The emotional expressions in live streaming e-commerce possess a strong contagious effect, enabling viewers to easily resonate with the specific emotions conveyed by the streamers and consciously build an empathy transmission chain. This study constructs a regression model based on the emotional contagion theory and explores the impact of empathy between streamers and viewers on sales performance. Using data from 30 live streams, totaling 22,707 min, from one of China’s most popular live streaming rooms, “East Buy”, between February and April 2024, we demonstrate the significant positive impact of empathy between streamers and viewers on sales. Additionally, product type positively moderates this relationship. The unexpected thing is that live streaming time does not significantly affect the relationship between empathy and sales. This study employs text sentiment analysis methods to extract emotional features from the streamers’ speech and real-time comments from viewers. Our research extends the application of emotional contagion theory to the context of live-streaming e-commerce, enriches the literature on emotional interaction in service marketing, and provides practical insights for live-streaming platforms and streamers. Streamers can optimize marketing strategies and achieve sales goals by creating a more engaging and empathetic live-streaming experience.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of housing agents’ images facial features and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) on the potential customers’ signup decision-making on an online rental platform. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the first impression theory, an artificial intelligence face recognition system was applied, and a regression model was built to analyze 2,797 housing agents’ online images from Ziroom, a Chinese leading O2O rental platform. Findings: The results show that the housing agents’ images facial features (beauty, smile, age), and e-WOM have a significant effect on customer signup conversion rates. Housing agents’ beauty weakens the positive effect of housing agents’ smile, age and e-WOM on customer signup conversion rates. Originality/value: This research applies artificial intelligence face recognition technology, simultaneously broadening the first impression theory to online long-term rental platforms. It also provides insights into the role of housing agents’ online image facial features, and e-WOM in customer behavior and decision-making.

Purpose: In today’s complex economic environment, enterprise relationships are volatile and competitive. Globally, business ethics and etiquette are crucial for fostering relationships and long-term success. This study explores the impact of business ethics and etiquette on inter-firm trust, commitment, and reciprocity at different business lifecycles. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 3,860 responses from 92 countries were collected via an online survey. Through confirmatory factor analyses, two distinct business ethics factors and seven business etiquette factors were identified. Multiple regression analyses further revealed that these factors significantly impact inter-firm relationships. Findings: The study concludes that throughout the business relationship lifecycle, business ethics and etiquette positively affect general reciprocity. At the maintenance stage, business ethics is an important factor affecting inter-firm relationships however, its significance wanes at the dissolution stage. Research limitations/implications: This study concludes the general state of ethics in business relationships. However, there are still shortcomings in the analysis of business ethics in specific countries. Practical implications: The study offers enterprises practical advice on establishing and preserving healthy business relationships by adhering to ethics and etiquette throughout various stages. Originality/value: This study combines stakeholder theory and social exchange theory, applying them to the research of business relationships. Furthermore, this study delves into the varying importance of ethics and etiquette across the four business life cycle stages, offering a fresh perspective and empirical evidence for examining inter-enterprise relationships.

Rapid dissemination of information on social media challenges effective destination image management. Through text mining, this study explores how public emotions triggered by the tourism crisis event on social media affect users’ engagement behavior. It is found that specific discrete emotions—particularly anger and love—significantly enhance user engagement, identifying them as the most influential negative and positive drivers, respectively. Unlike previous studies that merely consider the presence or absence of emojis, this research shows that a higher proportion of emoji use weakens the impact of these emotional drivers. The study further uncovers the internal structure and the dynamic evolution of high-impact emotions using structural topic modeling. These findings provide actionable insights for tourism stakeholders, enabling them to refine public opinion strategies and respond swiftly to online emotion shifts.

BACKGROUND With the rise of Internet health, online medical platforms play the key role of information bridge and convenient channel in medical service selection. Users tend to rely on doctor images and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) evaluations displayed on online medical platforms when selecting medical services. OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore the impact of facial features displayed on online platforms on users’ offline conversion rate (Uocr). It will help us understand the psychological mechanism behind users' decisions from the perspective of the first impression effect. METHODS Python was used to collect pictures and information of 7547 doctors from "haodf.com", a well-known online medical platform in China. Then, we use Face++ technology to calculate their facial feature values. RESULTS The results show that: Appearance attractiveness, smile, and gender of facial displays on online platforms have a significant positive relationship on Uocr. Satisfaction evaluations do not significantly regulate the relationship between appearance attractiveness and smile on Uocr, but have a significant negative moderating effect on the effect of gender. CONCLUSIONS This study emphasizes the importance of “haodf” as an eWOM platform in image management. It also provides a new perspective for optimizing resource allocation and improving service efficiency. It has important theoretical and practical value for further promoting the innovation of online service systems and realizing the seamless connection between online and offline.

With the rise of Internet health, online medical platforms play the key role of information bridge and convenient channel in medical service selection. Users tend to rely on doctor images and electronic word-of-mouth evaluations displayed on online medical platforms when selecting medical services. This study aims to explore the impact of facial features displayed on online platforms on users’ offline conversion rate. It will help us understand the psychological mechanism behind users’ decisions from the perspective of the first impression effect. Python was used to collect pictures and information of 7547 doctors from “haodf.com”, a well-known online medical platform in China. Then, we used commercial software to calculate their facial feature values. The results showed that: Appearance attractiveness, smile, and gender of facial displays on online platforms have a significant positive relationship on users’ offline conversion rate. Satisfaction evaluations do not significantly regulate the relationship between appearance attractiveness and smile on users’ offline conversion rate, but have a significant negative moderating effect on the effect of gender. This study emphasizes the importance of the eWOM platform in image management. It also provides a new perspective for optimizing resource allocation and improving service efficiency. It has important theoretical and practical value for further promoting the innovation of online service systems and realizing the seamless connection between online and offline.