From human‒human to human‒VTuber collaboration: Effects of different livestreamer collaboration types on consumers’ purchase intention

The influence of virtual YouTubers (VTubers) in the e-commerce live streaming sector is increasingly significant. However, few scholarly works have systematically investigated the collaborative effectiveness between VTubers and conventional human livestreamers. With its foundation in source credibility theory (SCT), this study employs a series of experiments to perform a comparative analysis of the impact of two streaming collaboration configurations (human–human and human–VTuber) on consumers’ purchase intention. The findings indicate that consumers’ perceived attractiveness, perceived expertise, and purchase intention are all significantly higher in Vhuman–Tuber collaboration than in human–human collaboration. Nevertheless, the two forms of collaboration show no significant difference in perceived trustworthiness. Additionally, perceived attractiveness and perceived expertise mediate the relationship between the type of streaming collaboration and consumers’ purchase intention. This research is the first to address the impact of collaboration among livestreamers on consumers’ purchase intention. The conclusions have theoretical and practical value for managers aiming to comprehend the value of VTubers, foster collaboration among livestreamers, and construct outstanding streaming teams.