Information transparency in live streaming marketing of local specialty food brands: A preliminary review

Abstract

This preliminary review examines the role of information transparency in live streaming marketing of local specialty food brands. Unlike static e-commerce displays, live streaming marketing combines real-time product demonstration, streamer explanation, viewer comments, promotional pressure, and immediate transaction opportunities. These features may help local specialty food brands communicate product origin, ingredients, production processes, cultural meaning, price rules, and after-sales commitments. However, they may also intensify information asymmetry when disclosure is selective, exaggerated, difficult to verify, or embedded in strong persuasion. Methodologically, the study adopts a structured preliminary review of selected peer-reviewed empirical studies and seminal theoretical works identified through keyword-based academic searches and backward reference checking. Studies were selected for their direct relevance to live streaming commerce, information transparency, consumer trust, food traceability, ethical marketing, consumer protection, and local food authenticity, and were synthesised thematically. The review argues that information transparency should be treated as more than simple disclosure; it includes clarity, completeness, accessibility, verifiability, interpretability, and accountability in a persuasive digital environment. Guided by the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) perspective, the review explains how transparent product, price, source, transaction, and cultural information may function as marketing stimuli that shape consumer evaluation, reduce uncertainty, and strengthen consumer trust. The paper proposes an Information Transparency-Trust Response Framework to guide future empirical studies of local specialty food brands in China's live streaming commerce context. The review contributes by consolidating fragmented literature and repositioning information transparency as both a digital marketing issue and a consumer protection issue.