Under the dark side of online trust: how and when livestreamers’ online expressive coping strategy impacts the livestreaming e-commerce failure recovery process

Purpose Despite the prevalence of service failures in this emerging livestreaming e-commerce domain, scholarly investigations have neglected the effectiveness of livestreamers’ online coping strategies in mitigating the dual consequences of sales attrition and reputational impairment after these failures. Based on the stress and coping theory, this research aims to examine the underlying mechanism and boundary condition through which livestreamers’ online expressive coping strategy influences the recovery process of viewers’ electronic word-of-mouth (WOM) in the livestreaming e-commerce failure context. Design/methodology/approach We employed a two-wave time-lagged survey to mitigate common method bias and control for spurious mood effects, thereby enhancing the robustness of our findings. Our sample comprised 222 Chinese viewers who recently encountered service failures in livestreaming e-commerce. Analytically, we adopted a two-stage partial least squares structural equation modeling approach to validate a moderated-mediation model. Findings Livestreamers’ online expressive coping strategies exert a positive influence on viewers’ perceived livestreaming e-commerce failure severity, which in turn negatively impacts their electronic WOM. Viewers’ online trust in livestreamers intensifies this negatively mediated relationship. Practical implications This study provides practical implications for stakeholders to enhance livestreaming e-commerce failure recoveries through effective online expressive coping strategies while recognizing the potential downside of viewers’ online trust in livestreamers. Originality/value This study advances the understanding of livestreamers’ online expressive coping strategies in the livestreaming e-commerce failure recovery process and uncovers the dark side effect of online trust in the livestreaming e-commerce context.