1. Introduction
Since 2010, with the popularization of mobile 5G technology and the rapid development and adoption of internet technology, China’s internet digital economy has boomed through e-commerce. Recently, e-commerce live streaming has moved to the forefront of online shopping. Live streaming is a form of e-commerce that involves real-time social interaction between an anchor and viewers and can also include participant-to-participant interaction. Live streamers add value to both products and the viewer purchasing experience. Using live streaming, an anchor can expand the traditional online offering of products and product information to include video offerings and interviews that show product use and the place and way in which the product was produced [
1]. For example, live streaming of agricultural products may include interviews with farmers producing the product, a tour of their farm, and details of production practices used. Viewers are often invited to provide comments or ask questions during the broadcast on a bullet screen. Bullet screens are popular in China, particularly among younger individuals. They are often used to express virtual reactions and have been incorporated into many venues including movies and livestreaming e-commerce. During livestreaming events, bullet screens allow viewers to ask questions and comment. This type of active participation in the livestream event not only provides viewers additional information about products but offers them a sense of inclusion, which has been shown to increase intention [
1,
2]. E-commerce live streaming often includes promotions, which can include events such as random rewards offered through mobile payment applications, special deals, and viewer games resulting in a reward.
Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, growth in transaction volume in the livestreaming environment in China has accelerated. To exploit the trend of consumers’ shopping habits shifting to online, many brands have launched livestreaming rooms, selling goods on e-commerce platforms. Live streaming can lead to increased consumer demand by expanding the market for products, creating a sense of connection for customers and the ability to interact within the livestream community, and providing additional product information to viewers as they ask questions [
1,
3,
4,
5]. In effect, live streaming enhances the shopping experience and motivates purchasing by viewers.
The growth in e-commerce live streaming and viewership has been characterized as staggering [
6]. According to the 49th Statistical Report on the Development of China’s Internet Network by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of December 2021, the scale of online shopping users in China was 842 million, and the scale of online livestreaming users was 703 million. Among them, the scale of e-commerce livestreaming users was 464 million, a year-on-year increase of 75.79 million or 19.5%. This emerging marketing model has greatly improved user experience over traditional forms of e-commerce [
7].
At present, many e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, and Douyin, have launched livestreaming functions in various countries and regions. Live streaming of goods on these platforms has entered many countries, but user acceptance and proliferation varies [
8]. Among them, the growth rate of users in China’s livestream shopping market is extraordinary. During the COVID-19 epidemic, the livestream shopping market, which enables consumers to place orders without leaving home, has been favored by more and more consumers. Compared with China, the market of live streaming in other countries has developed more slowly. Taking the United States as an example, according to the data of Coresight, a research institution, the scale of livestreaming e-commerce in the United States was less than USD 1 billion in 2019. By contrast, the online transaction volume of China’s Kuaishou livestreaming e-commerce in 2019 reached RMB 59.6 billion. In a survey conducted by Ipsos Malaysia, 82% of respondents said they had used Shopee in the last six months, which extrapolates to 15.6 million Shopee users also watching live shopping on the platform [
9].
Similarly, live streaming of agricultural products is also developing rapidly in China, which is related to talent training of livestreaming anchors and participation of distributors moving agricultural products throughout the marketing channel. China’s Douyin e-commerce released a report on the Power of Douyin E-commerce in Rural Development during the 2022 Harvest Festival. It pointed out that from September 2021 to September 2022, a total of 2.83 billion agricultural products went out to cities through Douyin e-commerce, and a large number of hosts, including the first party secretary of the village, villagers, and young people returning to their hometowns, emerged on the livestreaming platform. At present, China’s livestream market of agricultural products is developing rapidly, but there are still problems such as unsound regulations, while other countries’ livestream markets of goods and agricultural products remain to be developed.
1.1. Agricultural Goods Live Streaming
Of particular interest, live streaming has become an important venue for the sale of agricultural goods, and this has been an orchestrated effort. The construction of modern agriculture, transformation of agricultural development methods, and promotion of agricultural industry upgrading have been written into recent No. 1 Central Documents [
10,
11]. At the Symposium on Victory in Poverty Alleviation, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that it is necessary to effectively solve the problem of unsalable agricultural and livestock products for poverty alleviation, organize production and sales connections, carry out consumption poverty alleviation actions, use the internet to expand sales channels, and solve the problem of difficult sales of agricultural products through multiple channels.
Introduced as early as 2013 [
12], by 2015, livestreaming sales of agricultural products began to emerge. Growth quickly accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, which substantially reduced access for farmers to existing logistical channels, resulting in large quantities of unsalable perishable goods to stockpile at or near their point of origin [
13]. The year-on-year growth rate of livestreaming agricultural product sales was 11.3% from 2020 to 2021 [
14]. The unique e-commerce livestreaming venue for agricultural products has served as a relatively low-cost means to stimulate consumption and improve user experience [
15], reduce information asymmetry, [
4], reduce transaction costs, and increase farmer profits [
16]. Local live streaming can also work to improve government image and grow trust in local governments [
17].
1.2. Participants in Agricultural Livestream Marketing
The Chinese government built the basic hardware for agricultural e-commerce live streaming and provided anchor business guidance for local e-commerce associations. E-commerce platforms have carried out agricultural product live streaming and increased the income of participating local farmers. Leadership has come from top-level anchors, including influential internet celebrities, film and television stars, mainstream media, and local administrators. The important role of the latter in promoting live streaming and, at times, having a local government official serve as the anchor, is rather unique to the live streaming of agricultural products. By opening livestreaming rooms to sell agricultural products, actively promoting the online live streaming sales of agricultural products, and creating characteristic brand agricultural products, participants have created a stronger agricultural market and progressed the national mission of rural revitalization [
3].
With rural life as the background, internet celebrity anchors who have many fans, such as Li Ziqi and Dianxi Xiaoge, show their lifestyles during a live feed to influence viewers’ purchasing decisions. Most of the anchors carrying agricultural products are grassroots, and the live streaming is close to the content of public life. As such, the audience in the livestreaming room has little psychological distance from the group of internet celebrity anchors, and it is easier to establish psychological resonance and a sense of identity with the anchors [
18].
Various e-commerce platforms have also responded to the call of the central government to open livestreaming sales channels for agricultural products. For example, as a leading e-commerce platform company, Taobao launched the County Head is Coming livestreaming room of agricultural products in January 2019. The county head or grassroots cadres act as the anchors of the livestreaming room to sell agricultural products produced by local farmers. Taobao subsequently launched the Village Broadcasting Project in March 2019. Representatives of several provinces and cities jointly announced the launch, and many livestreaming events of the project have achieved sales of more than RMB 10 million. In the Kuaishou Poverty Alleviation E-commerce Activity, 97 anchors participated in the livestreaming selling of agricultural products, benefiting 160,000 people and helping impoverished areas reduce poverty. During the Double Eleventh, CCTV and Pinduoduo set up a large-scale live commerce special campaign to promote the sales of high-quality agricultural products. Driven by emerging e-commerce livestreaming platforms such as Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Douyin, livestreaming sales of agricultural products have exceeded growth expectations. In addition, growing involvement of professional farmers engaged in the production and sales of green agricultural products has the potential to be an important driving force for China’s agricultural modernization and rural revitalization.
1.3. Problem Statement
Despite the growth and promise of live streaming of agricultural products and the emerging associated literature, there is still limited research on live streaming of agricultural products [
17,
19] and especially on the role of the unrealized potential of expanding the green product market. Investigating factors influencing success of agricultural green product marketing through livestreaming, and especially the role of green cognition, is warranted. Many consumers have a relatively limited and superficial understanding of agricultural production practices, especially green practices, and of the relationship of these production practices to the environment, human health, food safety, and food quality [
20]. Live streaming is particularly well-suited to providing this information and in a format that continues to attract viewer attention so they are open to learning. Livestreaming anchors can show farmers, farms, and production and handling practices as they occur and exploit the opportunity to show the relationship between production practices and the wider environment, increasing consumer trust in the featured products, as well as in green practices more generally [
20,
21].
Furthermore, few scholars have investigated consumer behavior during agricultural products live streaming and there is a lack of specific research on the influencing factors between the characteristics of agricultural products anchors and consumers’ purchasing behavior. To contribute to our understanding of what makes agricultural live streaming successful, this paper studies consumer purchasing influencers in the live streaming of agricultural products, including agricultural product anchors. This information will inform those involved in planning and implementing livestream events and facilitate the formation of targeted marketing strategies. It may also inspire e-commerce platforms to consider sustainable development of agricultural product sales, which can play an important guiding role in the live streaming of agricultural products on the e-commerce platform, increase sales of agricultural products, further develop agricultural live streaming, and contribute toward rural revitalization.
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Data Sources
This paper considers the influence of characteristics of agricultural products anchors, green consumption cognition, and other factors on purchasing behavior. An initial survey was offered, resulting in 103 surveys collected, of which 88 (85.4%) were valid. The reliability and validity of the collected data were tested, and modifications were made to the survey. Modifications included eliminating two questions to improve the reliability of the estimate, merging the interactivity and entertainment characteristics of the anchor into a single characteristic and adding a question to qualify respondents as having watched e-commerce live streaming of agricultural products.
The data used in this paper come only from the final survey. The study used the WJX, a professional online questionnaire, examination, assessment, and voting platform, to generate the questionnaire and send the website link of the questionnaire to social media such as WeChat groups and QQ groups. Respondents completed the questionnaire online. A total of 908 questionnaires were collected. Some surveys were deemed invalid because the respondents had not watched the live streaming of agricultural products. This resulted in 691 valid responses. The questionnaire collected the personal information of respondents, as well as their perceptions about characteristics of agricultural products anchors and measurements of green consumption cognition and purchasing behavior.
3.2. Variable Selection
The research model and hypotheses of this paper include influence, sales promotion, and interactive entertainment of agricultural products anchors, environmental problem perception, green consumption awareness, consumer purchasing behavior. Considering the authenticity and accuracy of the measurement data, this paper refers to the definitions of related concepts by several authors to determine the corresponding scale items and makes partial revisions in combination with the situation of live streaming of agricultural products [
55,
56,
57]. A scale suitable for this study is designed, as shown in
Table 1. The dependent variable is the purchasing behavior of consumers. A score is calculated by factor analysis using two survey questions: frequency of purchasing agricultural products in livestreaming rooms (Q24) and percentage of agricultural products purchased online that were purchased via live streaming (Q25).
Use a Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) except for the purchasing behavior questions. For frequency of purchase, the scale is from 1 (never) to 5 (always). For the proportion of agricultural products purchased online that are purchased through livestreaming rooms, the scale is 1 = <20%, 2 = 20–50%, 3 = 50–80%, and 4 = >80%.
3.3. Reliability and Validity Analysis
3.3.1. Reliability Analysis
Cronbach’s alpha was used to test reliability. Each Cronbach’s alpha was between 0.8 and 0.9, identifying the scales used as internally consistent (
Table 2).
3.3.2. Validity Analysis
Exploratory factor analysis was used to test the construct validity of the scale. The KMO value identifies suitability of the data for factor analysis. Bartlett’s test indicates whether the coefficient matrix is a unit matrix. Factor analyses were conducted for the (1) agricultural product anchor characteristics and (2) green consumption cognition scales. In the factor analysis of the agricultural product anchor characteristic scale, the KMO value of the test is 0.896, in the range of 0.8~0.9. The observed value of the Bartlett’s test statistic is 5085.525, and the corresponding p value is less than 1%. The agricultural product anchor characteristic scale is thereby deemed suitable for factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis was next carried out on the scale. The maximum variance method was used to rotate, and the principal components were extracted if the eigenvalue was greater than 1. Three principal components were extracted, and the cumulative variance was 61.1% (
Table 3). Variance contribution rates were 20.6%, 20.5%, and 19.9%, respectively. Each item has an accurate dimension division. The division results of the dimensions are consistent with the preset results, and the factor loadings are all greater than 0.5. The common degree reached the standard of more than 0.4. Thus, the agricultural product anchor characteristics scale has good structural validity.
In the factor analysis of green consumption cognition scale, the KMO value is 0.888, in the range of 0.8~0.9. The observed value of the Bartlett’s test statistic is 3239.569, and the corresponding
p < 0.01. The green consumption cognition scale is therefore suitable for factor analysis. Using the same method described earlier, two principal components were extracted. The cumulative variance was 71.71% (
Table 4). The variance contribution rates were 40.0% and 31.7%, respectively. Again, the division results of the dimensions are consistent with the preset results, and the factor loadings are all >0.5, indicating that the green consumption cognition scale is structurally valid.
3.4. Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive statistics show a balanced population with respondents showing a range within age, education, income, and employment categories (
Table 5). The population is also consistent with characteristics of livestream users as reported by the New Economic Report on Taobao Live Streaming in 2020. The report indicates that male users accounted for 40% of livestreaming users in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 6%. The report indicates those 40 and older account for the greatest population of live streamers, followed by those between 30 and 40. Those younger were less likely to be involved in live streaming, although the percentage is growing.
Descriptive statistics of the independent variables, mediating variables, and dependent variable in this paper are shown in
Table 6. Using a Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), all means are above 3 except for the dependent variable, purchasing behavior.
3.5. Model
A difference test analysis was first conducted to explore the differences between the variables of anchor characteristics of agricultural products, green consumption cognition, and purchasing behavior at different levels of general information. Second, the impact of anchor characteristics of agricultural products on consumers’ purchasing behavior, the impact of anchor characteristics of agricultural products on green consumption cognition, and the impact of green consumption cognition on consumers’ purchasing behavior were analyzed to verify the research hypotheses H1, H2, H3, H4, H4a, and H4b. Furthermore, this lays a foundation for further analysis of intermediary effects. Finally, the bootstrap method was used to conduct mediation effect analysis to (1) evaluate the relationship among anchor characteristics of agricultural products, green consumption cognition, and purchasing behavior, (2) explain the role of green consumption cognition in the influence of three variables of anchor characteristics of agricultural products on purchasing behavior; and (3) verify the research hypotheses H5, H6, and H7. Among them, the anchor characteristics of agricultural products are the independent variables, green consumption cognition is the mediating variable, and purchasing behavior is the dependent variable. The Influence path of the intermediary effect is shown in
Figure 2, where a is the effect of anchor characteristics of agricultural products on green consumption cognition, b is the effect of green consumption cognition on purchasing behavior, and a × b is the indirect effect of anchor characteristics of agricultural products on purchasing behavior. The direct effect of anchor characteristics of agricultural products on purchasing behavior is denoted by c’, and c is the total effect of anchor characteristics of agricultural products on purchasing behavior.