Actualizing Social Affordances in Live Streaming: The Role of Real-Time Interaction in Building Community Commitment

This study investigates how real-time interaction in live streaming environments drives users’ community commitment from a social affordance perspective. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and the affordance perspective, a structural model is developed to explain how real-time interactivity facilitates parasocial interaction, promotes vicarious learning and knowledge adoption, and generates perceived benefits that ultimately lead to community commitment. Using survey data collected from 451 users of the Douyin platform and analyzed through structural equation modeling, the results provide empirical support for the proposed relationships. The findings indicate that real-time interactivity significantly enhances parasocial interaction between users and streamers, which in turn promotes both vicarious learning and knowledge adoption. These cognitive processes further generate perceived benefits, specifically hedonic benefit and self-esteem benefit, both of which positively influence users’ community commitment. Notably, self-esteem benefit shows a relatively stronger effect than hedonic benefit, indicating its greater importance in predicting sustained user engagement in live streaming communities. This study contributes to the literature by clarifying the mechanism through which social affordances are actualized in live streaming contexts and by integrating emotional and cognitive pathways to explain user commitment. It also extends prior research by positioning parasocial interaction as a key mediating mechanism linking interactive features and user outcomes. From a practical perspective, the findings provide insights for platform designers and content creators on how to enhance interactive features and develop engagement strategies that foster long-term community participation.