How Do Comeback Korean Pop Performers Acquire Audience Empathetic Attachment and Sustained Loyalty? Parasocial Interactions Through Live Stream Shows

Zhuang Ma; Linpei Song; Jue Zhou; Woonkian Chong; Wantong Xiong

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.865698

How Do Comeback Korean Pop Performers Acquire Audience Empathetic Attachment and Sustained Loyalty? Parasocial Interactions Through Live Stream Shows

Front Psychol. 2022 Mar 28:13:865698. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.865698. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zhuang Ma¹, Linpei Song², Jue Zhou³, Woonkian Chong⁴, Wantong Xiong⁵

Affiliations

¹ International Business School, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, China.
² School of Business Administration, Gachon University, Seongnam, South Korea.
³ School of Arts, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
⁴ SP Jain School of Global Management, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁵ College of State Governance, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.

Abstract

Live stream platforms have transformed the production and consumption of music, allowing KPop music to expand globally. Successful KPop idols are contrasted with large numbers of retired KPop performers, some of whom live in undesirable conditions. Drawing on the attachment theory, loyalty theory, and parasocial interaction theory, this study focuses on a unique group, comeback KPop performers, to examine how they acquire empathetic attachment and sustained loyalty from audiences through live stream shows, and the antecedents (i.e., sustained attractiveness, nostalgic experience, and parasocial interactions) of these two variables. Answering these questions seems important because comeback KPop performers have to interact with audiences without the financial and marketing support from entertainment agencies. The structural equation modeling of 288 responses from 176 Chinese and 112 Korean KPop audiences confirmed that empathetic attachment and sustained loyalty are positively associated with audience purchase intentions; sustained attractiveness and parasocial interactions function as antecedents of these two factors. The findings shed light on the comeback KPop performers who co-create value with audiences through live stream platforms, with theoretical contributions to the three theories mentioned above and managerial suggestions to KPop entertainment agencies, comeback KPop performers, and managers of live stream platforms.

Keywords: comeback KPop performers; empathetic attachment; live stream shows; parasocial interactions; sustained loyalty.