The Effect of Popularity and Social Density on Consumer Purchasing Behaviors

Live streaming commerce has gradually become an important shopping way in China. However, previous studies lacked focus on consumer-platform interaction and consumer-consumer interaction. Based on the social exchange theory, this paper explores the influence of popularity and social density on consumer purchasing behavior by collecting 1957 product data. We find that popularity is positively related to consumer purchasing behaviors, while social density has an inverted U-shaped effect on purchasing behaviors. In addition, we also found that an inverted U-shape of social density moderates the effect of popularity on purchasing behavior. Product type moderates the effect of social density on purchasing behavior, but not popularity and purchasing behaviors. The study expands the social exchange theory and enriches the research on the purchasing behaviors of consumers in live commerce