Abstract: [Purpose/Significance] It is still unclear about how streamer speech emotion influences audiences' purchasing behavior and liking behavior in live streaming shopping environments, exploring the impact of streamer speech emotion on audiences' purchasing behavior and liking behavior is helpful for streamers to adjust their language emotion expression to maximize the benefit of live streaming. [Design/Methodology] Drawing on the emotional contagion theory and related literature, this study constructed a research model to explore how streamer speech emotion influence audience purchasing behavior and liking behavior on live streaming e-commerce platform. Then, using the live video data of TikTok platform and the consumption data of Huitun platform, this paper verified the influence of streamer speech emotion on audience purchasing behavior and liking behavior with the help of natural language processing and negative binomial regression analysis, and discussed the moderating effect of streamer' influence. [Findings/Conclusion] The influence of streamer speech emotion on audience purchasing behavior and liking behavior is asymmetrical, that is, streamer speech emotion exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with purchasing behavior and a linear relationship with liking behavior, respectively. Streamer' influence negatively moderates the relationship between streamer speech emotion and liking behavior, but has no moderating effect on the relationship between streamer speech emotion and purchasing behavior. [Originality/Value] Our findings enrich the emotional contagion theory and the research scope of audience behavior on live streaming e-commerce platform, and provide insights for the communication strategy of streamers.

Keywords: Live streaming e-commerce, Streamer speech emotion, Emotional Contagion Theory, Purchasing behavior, Liking behavior