Do Virtual Livestreamer Attributes Drive Consumer Purchase Intention? An Empirical Analysis from the Perspective of Perceived Trust

Authors

  • Xiaolei Cui 1,* https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4282-1587
    • Software
    • Conceptualization
    • Data Curation
    • Formal Analysis
    • Investigation
    • Methodology
    • Project Administration
    • Supervision
    • Validation
    • Visualization
    • Writing – Original Draft Preparation
    • Writing – Review & Editing
  • Boon Liat Cheng 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0015-167X
    • Investigation
    • Data Curation
    • Software
    • Validation
    • Resources
    • Visualization
    • Writing – Review & Editing
  • Teck Chai Lau 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5282-4373
    • Software
    • Validation
    • Investigation
    • Data Curation
    • Resources
    • Visualization
    • Writing – Review & Editing
1 Faculty of Business Information and Human Sciences. Kuala Lumpur University of Science and Technology, Kajang, 43000, Malaysia
Corresponding author: 982141738@qq.com

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63646/PWGI9482

Keywords:

Virtual livestreamer, perceived trust, purchase intention, mediation analysis, live-commerce, artificial intelligence

Abstract

AI-driven virtual livestreamers have moved from technical demonstration to large-scale commercial deployment in China’s live-commerce market, yet their selling performance still trails that of human hosts and consumer acceptance remains limited. Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour and empathy theory, this secondary analysis of published survey results examines how four attributes of virtual livestreamers anthropomorphism, interactivity, intelligence and information quality shape consumer purchase intention, and tests whether perceived trust transmits those effects. The analysis draws on aggregate results from a survey of Chinese live-commerce viewers conducted between 9 and 15 June 2024 and published in Times of Economy & Trade (665 questionnaires, 508 valid responses, 76.391% validity rate). The source study reported analyses using SPSS 25.0, AMOS 24.0 and the PROCESS macro with 5,000 bootstrap resamples; no new survey was conducted for this paper. All four attributes significantly and positively predict both perceived trust and purchase intention, with information quality exerting the strongest effect (β = 0.751 on trust; β = 0.770 on purchase intention) and interactivity the weakest (β = 0.523; β = 0.590). Perceived trust itself is the single strongest predictor of purchase intention (β = 0.770, R² = 0.560) and partially mediates every attribute–intention path, carrying between 47.8% and 62.7% of the total effect. The findings reposition virtual livestreamer design away from visual realism alone and towards verifiable information delivery, and they align commercially with the disclosure obligations imposed by China’s Measures for Labelling AI-Generated Synthetic Content, effective 1 September 2025. The paper also reports a reproduction audit confirming that all published inferential statistics are internally consistent.

How to Cite

Cui, X., Cheng, B. L., & Lau, T. C. (2026). Do Virtual Livestreamer Attributes Drive Consumer Purchase Intention? An Empirical Analysis from the Perspective of Perceived Trust. Journal of Business and Data Analytics, 4(9), 93-109. https://doi.org/10.63646/PWGI9482

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