Influencer marketing: purchase intention and its antecedents
Marketing Intelligence & Planning
ISSN: 0263-4503
Article publication date: 9 August 2021
Issue publication date: 30 September 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This research explores the path that social media influencers affect target consumers to purchase a certain brand posted in their contents.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 510 Weibo users in China, the conceptual model is tested by structural equation modeling (SEM) in Lisrel 8.8 statistical software.
Findings
This study examined that influencers' source characteristics stimulate consumers' positive attitudes (image satisfaction and/or advertising trust), in turn affect consumers' purchase intention. The expertise, originality and homophily of influencers positively affect two attitudes of consumers. The attractiveness only positively affects image satisfaction, and the interactivity only positively affects advertising trust. Besides that, this study also verified the mediating role of consumers' self-brand connection between the two attitudes and purchase intentions.
Originality/value
By distinguishing two different attitudes of consumers and incorporating consumers' self-brand connection, we proposed a complete theoretical framework for the overall mechanism of influence marketing based on communication–persuasion matrix.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research has been funded by the Social Science Fund of Chongqing Federation of Social Science Circles (grant number 2019YBGL065).
Citation
Li, Y. and Peng, Y. (2021), "Influencer marketing: purchase intention and its antecedents", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 39 No. 7, pp. 960-978. https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-04-2021-0104
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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