, social presence, and upward social comparison, and that PSI (β = .815), upward social comparison (β = .387), and self-discrepancy were significant positive predictors of CBB, whereas social presence exerted a small negative effect (β = −.211). The model explained 83% of the variance in CBB. The study advances theory by integrating media-effects and consumer-psychology streams and offers implications for platform designers, marketers, and policymakers.