Livestream Commerce and Trust Transfer in High-Involvement Property Purchase Decisions: Evidence from a Regional Indonesian Housing Brand

Abstract

Livestream commerce research in Indonesia has largely examined low-involvement products, such as fashion and cosmetics, for which purchase decisions tend to be more impulsive and involve lower perceived risk. Property, by contrast, is a high-involvement product characterized by high costs, infrequent purchases, and extensive information search before decision-making. This study examines an anomalous case in which a housing brand in Tanjung Enim, a nonmetropolitan Indonesian market, sold dozens of housing units within six months through routine livestreaming, a pattern that departs from prevailing industry practice, in which property marketing on social media typically functions primarily as a lead-generation channel. Employing a qualitative single-case study design, this research draws on the Elaboration Likelihood Model and trust transfer theory to examine how peripheral cues in livestream interactions facilitate central-route processing of property information and how parasocial trust in the host transfers to the developer and the property product. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with buyers who converted through the livestreaming process, the livestream host, and developer representatives, supplemented by netnographic observation of livestream sessions. The findings indicate that peripheral cues function as an entry point rather than a substitute for elaboration on central product information; that trust transfer from the host to the brand operates through a two-stage mechanism reinforced by real-time responsiveness; and that community embeddedness within the small-town context amplifies the credibility of the livestream host beyond what platform affordances alone would produce. This study contributes to the livestream commerce literature by extending the Elaboration Likelihood Model to high-involvement, high-risk purchase categories and by situating trust transfer dynamics within an underrepresented nonmetropolitan market context.