Be a good speaker in livestream shopping: A speech act theory perspective

In livestreaming, the streamers (online sellers) are the core actors who promote deals through their speech. Thus far, how the speech of streamers determines customers' purchase intention remains unknown. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model to explain the relationship between streamers' speech acts and customers' purchase intention, based on speech act theory. We tested the hypotheses using data from an experiment (N = 455) and found that speech acts have significant effects on consumer interest, word of mouth (WOM), desire, and purchase intention. Consumer interest, WOM, and desire fully mediate the effect of streamers' speech acts on purchase intention. Specifically, we show that compared with expressive and commissive speech acts, directive, assertive, and declarative speech acts lead to higher customer interest, WOM, and desire for the product, which in turn lead to a higher customer purchase intention. Our results suggest that streamers and platforms can increase consumer purchase intention by guiding streamers' speech acts.