A Dual-Dimensional Analysis of Factors Influencing Profitability in Entertainment Live Streaming: Streamer Characteristics and User Motivations

Abstract

After rapid growth, the live entertainment industry began to face structural problems, especially the impulse purchase and sustainability of users. At present, most of the research only looks at one aspect, and does not explain how the perceptual characteristics of live broadcast translate into actual purchase behavior. From the user’s point of view, this study examines the psychological mechanism behind the consumption of live entertainment. Using the stimulus-organic-response model, she proposed that the perceptual characteristics of live broadcast indirectly affect consumption behavior through consumption motivation. Through a cross-sectional survey of 200 users, this study uses mediation analysis based on regression and Bootstrap estimation to test the proposed model. The results show that the perceptual characteristics of live streaming media have a significant overall impact on the monthly consumption level. More importantly, consumption motivation plays a comprehensive mediating role in this relationship, accounting for 56.6% of the total effect, which is confirmed by bootstrap confidence interval. In addition, male users show higher consumption motivation and impulse tendency, which indicates that the behavior pattern has strong consumption desire and high self-awareness. Overall, the results show that users’ consumption on live streaming media is mainly caused by internal psychological mechanism, rather than direct stimulation. This study helps to explain the role of consumption motivation as an important intermediary, and provides practical suggestions for platforms and users to promote more sustainable consumption behavior.