How Social Presence Affects Potential Tourists’ Purchase Intention: Integrating Cognitive, Emotional and Behavioral Paths

ABSTRACT

This study constructs a triple-path model of the effect of social presence on the purchasing behavior of tourism live-streaming consumers, revealing the juxtaposed and series-mediating effects of cognitive, emotional and behavioral variables. The findings show that social presence mainly affects purchasing behavior via cognitive and behavioral pathways. Through serial mediation with the behavioral variable (behavioral engagement), the emotional variable (emotional engagement) primarily links social presence and purchasing behavior. It confirms our theoretical understanding of the mechanisms that drive the impact of tourism live-stream marketing. It offers valuable insights for enhancing marketing strategies in the tourism industry based on a solid theoretical foundation.

KEYWORDS:

• Social presence
• live-streaming consumer
• trust
• emotional engagement
• behavior engagement
• purchase intention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China [22YJC790041]