Research on the impact path of virtual streamers characteristics on agricultural product consumers’ purchase intention

Lin Jiang; Min Li

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0330021

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionApril 9, 2025
28 May 2025 Decision Letter - Vincenzo Auriemma, Editor Dear Dr. JIANG, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please submit your revised manuscript by Jul 12 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org . When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'. A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'. An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'. If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter. If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols . Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols . We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Vincenzo Auriemma Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. 1.Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf 2. Please note that PLOS ONE has specific guidelines on code sharing for submissions in which author-generated code underpins the findings in the manuscript. In these cases, we expect all author-generated code to be made available without restrictions upon publication of the work. Please review our guidelines at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/materials-and-software-sharing#loc-sharing-code and ensure that your code is shared in a way that follows best practice and facilitates reproducibility and reuse. 3. Please note that funding information should not appear in any section or other areas of your manuscript. We will only publish funding information present in the Funding Statement section of the online submission form. Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript. 4. Thank you for stating the following financial disclosure: “The National Social Science Foundation General Project of China (24BJY160) Fujian Natural Science Foundation General Project(2023J011143)” Please state what role the funders took in the study. If the funders had no role, please state: "The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript." If this statement is not correct you must amend it as needed. Please include this amended Role of Funder statement in your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf. 5. We note that your Data Availability Statement is currently as follows: All relevant data are within the manuscript and in Supporting Information files. Please confirm at this time whether or not your submission contains all raw data required to replicate the results of your study. Authors must share the “minimal data set” for their submission. PLOS defines the minimal data set to consist of the data required to replicate all study findings reported in the article, as well as related metadata and methods (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-minimal-data-set-definition). For example, authors should submit the following data: - The values behind the means, standard deviations and other measures reported; - The values used to build graphs; - The points extracted from images for analysis. Authors do not need to submit their entire data set if only a portion of the data was used in the reported study. If your submission does not contain these data, please either upload them as Supporting Information files or deposit them to a stable, public repository and provide us with the relevant URLs, DOIs, or accession numbers. For a list of recommended repositories, please see https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/recommended-repositories. If there are ethical or legal restrictions on sharing a de-identified data set, please explain them in detail (e.g., data contain potentially sensitive information, data are owned by a third-party organization, etc.) and who has imposed them (e.g., an ethics committee). Please also provide contact information for a data access committee, ethics committee, or other institutional body to which data requests may be sent. If data are owned by a third party, please indicate how others may request data access. Additional Editor Comments: I recommend following all the suggestions provided, as they offer excellent ideas for improving the paper and making it more appealing. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ******** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->?> Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available??> The PLOS Data policy Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English??> Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** Reviewer #1: It is an honor to review your manuscript. The manuscript has some novelty and the research process is relatively standardized. But there is still room for further improvement in the manuscript and major revisions are needed 1、The introduction is too tedious, it is recommended to simplify it。 2、Insufficient reasons for presenting characteristics of virtual streamers. 3、Lack of discussion on research results. Reviewer #2: This paper studies the Impact Path of Virtual Streamer Characteristics on Agricultural Product Consumers' Purchase Intention. The writing is smooth, the experimental details are abundant, and the significance is profound. However, the following problems need to be solved: 1. The introduction section should supplement the innovative points of this article, especially the theoretical innovation part. The current innovation points pay more attention to practical innovation. 2. Supplement the discussion section, including the discussion of experimental results, theoretical contributions and practical contributions. The recommendation section can be placed in the practical contribution section. 3. Add sections on research limitations and future research directions at the end of the paper. 4. The number of references is too small. It is necessary to supplement the literature on the influence of the characteristics of live-streaming hosts on consumers in live-streaming e-commerce, as well as the literature on the role of emotions in live-streaming e-commerce, especially the latest literature in 2024 and 2025. For example: Zhou, R., & Tong L. (2022). A study on the influencing factors of consumers' purchase intention during livestreaming e-commerce: The mediating effect of emotion. The Frontiers in tended, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903023 2) Zhou, R. (2024), The impact of scarcity promotions in live streaming e-commerce on purchase intention: the mediating effect of emotional experience, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-04-2024-0475 3) Zhou R. (2025) Influence Mechanism of Live Streaming Influencer Characteristics on Purchase Intention under Urban-rural and Male-female Divides: The Mediating Role of Consumer Emotions. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-07558-9 4) Zhou, R. Angathevar Baskaran (2025). Influencing Mechanisms of Live Streaming Influencer Characteristics on Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of that Trust. Plos One. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0322294 ****** what does this mean? ). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: No ******** [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/ . PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org . Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330021.r001
Revision 1
23 Jul 2025 Author Response Dear Editor and Reviewers, Thank you for your time and valuable feedback on our manuscript. We sincerely appreciate the editors and reviewers for their constructive comments, which have significantly improved our manuscript. Below is our point-by-point response to all concerns. Response to Reviewer 1 Comment 1:The introduction is too tedious, it is recommended to simplify it Response 1: In response to the reviewers' comments, we have thoroughly refined the Introduction section: 1.Removed redundant details and repetitive statements, reducing the length from 845 to 711 words (a 15.86% reduction). 2.Retained the core research background and key literature support to ensure academic rigor. 3.Strengthened the logical progression to make the research purpose more prominent. (Revised section: Pages 2–3) Comment 2:Insufficient reasons for presenting characteristics of virtual streamers. Response 2: We have systematically addressed this concern by strengthening both the theoretical evolution and empirical foundation of our feature selection framework: 1.Theoretical Evolution Dimension� A systematic literature review reveals distinct generational shifts in virtual streamers research:Early studies focused on holistic image construction and basic functional attributes.Recent research has shifted toward emotional interaction mechanisms and multidimensional analysis, reflecting a paradigm shift from functionalism to affective-cognitive perspectives. 2.Theoretical Framework Dimension: Building on Fiske's (2002) warmth-capability dual-dimension theory and integrating recent empirical findings (Gao et al., Gong Xiaoxiao, etc.), we propose a dual-dimensional model: (1)Warmth Dimension Affinity: Supported by Hu H. (2023), Li Keyi (2022), Bartneck (2009) Anthropomorphism: Supported by Zhan Ying (2024), Gao W. (2023), Zhao Yu (2023), Mou Yupeng (2019). (2)Capability Dimension Professionalism: Supported by Feng Runliu (2024),Gao W. (2023), Zhou R. (2022) Responsiveness: Supported by Li Rong (2025), Ma Lili (2024), Wang Cuicui (2023). This framework aligns with academic progression while providing robust theoretical and empirical grounding. (Revised section: Pages 6-7; new references [14-18]) Comment 3:Lack of discussion on research results. Response 3: The revised version now expands the "Conclusions and Recommendations" section into four components: Research Conclusions, Theoretical Contributions, Practical Contributions, Limitations and Future Research Directions. 1.In the Research Conclusions section, we provide a detailed explanation of how virtual streamers characteristics positively influence agricultural product consumers' purchase intention through communication presence and emotional presence, as well as how human-machine trust plays a crucial moderating role in the relationship between virtual streamers characteristics and the mediating variables. 2.The "Theoretical Contributions" section now includes the following theoretical innovations: First, by extending the research scope of e-commerce streamers from human streamers to virtual streamers, this study substantially enriches the literature on live streaming commerce. Second, adopting the Social Presence Theory perspective to explore the mechanism through which virtual streamers characteristics influence consumer’s purchase intention, this study robustly validates the applicability of Social Presence Theory in explaining purchase behavior in AI-driven live streaming contexts. Furthermore, this study extends the application boundaries of human-machine trust theory in commercial settings while offering a novel theoretical perspective for understanding consumer decision-making in human-AI interaction scenarios. 3.The content from the original"Recommendation section"has now been moved to the"Practical Contribution section". 4.Add research limitations and future research directions in the "Limitations and future research directions" section. Limitations (1)We employed a survey method to collect data on consumers' actual perceptions of virtual streamers. (2)Numerous factors influence consumers' purchase intentions in the context of virtual streamers livestream marketing. This study only focused on the impact of the virtual streamers' individual characteristics. (3)In the mediation analysis, only the mediating effect of social presence on the relationship between virtual streamers characteristics and consumers' purchase intentions was examined. this study solely investigated the influence of human-machine trust. (4)This study focused exclusively on the Chinese cultural context. Future research directions (1)Future studies should further expand the sample size and enhance its diversity of the samples.Additionally, experimental methods such as eye-tracking experiments could be employed to ensure the broader applicability and accuracy of the research findings. (2)Future studies could explore the effects of product and scenario factors, as well as their alignment with virtual streamers on purchase intentions. Additionally, the study of virtual streamers characteristics could be refined from perspectives such as the virtual streamers' intelligence, information quality, and popularity. (3)Future studies could explore other mediating variables, such as flow experience, consumer emotions, consumer trust, and perceived risk.In the moderation effect test, future studies should comprehensively consider various potential moderating variables, such as consumers' education level, age, gender, and occupation, to enhance the precision and reliability of the research. (4)Future studies could examine our conceptual model and hypotheses in other cultural contexts. (Revised section: 24-31� Response to Reviewer 2 Comment 1:The introduction section should supplement the innovative points of this article, especially the theoretical innovation part. The current innovation points pay more attention to practical innovation. Response 1: The Introduction section has been expanded to include a dedicated theoretical innovation component, specifically:This study makes significant theoretical contributions by establishing a systematic framework for characterizing virtual streamers, elucidating the key psychological mechanisms underlying consumer interactions with different virtual streamer characteristics, and expanding the theoretical boundaries of virtual streamers research, Social Presence Theory, and human-machine trust studies. (Revised section: 4-5� In the revised manuscript, we have added a dedicated "Theoretical Contributions" subsection to the "Conclusions and Recommendations" section.For details, please refer to our response to Reviewer 1's Comment 3. (Revised section: 27-28� Comment 2:Supplement the discussion section, including the discussion of experimental results, theoretical contributions and practical contributions. The recommendation section can be placed in the practical contribution section. Response 2: In the revised manuscript, we have added a dedicated "Theoretical Contributions" subsection to the "Conclusions and Recommendations" section.The content from the original"Recommendation section"has now been moved to the"Practical Contribution section".For details, please refer to our response to Reviewer 1's Comment 3. (Revised section: 27-28� Comment 3:Add sections on research limitations and future research directions at the end of the paper. Response 3: In the revised manuscript, we have added a dedicated "Limitations and future research directions" subsection to the "Conclusions and Recommendations" section.For details, please refer to our response to Reviewer 1's Comment 3. (Revised section: 30-31� Comment 4:The number of references is too small. It is necessary to supplement the literature on the influence of the characteristics of live-streaming hosts on consumers in live-streaming e-commerce, as well as the literature on the role of emotions in live-streaming e-commerce, especially the latest literature in 2024 and 2025. Response4: In the revised manuscript, we have supplemented the "Review of Related Research" section with literature examining the influence of live-streaming host characteristics on consumers in live-streaming e-commerce . Furthermore, in the "Discussion" section, we have integrated these new references to provide more in-depth analysis and interpretation of the research findings. Specifically, the six additional references are as follows: [14]Guo, L., Zhang, M., Wang, X.The impact of virtual streamer interactivity on consumer perceived value: An experimental study. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 2017,38(2), 45-63. [15]Wang, Y., Chen, S., Li, J. . How virtual streamer characteristics influence purchase decisions: A mediated model. Computers in Human Behavior, 2020(112):106478. [16] Li Keyi, Jin Fei. The Interactive Influence of Endorser Type and Brand Image on Consumer Attitudes. Journal of Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, 2022(3): 45-58. [17]Zhou, R., Tong L. A study on the influencing factors of consumers' purchase intention during livestreaming e-commerce: The mediating effect of emotion. The Frontiers in tended, 2022(13):903023. [18]Zhan Ying. Research on the Influence Mechanism of Virtual Anchor Anthropomorphism on Consumer Trust. University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 2024. [28]Zhou, R., Angathevar Baskaran . Influencing Mechanisms of Live Streaming Influencer Characteristics on Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of that Trust. Plos One, 2025,20(4): e0322294. (Revised section: 6-7、33-35� We have carefully addressed all comments and hope the revised manuscript meets the journal's standards.We believe that these revisions have enhanced the clarity and robustness of our study. We are grateful for your time and effort and look forward to your further comments. Thank you once again for your consideration. Yours Sincerely, JIANG LIN&LI MIN Fujian Business University Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330021.r002
25 Jul 2025 Decision Letter - Vincenzo Auriemma, Editor Research on the Impact Path of Virtual Streamers Characteristics on Agricultural Product Consumers' Purchase Intention PONE-D-25-17660R1 Dear Dr. Jiang, We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements. Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication. An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. For questions related to billing, please contact billing support . If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Vincenzo Auriemma Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Reviewers' comments: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330021.r003
Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Vincenzo Auriemma, Editor PONE-D-25-17660R1 PLOS ONE Dear Dr. JIANG, I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team. At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following: * All references, tables, and figures are properly cited * All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission, * There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset You will receive further instructions from the production team, including instructions on how to review your proof when it is ready. Please keep in mind that we are working through a large volume of accepted articles, so please give us a few days to review your paper and let you know the next and final steps. Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. You will receive an invoice from PLOS for your publication fee after your manuscript has reached the completed accept phase. If you receive an email requesting payment before acceptance or for any other service, this may be a phishing scheme. Learn how to identify phishing emails and protect your accounts at https://explore.plos.org/phishing. If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Vincenzo Auriemma Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330021.r004

Open letter on the publication of peer review reports

PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.

We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.

Learn more at ASAPbio .