The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Purchase Intention and the Mediation Effect of Customer Attitude

Abstract

Social media influencers are first explored in the advertising field, particularly to create buzz in the younger markets and further expand social media coverage in businesses. This study is designed to investigate the effectiveness of social media influencers, focusing on source credibility, source attractiveness, product match-up, and meaning transfer. Consumer attitude is proposed to mediate between both the exogenous and endogenous relationships. Data collection was designed using the purposive sampling method and the dataset of 200 respondents was then analysed using PLS-SEM technique. All hypotheses are found to be supported except for source credibility. Mediating effects of consumer attitude are also determined. Implications, limitations, and suggestion for recommended research are further discussed.

Young Adult Malaysian Consumers’ Intention to Shop via Mobile Shopping Apps

“…Endorsers, either celebrities or social influencers, could be used in the promotional campaign to induce higher perceived hedonic values. The suitable endorsers will then influence consumer attitude and purchase intention (Lim, Mohd Radzol, Cheah & Wong, 2017), Furthermore, shopping app developers could alter users' habit that had been cultivated elsewhere by providing greater benefits in their apps than that of their competitors'.…”

Utilization of Online Influencers as an Experiential Marketing Tool: A Case of Instagram Micro-Celebrities

“…Online influencers are expected to deliver their positive opinions about products and services they experienced and approve it for a fee (Abidin, 2016, 87). Lim et al (2017) noted that there are four essential models in the literature to analyze consumers' perceptions about influencers as source credibility, source attractiveness, product match-up and meaning transfer. Source credibility -an important element of the process -which was initially been presented by Hovland and Weiss (1951), has been used to analyze celebrity testimonial advertising and celebrity approval (Seiler and Kucza, 2017, 3).…”

“…Credibility has a positive effect on the persuasiveness of a message (Harmon and Coney, 1982, 256). Trustworthiness and expertise are two crucial factors argued in this phenomenon (Lim et al, 2017). Trustworthiness is crucial because it represents believability and honesty (Erdoğan, 1999, 293), reliability, being dependable, sincere and trustworthy (Ahmed, Farooq and Iqbal, 2014).…”

“…Also, since they are expert on the topic, people perceive them as persuasive (Aaker and Myers, 1987). As a result, trustworthy and expertise together result in higher level of acceptance of the message so more credible influencers are perceived more influential and more effective on their followers' behaviors (Lim et al 2017).…”

“…The social learning theory purposes that an individual's intention to buy products is greatly affected by the effectiveness of social media influencers through source credibility, source attractiveness, product match-up and meaning transfer issues (Lim et al, 2017). A research which examined the relationship between using Instagram and the personal feelings of its users revealed that they follow fashion and sociability as well as Instagram may create higher level of brand community commitment and engagement (Ariño, Flavián and Sánchez, 2017, 370).…”