The influence and configuration effect of content characteristics on customer input in the context of short video platforms Open Access

The advancement of social media and artificial intelligence has facilitated the expansion of participatory culture and interactive marketing (Wang, 2024). Short videos have attracted a vast user base, thereby enhancing the interactive nature of marketing practices (Souki et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2024). Customers go through a full journey when interacting with short video platforms (SVPs), contributing energy, personal information, knowledge, financial resources, emotional resources, and social resources. Building on the research of Kim et al. (2019) and Li et al. (2022), this article conceptualizes this interaction as “customer input.” The interaction between customers and other actors has played a significant role in the success of SVPs (Xie et al., 2019). However, a recent report indicated a decline in customer input on SVPs (CISVP) in China. According to the reports, the average daily viewing time on SVPs has decreased from 168 min to 151 min, and the proportion of user-generated short video content has decreased by 43.2% (CSM, 2023). These data suggest that CISVP has become more rational, and attracting and retaining customer input has become a top priority for SVPs.

SVPs rely on video content to attract customer input. Previous research has provided some insights into what characteristics of content can enhance customer interaction with SVPs, such as the intrusiveness, informativeness (Zhao and Wang, 2020), and vividness (Ge et al., 2021). Leung et al. (2022b) and Rosengren et al. (2020) highlighted the importance of both content originality and relevance for customers. All of these variables fall under the category of short video ads. However, not all short videos are created for advertising purposes (Zhao and Wagner, 2023). Although content originality and relevance have been identified as important factors, there is a lack of studies examining their effectiveness in the context of SVPs. Therefore, this paper aims to fill this gap. Additionally, there is a scarcity of research investigating the underlying mechanism of how content relevance and originality affect CISVP. Original content is typically characterized by its creativity, uniqueness, and imagination (Rahim and Clemens, 2012), which can evoke fun (Oh and Pham, 2022) and inspiration (Böttger et al., 2017). Meanwhile, content related to customers may lead to a deeper sense of fun (Oh and Pham, 2022), inspiration (Andonopoulos et al., 2023) and a feeling of connection to social, past, and specific place (Eichinger et al., 2022). Finally, studies have relied primarily on the traditional research method of examining net effects between variables, without fully considering the configurational effects resulting from the interactions of antecedent variables in marketing (Gligor and Bozkurt, 2020). Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) can overcome these drawbacks (Gligor and Bozkurt, 2020). The influencing factors of CISVP proposed in this paper are not limited to the aforementioned relationships but also encompass the interactions among those factors. Thus, fsQCA is used as a complementary analysis in this paper. Overall, this paper addresses the following questions.

• (1)

  Can the relevance and originality of video content effectively promote CISVP?

• (2)

  Do groundedness, fun, and customer inspiration serve as mediators in the aforementioned relationships? If so, what specific type of mediating role do they play?

• (3)

  What are the configurational effects of influencing factors of CISVP? Furthermore, how do these configurational effects relate to and differ from the net effects?

In summary, based on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework, this paper proposes a research model of the factors leading to CISVP, using structural equation modeling (SEM) and fsQCA to explore the relationships. This paper makes several contributions to interactive marketing and short video marketing. First, it investigates the influence of content characteristics (i.e. originality and relevance) on CISVP, focusing on the overall perception of SVPs. Second, it reveals the mechanisms underlying the relationship between content characteristics and customer behaviors, offering new insights into the literature on groundedness and customer inspiration. Third, this paper contributes to the theory of fun by showing that it is complex for fun to operate effectively. Finally, it analyzes the configurational effect of influencing factors on CISVP and offers interesting and complementary findings by comparing the results of SEM and fsQCA.

CISVP refers to the resource contributions made by customers during their interaction with SVPs (Kim et al., 2019; Li et al., 2022). Previous research has examined customer input, but most studies have focused on innovation contexts (Gu et al., 2016), new product development (Van Den Hende and Schoormans, 2012), and business model innovation (Kim et al., 2019). Liu and Gal (2011) investigated consumer input in marketing, but they focused primarily on consumers’ suggestions, opinions, and expectations, which is not sufficient to understand CISVP. Customers demonstrate great initiative on SVPs, expanding traditional customer journey models (Trujillo-Torres et al., 2024). Therefore, a more in-depth study of CISVP is needed.

The literature has explored the factors that influence customer interaction with SVPs, including short video affordances (Song et al., 2021), sociability (Ge et al., 2021; Zhao and Wang, 2020), algorithm recommendations, customer inspiration, social presence (Huang et al., 2023), psychological ownership (Xie et al., 2019), perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness (Zhao and Wang, 2020), surprise, and effortlessness (Zhao and Wagner, 2023); live comments (Wei, 2023; Zhang et al., 2024), as well as video content factors such as instructiveness, informativeness, relevance (Zhao and Wang, 2020), and vividness (Ge et al., 2021).

Customer input is highly valuable and plays a crucial role in value co-creation on SVPs. According to service-dominant logic (SDL), resources are the foundation of value co-creation (Vargo and Lusch, 2016). This paper examines the types of resources that customers contribute based on SDL. Based on the research of Plé (2016), and real-life observations, this paper proposes that CISVP can be categorized into six types of resources: energy, informational, financial, knowledge, emotional, and social. Specifically, energy input refers to customers giving their full attention when interacting with the platform. Informational input refers to customers providing basic information and allowing the platform to track their usage history (Kopalle et al., 2020). Financial input involves customers purchasing or intending to purchase on the platform. Knowledge input refers to customers using their own knowledge to post, report, give feedback, and help other users. Emotional input refers to the emotional connection that customers establish with the platform and the videos they watch. Finally, social input refers to customers using their proximal and distal social companions to interact with the platform (Hamilton et al., 2021). This includes recommendations, word-of-mouth, basic interactions (such as liking, commenting, sharing), and seeking help from others.

SOR framework has contributed significantly to explaining customer behaviors in marketing (Huang et al., 2023). Therefore, the current study proposes a research model (see Figure 1) based on the SOR framework. The content characteristics of short videos, including their relevance and originality, are regarded as stimuli; psychological activities, including groundedness, fun, and customer inspiration, are seen as organisms; while CISVP represents the response.

Relevance refers to the extent to which an individual perceives a product or service as self-related or instrumental in achieving their needs, interests, personal goals or values (Celsi and Olson, 1988; Geng et al., 2021). Initially, customers engage in automatic processing of video information (Geng et al., 2021; Leung et al., 2022b) and retrieve relevant information from memory (Celsi and Olson, 1988). If the content of a video aligns with their needs and interests, they perceive it as valuable and captivating (Holliman and Rowley, 2014), increasing the likelihood of helping them achieve their goals or fulfill their needs (Holliman and Rowley, 2014). As a result, customers are more willing to process video information and interact with the publisher and other viewers. Research has shown that customers are more likely to actively participate in brand communities when the content is relevant to them (Ye et al., 2021).

Originality refers to the extent to which video content is seen as unusual, innovative, and new (Casaló et al., 2020). Original contents often have unique language, production style, shooting environment, and various situational elements that can stimulate different information processing processes in customers (Celsi and Olson, 1988). As a result, highly innovative video content will capture consumers’ attention more effectively (Leung et al., 2022a), leading to a response to the video. Second, videos with high degree of originality are seen as interesting and thought-provoking, making customers feel surprised or intrigued. Thus, customers are more likely to share the video with others or comment on its interesting aspects (Moldovan et al., 2011). Finally, original content that shares knowledge and popular science is seen as knowledgeable and trustworthy, which encourages customer interaction with such videos (Leung et al., 2022a). Casaló et al. (2020) demonstrated that perceived originality can improve fans’ attitudes toward opinion leaders, making fans more willing to interact with them. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed.

Groundedness refers to the emotional rootedness of customers (Eichinger et al., 2022). The rise of virtual interactions makes customers feel a weakening of connections with the real world (Schwarz et al., 2023), leading to a need to (re)connect with the real world (Eichinger et al., 2022). The feeling of groundedness emanates from a connection with places, people, or the past. Connecting with a place can be realized through physical activities and product symbols, such as local food. Connecting with people means that individuals want to be connected with social others. Groundedness can also be experienced through the past, which provides memories, traditions, and cultural values to individuals (Eichinger et al., 2022). Short videos encompass a wealth of stimulating elements (Dong et al., 2024), including background music, shooting locations and topics. Each element has the potential to resonate with viewers’ needs, interests, values, and overall life experiences. The relevance of shooting locations can create a sense of connection to a specific place, while other elements can generate connections to the past.

Short videos that are relevant to customers also enable them to fulfill their need for social connection, whether or not they know the video creators. Establishing connections with acquaintances is expected. Although it is challenging for individuals to develop emotional bonds with unfamiliar people in a virtual environment, once they have some background information about others, they tend to become more emotionally input (Simmel, 2023), meeting their needs for social connection (Deci and Ryan, 2000). Few empirical studies have investigated the influence of content relevance and groundedness, but Schwarz et al. (2023) revealed that the relationship between individuals and other consumption entities fosters social connectedness.

Fun can be broadly defined as a pleasurable experience characterized by subjective feelings of enjoyment and entertainment (Oh and Pham, 2022). Fun is usually associated with hedonic experiences (Liu et al., 2017) and a sense of liberation (Oh and Pham, 2022). Relevant video content allows consumers to quickly grasp key information due to familiarity (Yang, 2022) and then compare it with their existing knowledge (Casaló et al., 2008). When video content aligns with customers’ needs, values, and goals, it is more easily understood and appreciated, providing instant gratification, immersive hedonic experiences and a sense of liberation (i.e. fun) (Malodia et al., 2022).

Customer inspiration represents a motivational state driven by desire, which unfolds in three sequential stages: transcendence, evocation, and motivation (Thrash and Elliot, 2003, 2004). Transcendence refers to the phenomenon whereby inspiration guides individuals toward aspirations beyond their everyday concerns, allowing them to glimpse greater or more profound possibilities (Thrash and Elliot, 2004). The first stage requires customers to compare new stimuli with their previous experiences and knowledge. It is evident that customers’ baseline experience and knowledge are crucial for evaluating and appreciating stimuli as desirable and worthy of imitation or extension (Thrash and Elliot, 2004). The higher the relevance of content to consumers, the more baseline experience and knowledge they recalled, and the more likely they are to be inspired. Previous studies have indicated that customers can be inspired by stimuli that align with their needs, interests (Andonopoulos et al., 2023), and goals (Thrash et al., 2014). Therefore, this paper proposes the following hypothesis.

Original videos encourage customers to have a fun experience. First, original videos are considered interesting and thought-provoking (Leung et al., 2022a), attracting customers to enjoy or experience a sense of liberation (Oh and Pham, 2022). Second, original videos are generally innovative, which will evoke a desire to explore (Vashisht, 2021) and it will be enjoyable. Research has shown that novelty can enhance individuals’ fun experience (Oh and Pham, 2022).

Original and innovative content usually inspires customers. First, people become aware of new or improved possibilities (transcendence) and then inspired by the original content (evocation) (Andonopoulos et al., 2023). Second, highly original videos provide a convenient way for customers to observe others and be inspired by numerous new or improved possibilities, such as new products or new uses for existing products (Ouwerkerk and Johnson, 2016), innovative life hacks, step-by-step tutorials for specific skills (Wahid et al., 2023). Frasquet et al. (2024) demonstrated that perceived novelty enhances customer inspiration in the omnichannel context. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed.

The feeling of groundedness generates a sense of continuity and meaningfulness for individuals (Goor et al., 2024). Customers need to maintain meaning to organize their perceptions of the world (Heine et al., 2006). To fulfill this need, customers will increase their interactions with consumption objects that help them cultivate a sense of groundedness. Using experimental research, Eichinger et al. (2022) demonstrated that products that provide feelings of groundedness are more attractive than other products.

Customers who have fun when using SVPs are more likely to input on these platforms. First, to maximize their fun and hedonic value, customers will increase their usage time, fully immerse themselves and input more energy in the platform. Second, customers who find the platform enjoyable will actively interact with video creators by liking, commenting, and discussing their opinions with other users (Wei, 2023). Fun has been shown to enhance individuals’ word-of-mouth (Leri and Theodoridis, 2019) and payments (Malik et al., 2023).

Inspired customers are more likely to interact with content providers, express their love or of a video, and interact with other customers who are interested in the same topic (i.e. social input) (Izogo and Mpinganjira, 2020). Inspiration precedes the actualization of an idea (Böttger et al., 2017). When customers are spontaneously inspired by new stimuli, they are willing to try new experiences (Thrash et al., 2014). Once an idea is realized, customers will continue to seek inspiration when they need it. Continuous stimulation will lead customers to develop a dependence on SVPs (i.e., emotional input). Research has argued that customer inspiration leads to behavioral, attitudinal, and emotional results (Böttger et al., 2017; Izogo and Mpinganjira, 2020). Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed.

Although content relevance is expected to be positively associated with CISVP, there is evidence that this relationship may be more complex. If video content related to customers lacks a connection to people, nature, and the past, it can create a sense of alienation (Van Osselaer et al., 2020), which diminishes the video’s appeal to customers, fails to capture their attention, and makes consumption less meaningful and authentic, ultimately reducing customers’ willingness to interact with SVPs (Van Osselaer et al., 2020). Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

This paper argues that the relevance and originality of video content can influence CISVP through the experience of fun. The more relevant the content, the more it meets customers’ interests, needs, and goals, providing instant gratification as part of fun. This, in turn, will increase customers’ intention to interact with SVPs. Perceived fun helps customers fulfill their intrinsic needs, such as self-improvement and escaping from reality (Malik et al., 2023). This process involves exploration and learning from related stimuli, like short videos. The lack of fun in the related content fails to attract customers to explore and learn, thereby reducing CISVP. Similarly, original short videos lacking in fun do not succeed in enhancing CISVP because they may be too boring to capture customers’ attention and arousal effectively (Oh and Pham, 2022). Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed.

This paper also argues that the originality and relevance of video content affect CISVP through customer inspiration. Inspiration is naturally and seamlessly triggered by both internal and external stimuli (Thrash and Elliot, 2003). Content relevance stimulates the inner state of customers, while originality stimulates their outer state. As inspiration stems from inner interests and goals (Böttger et al., 2017), as well as from original and novel ideas and consumption, it leads to behavioral consequences such as purchases and recommendations. Short videos with less inspiration diminish the perceived value generated from external stimuli (Rauschnabel et al., 2019). If the video content is highly original, the absence of inspiration makes them less compelling to elicit a response. While video contents related to customers may be seen as boring to interact if they lack inspiration. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed.

This paper collected data through an online survey on Credamo, a major Chinese questionnaire platform and received 649 valid questionnaires. The descriptive analysis showed that 46.01% of the respondents were men; nearly half of them (47.30%) were young, aged 20 to 30; and 69.03% held a bachelor’s degree. Most of the respondents (84.44%) used TikTok, with 76.12% using it for 3 years or more. In addition, 55.16% spent more than 3 h per day. Finally, 71.8% of the respondents earned more than 5,000 yuan per month.

Content relevance was measured using three items adapted from Zhao and Wang (2020). Content originality was measured using a four-item scale adapted from Mazerant et al. (2021). Groundedness was measured using four items adapted from Eichinger et al. (2022). Fun was measured using a scale developed by Oh and Pham (2022), including four items. Customer inspiration was measured using three items adapted from Böttger et al. (2017). All of the variables were measured on a 7-point Likert scale.

Regarding CISVP, this paper developed a theoretically sound scale. Specifically, based on previous literatures (Agarwal and Karahanna, 2000; Kumar and Pansari, 2016), this paper created an initial item pool consisting of 69 items. Content validity was accessed by eight Ph.D. candidates and four academic experts in marketing, as well as three industry experts. Data from 510 online respondents were analyzed, with half of them used for exploratory factor analysis and the other half for confirmatory factor analysis. Eighteen items were retained. All items are shown in Table 1.

This paper assessed common method bias. Harman’s single-factor results: the first common factor explained 39.497%, below the threshold of 50% (Podsakoff et al., 2012), suggesting no common method variance concern. A mixed measurement model was established in AMOS 24, consisting of five first-order constructs and one second-order construct (CISVP). The results (see Table 1) indicated that Cronbach’s α and composite reliability (CR) for all variables were above 0.7. The model fit in CFA was good (χ²/df = 2.107, IFI = 0.957, RMSEA = 0.041). One item (CI52) was excluded due to their low factor loadings (0.496). The average variance extracted (AVE) values (0.505–0.661) were greater than 0.5. The correlation coefficients between the constructs were less than the square root of their AVE, supporting discriminant validity (see Table 2).

This study used AMOS24 to test the model. The model fit was good (χ²/df = 2.812 < 3, RMSEA = 0.053 < 0.08, IFI = 0.916). The influence of content relevance (β = 0.236, p < 0.05) and originality (β = 0.120, p < 0.05) on CISVP was significant, supporting H1. As shown in Figure 2, content relevance had a significant positive effect on groundedness (β = 0.829, p < 0.001), fun (β = 0.747, p < 0.001), and customer inspiration (β = 0.581, p < 0.001). Originality had a significant positive effect on fun (β = 0.159, p < 0.01) and customer inspiration (β = 0.445, p < 0.001). Hence, H2 and H3 were supported. Groundedness (β = 0.660, p < 0.01) and customer inspiration (β = 0.173, p < 0.01) had significant positive effects on CISVP, supporting H4a and H4c. Fun was not significantly associated with CISVP (β = −0.041, p = 0.482). Therefore, H4b was not supported.

The total mediating effect (see Table 3) of content relevance (β = 0.856, 95% confidence interval (CI): [0.788, 0.916]) and originality (β = 0.193, 95% CI: [0.092, 0.304]) on CISVP were significant. Groundedness (β = 0.547, 95% CI: [0.430, 0.701]) and customer inspiration (β = 0.103, 95% CI: [0.041, 0.182]) significantly mediate the relationship between content relevance and CISVP. The mediating effect of customer inspiration on the relationship between originality and CISVP (β = 0.079, 95% CI: [0.028, 0.150]) was significant. Thus, H5 and H7 were supported.

However, the mediating effects of fun on the relationship between content characteristics and CISVP (β = −0.031, 95% CI: [−0.140, 0.056]; β = −0.006, 95%, CI: [−0.037, 0.010]) were not significant. Hence, H6 was not supported. There may be two reasons. First, customers may not experience feelings of fun due to cognitive overload and fatigue, resulting from compulsive and excessive CISVP (Kaur et al., 2021). On the other hand, customers may adapt to the level of fun (Carver and Scheier, 1990) derived from short video contents after prolonged exposure and adaptation, leading to low levels of fun.

A multiple-step approach was carried out using fsQCA 4.1. First, variable calibration was conducted, using the 5%, 50%, and 95% of average values of each variable to represent full non-membership, crossover point, and full membership (Ragin and Fiss, 2008). Necessary condition analysis indicates that none of the variables were necessary conditions.

Sufficient condition analysis was carried out. The threshold of consistency, PRI consistency and frequency were set to be 0.8, 0.65 and 7, respectively (Fiss, 2011; Greckhamer, 2016). These results (see Table 4) revealed that three solutions could explain a high level of CISVP. The whole solution had an overall consistency of 0.9089 and an overall coverage of 0.7999.

The three solutions could be classified into two categories. The first category (solution S1) includes the presence of content relevance, groundedness, and customer inspiration are core causal conditions, and content originality and fun may or may not be present. S1 suggests that when short video content is related to customers’ internal motivation, and brings them inspiration and groundedness, high CISVP will be generated. The second category includes two solutions. Both solutions incorporate feelings of groundedness and fun as core causal conditions, with a total unique coverage of 0.1398, being the most important path leading to a high level of CISVP. S2 suggests that no matter whether short video content is relevant to customers or has a high level of originality, as long as it can bring groundedness and fun to customers, it can promote CISVP.

Robustness tests were conducted (Fiss, 2011). First, the consistency threshold was increased to 0.9. Additionally, the calibration anchors were adjusted to 10%, 50%, and 90% and the frequency threshold was increased to 8. The results indicate that the original findings were robust.

This paper examined the influence of content features (originality and relevance) on CISVP. The SEM results showed that content originality and relevance were positively related to CISVP. Groundedness and customer inspiration partially mediate the relationship between content relevance and CISVP. Customer inspiration act as a partial mediator in the relationship between content originality and CISVP. However, the mediating effect of fun was not significant.

The fsQCA results identified three configurations for high levels of CISVP. The first category indicated that short video content, which is grounded and fun, and relates to customers’ internal motivation can lead to high levels of CISVP. The second category showed that a warm and happy atmosphere on SVPs leads to high levels of CISVP.

Comparing the two methodologies, the consistency is reflected in two aspects. First, content relevance, feelings of groundedness, and customer inspiration were linked to CISVP, in line with the SEM results. Second, feelings of groundedness emerged as a vital sufficient condition linked to CISVP, as it appeared in all three paths leading to high CISVP, which replicates the SEM results.

The results differed in three key aspects. First, content originality was found to be an antecedent of CISVP. In contrast, the fsQCA results showed that content originality was not a sufficient condition linked to high CISVP. Second, fun had no significant effect on CISVP in the SEM analysis, and its mediating effect was also not significant, while, in fsQCA, fun could lead to high CISVP when groundedness were generated. Third, the SEM results verified the mediating role of customer inspiration in the relationship between content originality and CISVP. Conversely, the fsQCA results revealed that high levels of customer inspiration led to high CISVP only for the presence of content relevance and groundedness, whereas the presence or absence of originality did not make a difference.

This study makes several contributions to interactive marketing. First, it develops a research model of customer interaction with SVPs, considering two content features: originality and relevance. Previous studies have sporadically mentioned the importance of content relevance and originality for customers to interact in marketing (Holliman and Rowley, 2014; Hollebeek and Macky, 2019; Leung et al., 2022a). However, few studies have empirically tested this relationship in the context of SVPs. This study fills this gap. The positive effect of content relevance on CISVP echoes the findings of Jung (2017) and Geng et al. (2021), in which they pointed out that perceived ad relevance is positively associated with consumer engagement on social media. The positive effect of content originality is also consistent with current views (Casaló et al., 2020; Leung et al., 2022b).

Second, this study develops the understanding of groundedness and customer inspiration. The mediating role of groundedness was verified by Eichinger et al. (2022) in relation to customers’ purchasing behavior and well-being, while this paper enhances the understanding by identifying the content relevance as a significant antecedent and the mediating role of groundedness in the relationship between content relevance and CISVP. Furthermore, previous research has identified perceived novelty as an antecedent of inspiration (Frasquet et al., 2024). This paper supports this view. Additionally, we propose that content relevance is related to customer inspiration because when individuals encounter new stimuli that match their interests and needs, they become inspired to try new experiences (Thrash et al., 2014; Andonopoulos et al., 2023). The results of this paper are consistent with those of Izogo and Mpinganjira (2020), who proposed that customer inspiration mediates the relationship between content features and customer engagement behaviors. However, this paper verifies this view in the context of SVPs.

Third, this paper contributes to the liberty-engagement theory introduced by Oh and Pham (2022). Specifically, they identified novelty as the catalyst for fun, which is similar to our SEM results. However, the direct and indirect effects of fun on CISVP were not supported in this paper. FsQCA results showed that fun is essential for customer interaction with SVPs. Therefore, liberty-engagement theory of consumer fun requires further investigation.

Finally, fsQCA is used to examine the interaction of factors influencing CISVP, and the results were compared with those of SEM, revealing interesting and complementary insights and suggesting that the antecedents and mediators of CISVP should be considered holistically.

This study also has implications for practitioners. First, individual influencers should also consider the needs and preferences of their followers when they enjoy considerable freedom in expressing themselves. Connecting with followers from different places, times, and backgrounds is a natural advantage of individual influencers to give customers a sense of groundedness; as such, influencers should make good use of this advantage.

Second, for brands, enterprises, and other organizational actors, they should learn from individual influencers how to make customers feel grounded, fun, and inspired rather than simply promoting products or services. For example, some brands are interacting with their customers through anthropomorphic branding by posting fun and emotional content on SVPs to create better connections with customers.

Third, configuration analysis indicates that platforms should establish and improve a robust regulatory system and effectively carry out their supervision duties to maintain a harmonious and warm atmosphere on the platforms. What’s more, fsQCA analysis also advises short video creators that when discussing topics relevant to their audience, they should simultaneously offer both groundedness and inspiration.

This study has some limitations. First, customer behaviors on SVPs are dynamic and can change rapidly, but the measures used in this study were static. Future research should use other measurement methods, such as algorithms and tracking observations, to track long-term customer input and explore changing patterns. Second, configurations can change as customer interactions change. Future research could investigate configuration changes. Third, many factors can affect CISVP, such as anxiety, escapism, and knowledge acquisition. Future research should examine other antecedents and mechanisms of CISVP. Finally, the mediating role of fun in the relationship between content originality and CISVP was not supported, indicating that moderators may be involved, such as content quality. Academics should further research content originality and customer behaviors.

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 72172123]. The funding underlies the topic selection of this paper, providing both inspiration and financial support.