Understanding Chinese Consumers’ Purchase Resistance in Virtual Live Streaming Rooms: The Role of Negative Anthropomorphism Disconfirmation and Service Guarantees

Virtual streamers (VSs) and virtual live streaming rooms (VLSRs) are increasingly being utilized in live-streaming commerce. However, consumer purchase resistance in VLSRs remains a salient issue. Grounded in the expectation disconfirmation theory and the product uncertainty perspective, this study adopts a multi-method approach to explore the mechanisms underlying purchase resistance in VLSRs and identify actionable mitigation strategies. Specifically, Study 1 employs a questionnaire survey to examine how negative VS anthropomorphism disconfirmation (NVAD) influences consumer purchase resistance in VLSRs. Study 2 utilizes an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of service guarantees in reducing consumers' purchase resistance intentions. The results indicate that NVAD impacts consumers purchase resistance in VLSRs via direct dissatisfaction and the chain mediation of perceived product fit uncertainty and dissatisfaction; for consumers with a higher need for interaction with a service employee, the positive relationship between NVAD and dissatisfaction with VLSRs will be stronger; service guarantees can reduce consumers' resistance. This study enriches the literature on human-AI interaction in VLSRs, consumer resistance behaviors, the expectation disconfirmation theory, product uncertainty, and service guarantees, providing empirical insights for retailers to mitigate consumers purchase resistance in VLSRs.