IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v144y2022icp264-277.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigating the mechanism through which consumers are “inspired by” social media influencers and “inspired to” adopt influencers’ exemplars as social defaults

Author

Listed:
  • (Chloe) Ki, Chung-Wha
  • Park, Sangsoo
  • Kim, Youn-Kyung

Abstract

Drawing on customer inspiration and social default theories, we investigated the mechanism by which consumers are “inspired by” social media influencers (SMIs) and “inspired to” adopt the SMIs’ exemplars as their own social defaults (standard default options that are socially desirable to like and follow). We investigated whether SMIs’ personality-determined traits [attractiveness (H1) and credibility (H2)] and content-determined traits [closeness (H3) and interactivity (H4)] led consumers to feel “inspired by” SMIs; whether consumers’ “inspired by” state led them to feel “inspired to” adopt the SMIs’ exemplars as their own social defaults (H5); and whether consumers’ “inspired to” state affected their behavioral and emotional responses: choice imitation (H6) and social glue (H7). To offer more nuanced implications, we examined whether the inspiration mechanism between consumers and SMIs differed between male and female consumers. We analyzed our model via SEM and probit regression analyses using survey data from 455 U.S. consumers’ responses.

Suggested Citation

  • (Chloe) Ki, Chung-Wha & Park, Sangsoo & Kim, Youn-Kyung, 2022. "Investigating the mechanism through which consumers are “inspired by” social media influencers and “inspired to” adopt influencers’ exemplars as social defaults," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 264-277.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:144:y:2022:i:c:p:264-277
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.01.071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322000832
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.01.071?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patti Williams & Aimee Drolet, 2005. "Age-Related Differences in Responses to Emotional Advertisements," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(3), pages 343-354, December.
    2. King, Robert Allen & Racherla, Pradeep & Bush, Victoria D., 2014. "What We Know and Don't Know About Online Word-of-Mouth: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 167-183.
    3. Audrezet, Alice & de Kerviler, Gwarlann & Guidry Moulard, Julie, 2020. "Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 557-569.
    4. Hinsch, Chris & Felix, Reto & Rauschnabel, Philipp A., 2020. "Nostalgia beats the wow-effect: Inspiration, awe and meaningful associations in augmented reality marketing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    5. Deniz Zeren & Nilüfer Gökdağlı, 2020. "Influencer Versus Celebrity Endorser Performance on Instagram," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: Androniki Kavoura & Efstathios Kefallonitis & Prokopios Theodoridis (ed.), Strategic Innovative Marketing and Tourism, pages 695-704, Springer.
    6. Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & Felix, Reto & Hinsch, Chris, 2019. "Augmented reality marketing: How mobile AR-apps can improve brands through inspiration," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 43-53.
    7. Joo, Dongoh & Woosnam, Kyle M. & Shafer, C. Scott & Scott, David & An, Soyoung, 2017. "Considering Tobler's first law of geography in a tourism context," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 350-359.
    8. Wang, Xuequn & Lin, Xiaolin & Spencer, Marilyn K., 2019. "Exploring the effects of extrinsic motivation on consumer behaviors in social commerce: Revealing consumers’ perceptions of social commerce benefits," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 163-175.
    9. Lin, Xiaolin & Wang, Xuequn, 2020. "Examining gender differences in people’s information-sharing decisions on social networking sites," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 45-56.
    10. Rook, Dennis W & Fisher, Robert J, 1995. "Normative Influences on Impulsive Buying Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(3), pages 305-313, December.
    11. Rehenuma Rahman, 2018. "Building brand awareness: The role of celebrity endorsement in advertisements," Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 363-384, October.
    12. Uzunoğlu, Ebru & Misci Kip, Sema, 2014. "Brand communication through digital influencers: Leveraging blogger engagement," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 592-602.
    13. Jennifer J. Argo & Kelley J. Main, 2008. "Stigma by Association in Coupon Redemption: Looking Cheap because of Others," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(4), pages 559-572, July.
    14. Mike Thelwall, 2008. "Social networks, gender, and friending: An analysis of MySpace member profiles," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 59(8), pages 1321-1330, June.
    15. Michal Carrington & Benjamin Neville & Gregory Whitwell, 2010. "Why Ethical Consumers Don’t Walk Their Talk: Towards a Framework for Understanding the Gap Between the Ethical Purchase Intentions and Actual Buying Behaviour of Ethically Minded Consumers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 139-158, November.
    16. Anita Pansari & V. Kumar, 2017. "Customer engagement: the construct, antecedents, and consequences," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 294-311, May.
    17. Young Eun Huh & Joachim Vosgerau & Carey K. Morewedge, 2014. "Social Defaults: Observed Choices Become Choice Defaults," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 746-760.
    18. Campbell, Colin & Farrell, Justine Rapp, 2020. "More than meets the eye: The functional components underlying influencer marketing," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 469-479.
    19. Bearden, William O & Etzel, Michael J, 1982. "Reference Group Influence on Product and Brand Purchase Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 9(2), pages 183-194, September.
    20. Imran Anwar MIR & Kashif Ur REHMAN, 2013. "Factors affecting consumer attitudes and intentions toward user-generated product content on YouTube," Management & Marketing, Economic Publishing House, vol. 8(4), Winter.
    21. Wang, Xia & Yu, Chunling & Wei, Yujie, 2012. "Social Media Peer Communication and Impacts on Purchase Intentions: A Consumer Socialization Framework," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 198-208.
    22. Ki, Chung-Wha (Chloe) & Cuevas, Leslie M. & Chong, Sze Man & Lim, Heejin, 2020. "Influencer marketing: Social media influencers as human brands attaching to followers and yielding positive marketing results by fulfilling needs," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    23. Burnkrant, Robert E & Cousineau, Alain, 1975. "Informational and Normative Social Influence in Buyer Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 2(3), pages 206-215, December.
    24. Krasnova, Hanna & Veltri, Natasha & Eling, Nicole & Buxmann, Peter, 2017. "Why men and women continue to use social networking sites: The role of gender differences," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 87720, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    25. Yoo, Boonghee & Donthu, Naveen, 2001. "Developing and validating a multidimensional consumer-based brand equity scale," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 1-14, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andonopoulos, Vasiliki & Lee, Jenny (Jiyeon) & Mathies, Christine, 2023. "Authentic isn't always best: When inauthentic social media influencers induce positive consumer purchase intention through inspiration," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    2. Wong, Amy & Wei, Joicey, 2023. "Persuasive cues and reciprocal behaviors in influencer-follower relationships: The mediating role of influencer defense," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Ooi, Keng-Boon & Lee, Voon-Hsien & Hew, Jun-Jie & Leong, Lai-Ying & Tan, Garry Wei-Han & Lim, Ai-Fen, 2023. "Social media influencers: An effective marketing approach?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cagri Yalkin & Richard Rosenbaum-Elliott, 2014. "Talking Fashion in Female Friendship Groups: Negotiating the Necessary Marketplace Skills and Knowledge," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 301-331, June.
    2. Conde, Rita & Casais, Beatriz, 2023. "Micro, macro and mega-influencers on instagram: The power of persuasion via the parasocial relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Lianren Wu & Jinjie Li & Jiayin Qi & Deli Kong & Xu Li, 2021. "The Role of Opinion Leaders in the Sustainable Development of Corporate-Led Consumer Advice Networks: Evidence from a Chinese Travel Content Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-20, October.
    4. Cheung, Man Lai & Leung, Wilson K.S. & Aw, Eugene Cheng-Xi & Koay, Kian Yeik, 2022. "“I follow what you post!†: The role of social media influencers’ content characteristics in consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs)," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    5. Pangarkar, Aniruddha & Patel, Jayesh & Kumar, Sampath K., 2023. "Drivers of eWOM engagement on social media for luxury consumers: Analysis, implications, and future research directions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Zofia Saternus & Patrick Weber & Oliver Hinz, 2022. "The effects of advertisement disclosure on heavy and light Instagram users," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1351-1372, September.
    7. Khadija Adnan & Noor Amjad & Ayesha Iftikhar & Asma Nisar, 2023. "Study of the Effect of Influencer Marketing on Consumer Purchase Intention with Medators Brand Awareness and Brand Reputation: Organic Skin Care Products in Pakistan," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 9(2), pages 124-133.
    8. Robert Zniva & Wolfgang J. Weitzl & Christina Lindmoser, 2023. "Be constantly different! How to manage influencer authenticity," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1485-1514, September.
    9. Koorank Beheshti, Mohammadali & Gopinath, Mahesh & Ashouri, Sama & Zal, Saeed, 2023. "Does polarizing personality matter in influencer marketing? Evidence from Instagram," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    10. Krystyna Mazurek-Lopacinska & Magdalena Sobocinska, 2021. "Social Media in Marketing Activities of Enterprises in the Light of the Analysis of Empirical Research Results," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4B), pages 647-658.
    11. Wang, Le & Luo, Xin (Robert) & Li, Han, 2022. "Envy or conformity? An empirical investigation of peer influence on the purchase of non-functional items in mobile free-to-play games," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 308-324.
    12. Schnack, Alexander & Wright, Malcolm J. & Holdershaw, Judith L., 2021. "Does the locomotion technique matter in an immersive virtual store environment? – Comparing motion-tracked walking and instant teleportation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    13. Ganesh Dash & Chetan Sharma & Shamneesh Sharma, 2023. "Sustainable Marketing and the Role of Social Media: An Experimental Study Using Natural Language Processing (NLP)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    14. Kee-Young Kwahk & Byoungsoo Kim, 2017. "Effects of social media on consumers’ purchase decisions: evidence from Taobao," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 11(4), pages 803-829, December.
    15. Poushneh, Atieh, 2021. "How close do we feel to virtual product to make a purchase decision? Impact of perceived proximity to virtual product and temporal purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    16. Zhuomin Shi & Zaoying Kuang & Ning Yang, 2017. "Why it is hard to explain Chinese face?—FACE measurement models and its influence on ecological product preference," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-22, December.
    17. Zheng Shen, 2024. "Shall brands create their own virtual influencers? A comprehensive study of 33 virtual influencers on Instagram," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Hemant C. Sashittal & Avan R. Jassawalla, 2020. "The personal influence of Instagram bloggers on consumer–brand interactions: brands as tribal artifacts," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(6), pages 679-690, November.
    19. Zafar, Abaid Ullah & Shahzad, Mohsin & Ashfaq, Muhammad & Shahzad, Khuram, 2023. "Forecasting impulsive consumers driven by macro-influencers posts: Intervention of followers' flow state and perceived informativeness," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    20. Fong, Cher-Min & Chang, Hsing-Hua Stella & Lin, Mong-Ching & Chen, I-Hung, 2022. "Reexamining emerging market animosity toward western developed countries: A social dilemma in physical retailing consumption under normative influence," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:144:y:2022:i:c:p:264-277. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.