An Empirical Study on How Livestreaming Can Contribute to the Sustainability of Green Agri-Food Entrepreneurial Firms

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technology has been used in all aspects of the agricultural field. How to seize the opportunity to achieve the production-marketing connection is increasingly becoming a top concern for green agri-food enterprises. Based on the theory of a task–technology fit, this study analyzes the fitness between livestreaming e-commerce and green agri-food. More specifically, the task characteristics cover the seasonality, locality, and eco-friendliness of green agri-food, and the technology characteristics cover the responsiveness, interactivity, and entertainment of livestreaming e-commerce. Using data of a sample of 574 green agri-food entrepreneurial firms collected through a web-based questionnaire, we preform structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis and find that the locality and eco-friendliness of green agri-food, the responsiveness, interactivity, and entertainment of livestreaming e-commerce have a positive effect on the fit of green agri-food livestreaming e-commerce. Moreover, the fit of green agri-food livestreaming has a positive effect on firm performance and the intention to adopt livestreaming e-commerce. This study also demonstrates that perceived corporate social responsibility has a moderating effect on the relationship between the fit of livestreaming of green agri-food and the intention to adopt livestreaming e-commerce. This study extends prior research on the task–technology fit into livestreaming e-commerce companies and provides insights into our understanding of successful adoption of livestreaming e-commerce.

How Do Fresh Live Broadcast Impact Consumers’ Purchase Intention? Based on the SOR Theory

“…The host usually incorporates entertainment elements in the live broadcast room to create a pleasant atmosphere, enhancing the live broadcast's appeal and the consumer's willingness to buy. However, unlike previous studies [66], the perceived utility value in this study has a greater impact on the willingness to buy than the perceived hedonic value because consumers' demand for fresh products is more inclined to pursue practicality. The results of our study indicate that rather than a pleasant shopping experience, consumers prefer to buy fresh products of good quality, reasonable price, and high-cost performance on the live broadcast platform.…”

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Firm Performance: An Application of the Resource-Based View to e-Commerce Firms

“…In the second phase, an English questionnaire was prepared and then translated into Chinese, with the Chinese version subsequently back-translated by a third party to ensure accuracy ( Zhang et al, 2020 ; Wang and Fan, 2021 ). We sent the draft to six researchers and practitioners to acquire feedback on each questionnaire item to ensure that language did not restrict the understanding of the scales.…”

“…Effective and efficient implementation of AI in firms, on the other hand, requires significant infrastructural resources (tangible resources; Bag et al, 2021c ; Chatterjee et al, 2021a ), which includes financial support ( Łapińska et al, 2021 ), data ( Herhausen et al, 2020 ; Hwang and Kim, 2021 ), hardware devices and software ( Zhang et al, 2020 ), and technical support ( Rahman et al, 2021 ). The majority of the businesses across E-commerce companies are throughout the Internet, and thus they have a natural advantage in acquiring data resources ( Wang and Fan, 2021 ). While the firm sets down the basic tangible resources, it is significant to efficiently employ the proclivity of using AI (intangible resources; Ashaari et al, 2021 ; Yu et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Once a firm masters organizing resources that are impossible to copy effortlessly, it possesses a competitive advantage ( Yasmin et al, 2020 ) and enhances firm performance ( Chen and Lin, 2021 ). Therefore, there is an essential theoretical and practical value in exploring the mechanisms and critical factors of the impact of AIC on firm performance ( Chen and Lin, 2021 ; Mikalef et al, 2021 ), especially in the e-commerce industry with direct customer contact ( Wang and Fan, 2021 ).…”

A Multi-group Analysis of Gender Difference in Consumer Buying Intention of Agricultural Products via Live Streaming

“…However, two research gaps require more attention. First, there still needs to be more evidence to reveal how consumers respond to live streaming in the context of agri-food marketing [17] . The use of live-streaming for agricultural product marketing is a relatively new form to promote agriculture in the digital age, and research on how consumers respond to this type of agricultural product marketing is still limited.…”