Decoding the “emotion-trust” chain: how streamer speech types influence consumer behavior intentions through S-O-R framework

Purpose The rapid development of live-streaming commerce has transformed online retail from product-oriented presentation into language-driven persuasive interaction. Although prior studies have examined the effects of streamer characteristics, interactivity, and social presence on consumer responses, limited attention has been paid to how specific streamer speech types function as micro-level persuasive stimuli and activate different psychological mechanisms. To address this gap, this study integrates the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework with a hierarchical psychological model to investigate how streamer speech types influence behavioral intention through emotional response and trust formation. Design/methodology/approach A single-factor between-subjects experimental design was conducted with three speech conditions: hook, mechanism, and interaction. A total of 603 valid responses were collected through scenario-based experiments involving real livestreaming video stimuli. The proposed model was examined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), one-way ANOVA, and bootstrap mediation analysis. Findings The results show that different streamer speech types generate significantly different consumer responses. Specifically, interaction-oriented speech demonstrated the strongest effects on emotional response, trust, and behavioral intention, followed by mechanism-oriented speech, whereas hook-oriented speech showed relatively weaker effects in the context of high-involvement symbolic products. Furthermore, emotional response positively influenced trust, and trust subsequently enhanced behavioral intention. Bootstrap analysis confirmed the sequential mediation effect of emotional response and trust between streamer speech type and behavioral intention. Originality/value This study extends livestreaming research by conceptualizing streamer speech type as a micro-level persuasive stimulus and revealing the psychological transmission mechanism underlying language-driven consumer persuasion. By incorporating emotional response and trust as sequential organismic processes within the S-O-R framework, this study provides a more nuanced explanation of how different communication strategies influence consumer decisions in live-streaming commerce.