Symmetric and asymmetric modeling to boost customers’ trustworthiness in livestreaming commerce

Livestreaming commerce research has grown amazingly and gained tremendous attention; however, a comprehensive model that explains and reveals customers’ trustworthiness in livestreaming commerce is still absent and rarely studied. The present study seeks to capture the critical determinants that affect customers’ trustworthiness in livestreaming commerce. In addition, this study is among the first to examine customer confidence in livestream commerce by investigating the influence of marketing influencers such as expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness and situational factors such as shopping motivation, time pressure, and product involvement on customers’ trustworthiness in livestream commerce. The present study targeted Malaysian users of livestream commerce channels, and 562 valid responses were collected for analysis. The partial least squares path modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed influential factors represented by expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness, which are positively related to retailers’ confidence in platforms that support livestreaming. At the same time, situational factors such as shopping motivation, time pressure, and product involvement represent factors that motivate the trustworthiness of livestream platforms. There is also an influence on the similarity factors between influencers and livestream commerce customers, which are represented by homophily and authenticity. Hence, live streamers provide real-time information and interactions that increase the proximity between streamers and customers. The five solutions captured from the Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) analysis revolved around the importance of five basic elements, namely time pressure, trustworthiness, attractiveness, authenticity, and trust in streamer, to boost customers’ trustworthiness in livestreaming commerce. The results of the present study provide insightful practical and theoretical implications for practitioners and academics that can benefit the livestreaming business and advance the trustworthiness of livestreaming platforms by emphasizing fun and entertaining experiences that arouse the emotions of customers and marketing influencers.