SNS users' para-social relationships with celebrities: social media effects on purchase intentions

Abstract

In this study, the authors investigate factors that influence para-social relationships between social network service (SNS) users and celebrities and the effects on users' purchase intentions. The study shows that SNS use and para-social relationships with celebrities are positively related. User/celebrity para-social relationships and celebrity reputation also show positive relationships with purchase intentions. Gender differences affect relationships between celebrity reputation, para-social relationships and purchase intentions. The results imply that new media, particularly SNS, encourages para-social relationships, and that para-social relationships and celebrity reputations persuade SNS users to make purchase decisions. The study shows that new media stimulates consumer desires, and the new SNS environment gives celebrities more power to affect purchase decisions.

Pop culture, destination images, and visit intentions: Theory and research on travel motivations of Chinese and Russian tourists

“…Within the tourism industry, emphasis on pop culture involvement is increasing more than ever due to the development of modern media (Gross & Brown, 2006;Kim, Ko, & Kim, 2015). Consumers can now access pop culture more easily and they can also easily find cases showing the effect of pop culture on tourism.…”

Fostering Parasocial Relationships with Celebrities on Social Media: Implications for Celebrity Endorsement

“…For instance, Lim and Kim () found that consumers who developed parasocial interactions with TV shopping hosts are likely to have higher levels of shopping satisfaction. Similarly, consumers were found to have positive attitudes toward products (Knoll, Schramm, Schallhorn, & Wynistorf, ) and strong intentions to purchase them (Kim, Ko, & Kim, ) when the products were endorsed by celebrities with whom consumers had built parasocial relationships. Labrecque () examined parasocial relationships between consumers and brands, and found that parasocial relationships lead to brand loyalty and willingness to provide personal information to brands in Web site forms and customer surveys.…”

Antecedents of Microblogging Users' Purchase Intention Toward Ce-lebrities' Merchandise: Perspectives of Virtual Community and Fan Economy

“…Weibo (referred to as "Chinese Twitter") has reached a total of 486 million monthly active users by the end of June 2019 and gradually transformed from a simple microblogging platform to the biggest integrated SNS in China [25] . And notable features of Weibo, include 1) supporting interactive two-way communication with celebrities; 2) diverse and customized celebrities marketing strategies; 3) "Super Topics" (the specific function of Weibo that demonstrates equally shared hot debated subject online that help users to have real-time immersive communication with other like-minded members [27,29] ) and thriving virtual communities [26] .…”

“…Particularly, the quality and frequency of commenting and continuing interaction with a celebrity can be indicators of celebrities' marketing power. If fans are interested in or attracted by the marketing messages on a celebrity's social media feed, they are likely to forward the post, which could snowball in user's community network, and subsequently boost the viral power and marketing impact of a celebrity [29] .…”