The COVID-19 pandemic and the continuous advancement of live e-commerce technology pushed the swift growth of live e-commerce in China. Based on the S–O–R theoretical framework, this study investigates the impact of live broadcast characteristics on consumers’ social presence and flow experience, along with their impact on the consumers’ consumption intention in live e-commerce scenarios through questionnaires. Using structural equation modeling, data processing and involvement were introduced as regulating variables. Host charm, interaction, and trust in the host exerted a significant positive impact on social presence. In addition, host charm and trust in host significantly affected flow experience, and social presence significantly affected flow experience. Both social presence and flow experience significantly affected consumption intention, while involvement affected all paths to some extent. Overall, this study illustrates the significance of host in live e-commerce, and consumers with low involvement should be the focus of attention in live e-commerce.

Continuous enhancements of the intelligence of electronic products can lead to the homogenization of products and innovation of offline experiential marketing modes. The diversified development of brand sales channels is inevitable, to fulfill the diversified shopping demands of consumers. Based on 226 valid questionnaires, this study conducts empirical research with SPSS and AMOS to examine the impact of experience characteristics on consumer brand identity and brand loyalty. Then, the fanship consumer attribute is added to conduct path-moderating analysis. The results illustrated the following: (a) consumers act and relate experiences, which affects brand cognitive identity; thinking, acting, and relating experiences positively affect brands’ emotional identity; (b) cognitive identity and emotional identity can jointly create brand loyalty, and play a partial mediating role between offline experience and brand loyalty. Finally, the higher the fanship, the higher the consumer identity and the higher the brand loyalty. Overall, this study provides a certain basis for decision-making and suggestions for the offline operation of electronic brands.

“Cashback for positive reviews” is a common form of e-commerce manipulation that may undermine consumer trust and distort the market evaluation system. However, there is a lack of systematic research on how it influences consumers’ willingness to provide evaluations through psychological mechanisms. This study, based on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework, integrates the theories of psychological contract and cognitive dissonance. An empirical analysis based on 460 valid questionnaire responses was performed using SPSS and AMOS, yielding the following findings. (1) Negative emotions, including disappointment, anger, and regret, significantly triggered psychological contract breach, both transactional and relational. (2) Psychological contract breach reduced consumers’ willingness to provide positive reviews and lowered their store evaluation behavior, fully mediating the relationship between negative emotions and evaluation behavior. (3) Cognitive dissonance partially moderated the pathway from negative emotions through psychological contract breach to review behavior. This study elucidated the influence mechanism of negative emotions in “cashback for positive review” scenarios on consumers’ evaluation behavior, established a “merchant-user” online review relationship model, and provided practical and managerial implications for fostering mutually beneficial outcomes among platforms, merchants, and consumers.

Amid the rapid development of e-commerce, merchants increasingly employ cashback strategies for positive reviews to manipulate online feedback and artificially boost sales and reputation. However, such practices systematically distort authentic consumer responses and disrupt fair market competition. According to the Stimulus-Organism-Response(S-O-R) theory, this study provides the first theoretical model to examine how negative emotions induced by cashback for positive reviews influence consumers’ evaluation behavior. An empirical analysis based on 460 valid questionnaire responses was performed using SPSS and AMOS, yielding the following findings. (1) Negative emotions, including disappointment, anger, and regret, significantly triggered psychological contract breach, both transactional and relational. (2) Psychological contract breach reduced consumers’ willingness to provide positive reviews and lowered their store evaluation behavior, fully mediating the relationship between negative emotions and evaluation behavior. (3) Cognitive dissonance partially moderated the pathway from negative emotions through psychological contract breach to review behavior. This study elucidated the influence mechanism of negative emotions in “cashback for positive review” scenarios on consumers’ evaluation behavior, established a “merchant-user” online review relationship model, and provided practical and managerial implications for fostering mutually beneficial outcomes among platforms, merchants, and consumers.