Influencers (e.g., live streamers) earn gratuities from engaging customers, a phenomenon that we label as engagement monetization. Although scholars have advocated a process view of customer engagement, they tend to accentuate unidirectional transitions from low- to high-engagement-level states. This constrains influencers’ understanding of customer engagement, which in turn inhibits their ability to both trigger profitable states of engagement as well as prevent deteriorating states of engagement from manifesting. To this end, we extend extant literature by conceptualizing customer engagement as an emergent process that embodies engagement states and engagement transitions. Empirically, we conduct an illustrative study in the context of entertainment live streaming and subscribe to the Markov chain method to showcase how customer engagement transition can be modeled. Based on 91,148 engagement records, we scrutinize the effects of influencers’ scheduling strategy on engagement transitions and viewers’ gratuities using the Multilevel Linear Model (MLM). Findings yield practical implications for influencers in terms of how live streaming sessions can be strategically scheduled to bolster customer engagement and monetization opportunities.

有影响力的人（例如直播主播）从参与的客户中赚取小费，我们将这种现象称为参与货币化。尽管学者们提倡从流程的角度来看待客户参与度，但他们倾向于强调从低参与度状态到高参与度状态的单向转变。这限制了影响者对客户参与度的理解，进而抑制了他们触发有利可图的参与度状态以及防止出现恶化的参与度状态的能力。为此，我们通过将客户参与概念化为体现参与状态和参与转变的紧急过程来扩展现有文献。根据经验，我们在娱乐直播的背景下进行了说明性研究，并采用马尔可夫链方法来展示如何对客户参与度转变进行建模。基于 91,148 条参与记录，我们使用多级线性模型 (MLM) 仔细研究了影响者的日程安排策略对参与转变和观众小费的影响。研究结果对影响者产生了实际影响，即如何战略性地安排直播会议以增强客户参与度和盈利机会。