Impacts of different interactions on viewers’ sense of virtual community: an empirical study of live streaming platform

With the rapid development of the Internet and the widespread adoption of mobile devices, live streaming has become a new social medium in the last few years. Hence, the continuous usage of live streaming platforms has become an important issue. Based on social exchange theory, this study investigates how different kinds of interactions affect viewers' sense of virtual community (SOVC) and in turn facilitate their continuous watching intention. Empirical results (N = 423) reveal that both viewer-broadcaster interaction and viewer-viewer interaction positively affect viewers' SOVC, which further enhances their stickiness. Furthermore, viewer-platform interaction positively moderates the effects of interactions between viewers and broadcasters on their SOVC, whereas the moderating role of gift-giving behaviour is insignificant. Finally, the effects of viewer-broadcaster interaction and viewer-viewer interaction on stickiness are partially mediated by SOVC. This study contributes to in-depth research on the relationships between different specific interactions and viewers' continuous watching intention, which enriches the existing study on live streaming and deepens our understanding of viewers' stickiness. The empirical findings of this study suggest that social media developers and managers take actions to encourage interactions that increase viewers' stickiness.