Mukbang Viewing Motivation and Purchase Intention among South Korean Consumers: A Digital Trade Perspective

초록

Purpose - This study conceptualizes Mukbang, a genre of online eating broadcasts originating in South Korea, as a form of content-based digital trade and investigates the consumer-level mechanism through which viewing motivations translate into purchase intention. It addresses how exposure to digital content can generate purchase-related demand by examining viewing satisfaction as an evaluative mechanism. Design/Methodology - Drawing on Uses and Gratifications Theory, the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, expectation-confirmation theory, and parasocial interaction, the study examines four viewing motivations—entertainment, information seeking, vicarious eating, and interaction and companionship—together with viewing satisfaction and purchase intention. Survey data were collected from 293 South Korean consumers with Mukbang viewing experience and analyzed using the empirical procedures reported in the manuscript, including regression and bootstrap mediation analysis. Findings - All four viewing motivations were positively associated with viewing satisfaction and purchase intention, and viewing satisfaction partially mediated each motivation–purchase intention relationship. The results indicate that evaluation is an important stage through which content experience is converted into purchase-related intention. Interaction and companionship showed the strongest association with viewing satisfaction in the separate regression models, while the manuscript cautions that the motivation dimensions cannot be strictly ranked because they were estimated in separate models. Originality/value - This study provides a consumer-level micro-foundation for discussions of digital content exports, platform commerce, and the internationalization of Korean food brands. By specifying the pathway from self-selected content consumption through evaluation to purchase-related intention, it clarifies a mechanism that trade-oriented accounts of digital content often leave implicit.

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