Cueing Up!

How Other-Oriented Semantic Cues in Livestream Shopping Enable Sustainable Food Consumption

Yiu, Rayne, Madani & Kumar — Journal of Strategic Marketing (2025)

Motivation & Research Questions

The Global Challenge

  • 65% of consumers want sustainable food choices (WEF, 2023)
  • ESG-claiming products: +1.7 pp sales advantage (McKinsey, 2023)
  • Livestream shopping: $512B market; 54% of viewers buy groceries via livestream

The Gap

Research focuses on consumer factors (health, culture, values) — not on nuanced marketing communication mechanisms like semantic cues in digital retail settings.

Research Questions

RQ Focus
H1 Are other-oriented semantic cues more effective than self-oriented cues in driving sustainable food sales via livestream?
H2 Does the number of sellers amplify this effect?

Theoretical Grounding

  • Self-construal theory — individuals shift between self/other orientation by context
  • Social conformity theory — community settings elevate “other” above “self”

Conceptual Framework

Semantic Cue Types

Self-Oriented — appeals to personal benefit

  • “organic”, “pure”, “authentic”
  • “no additives”, “no preservatives”
  • “natural”, “chemical-free”

Other-Oriented — appeals to communal/environmental benefit

  • “local”, “homemade”, “farmhouse”
  • “traditional craftsmanship”, “ancient method”
  • “green food”, “sustainable production”

Why Livestream is Different

Unlike grocery or traditional e-commerce, livestream shopping creates:

  • Many-to-many communication
  • Real-time viewer–seller and viewer–viewer bonding
  • Community formation through polls, Q&A, gamification

The community environment activates the “other” orientation — making environmental/communal semantic cues more influential than self-focused health claims.

Data & Methodology

Phase 1 — Text Analysis

  • Platform: Douyin (TikTok China), May–June 2024
  • 17,520 minutes of livestream video transcribed
  • Custom NLP dictionary (Jieba library) → top 20 sustainable food keywords
  • Open coding → classified all words into Self vs. Other orientation
Sub-topic Type
Healthiness, Chemical-free, Natural Self
Sustainable production, Agri. practices, Env. impact Other

Phase 2 — Econometric Modelling (GLS)

  • 416 sustainable food products with identified cue types
  • DV: Average 30-day sales ($ volume & units)
  • IV: Semantic cue type (1 = other-oriented, 0 = self-oriented)
  • Moderator: Number of sellers
  • Controls: Price, commission rate, livestream sessions

Actual purchase transactions — not stated preferences. True revealed consumer behavior from a live retail setting.

Findings

H1 Supported — Other-Oriented Cues Win

Outcome β p
Sales Volume ($) 0.311 < .0001
Sales Units 0.074 < .0001

Other-oriented words consistently outperform self-oriented words across both outcome measures.

H2 Supported — Seller Count Amplifies Effect

β p
Sellers × Other-Oriented 0.001 < .0001

More sellers → broader community → stronger conformity → stronger response to other-oriented cues.

Additional Finding — Premium Price Works

Sustainable food buyers show lower price sensitivity: positive price effect on sales (β > 0, p < .0001).

Counter to Prior Literature: Most sustainable food studies find self-orientation the stronger driver (Yadav, 2016). This study shows context flips the dominant orientation — in the livestream community setting, “other” wins over “self”.

VIF checks confirm no multicollinearity. Results robust across both sales metrics.

Contributions & Implications

3 Theoretical Contributions

  1. First to show livestream’s community context elevates other over self in sustainable food consumption — advancing self-construal + social conformity theory

  2. Pinpoints specific linguistic mechanisms (other-oriented words) that drive purchase — not just broad values or intentions

  3. Extends influencer literature — more sellers amplifies community effect and cue effectiveness

Managerial Recommendations

  • Use other-oriented words: “local”, “farmhouse”, “green food”, “traditional craftsmanship” — not “organic” or “no additives”
  • Build community, not competition: Foster viewer interaction; avoid individual-gain tactics
  • Price premium is viable: Sustainable food consumers are willing to pay more
  • Leverage many small sellers: Broader pool amplifies conformity and message reach

Policy: Platforms should encourage sellers to highlight environmental/communal benefits over personal health claims — especially in livestream settings.