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This paper aims to explore how parasocial relationships with Korean celebrity endorsers on social media result in brand credibility and loyalty.

The participants were identified through a purposive sampling approach, and they were composed of consumers who purchased Korean-celebrity-endorsed products and services of a telecommunications company. The hypothesized relationships were gauged using a predictive approach as a research design via partial least squares (PLS) path modeling.

The findings show that all hypothesized relationships are supported. In particular, social media interaction was found to have a substantial, positive and significant effect on self-disclosure. Moreover, self-disclosure has a considerably significant and direct effect on parasocial relationships and was found to indirectly affect the link between social media interactions and parasocial relationships. The results further reveal that social media interactions and parasocial relationships predict source trustworthiness, leading to brand credibility and loyalty.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present undertaking is the only study that examined how parasocial relationships on social media are built when foreign celebrities, in this case, the well-known Korean popular group BTS, endorse telecommunications products and services.

La presente investigación explora cómo las relaciones parasociales con celebridades coreanas en las redes sociales generan credibilidad de marca y lealtad.

Los participantes se identificaron mediante un muestreo intencional y estaban compuestos por consumidores que compraban productos y servicios de una empresa de telecomunicaciones avalados por famosos coreanos. Las relaciones hipotetizadas se midieron utilizando un enfoque predictivo como diseño de investigación mediante un modelo de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS).

Los resultados muestran que todas las relaciones hipotetizadas se confirman. En particular, la interacción con los medios sociales tiene un efecto sustancial, positivo y significativo en la autodivulgación. Además, la autodivulgación tiene un efecto considerablemente significativo y directo en las relaciones parasociales y se descubrió que afecta indirectamente al vínculo entre las interacciones en los medios sociales y las relaciones parasociales. Los resultados revelan además que las interacciones en los medios sociales y las relaciones parasociales predicen la fiabilidad de la fuente, lo que conduce a la credibilidad de la marca y a la lealtad.

El presente trabajo es el único estudio que examina cómo se construyen las relaciones parasociales en los medios sociales cuando celebridades extranjeras, en este caso, el conocido grupo popular coreano BTS, promocionan productos y servicios de telecomunicaciones.

本研究探讨了在社交媒体上与韩国名人的寄生关系如何建立品牌可信度和忠诚度。

通过目的性抽样确定参与者, 包括购买韩国名人代言的电信公司产品和服务的消费者。研究设计使用偏最小二乘法（PLS）模型对假设关系进行预测测量。

研究结果表明, 所有假设关系都得到了证实。特别是, 社交媒体互动对自我披露具有实质性的、积极的和显著的影响。此外, 自我披露对寄生关系也有明显的直接影响, 并被发现间接影响社交媒体互动与寄生关系之间的联系。研究结果进一步揭示了社会化媒体互动和寄生关系能够预测来源的可信度, 从而提高品牌可信度和忠诚度。

研究结果表明, 所有假设的关系都得到了证实。特别是, 社交媒体互动对自我披露具有实质性的、积极的和显著的影响。此外, 自我披露对寄生关系也有明显的直接影响, 并被发现间接影响社交媒体互动和寄生关系之间的联系。研究结果进一步揭示了社会化媒体互动和寄生关系能够预测来源的可信度, 从而提高品牌可信度和忠诚度。

本文是唯一一篇研究外国名人在社交媒体上推广电信产品和服务时如何建立寄生社会关系的研究。

This study aims to examine the influence of five sports celebrity personality (SCP) attributes – attractiveness, expertise level, credibility, trustworthiness and character – on consumers' purchase intentions (CPI). It identifies celebrity brand congruence (CBC), endorsed brand celebrity (EBC) and transfer of brand image (TBI) as antecedents of CPI.

The purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data from 838 respondents. This study developed a multidimensional construct for SCP. The covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to examine the relationship between SCP and the endorsed brand. The study used CBC as a mediator and EBC and TBI as partial mediators. The direct and indirect effect of SCP on CPI was investigated using CBC, EBC and TBI as mediators.

This study supports the importance of three antecedents (i.e. CBC, EBC and TBI) on CPI. It finds congruence across SCP and CBC variables, and a positive impact of SCP on EBC and TBI variables. Also, it exhibits a significant direct effect of CBC on EBC and TBI, whereas the direct effect of CBC on CPI is not substantial. The indirect effect of CBC through mediating variables EBC and TBI found to be significant.

This study concludes that sports celebrity endorsement is essential to transfer the positive celebrity image to the endorsed brand image. However, it is not merely sufficient to influence the buyers' purchase conduct; the brand credibility additionally assumes to take a role in changing their behavioral intentions.

This study contributes to the sports marketing literature by its novelty in analyzing the sports celebrity personality at a multidimensional level. It uses SCP's different attributes as one construct and studies its impact on CPI by taking CBC, EBC and TBI as mediators. The results of this study equip sports management professionals with the knowledge to build better long-term relationships with consumers.

This article aims to present a model linking loyalty intention, brand commitment, brand credibility and brand awareness. The model shows the mediating role of brand commitment and brand credibility on loyalty intention. The researchers also investigated the changes in the given model under high and low involvement conditions, explicitly considering involvement as between-subject differences rather than between-product differences. The change in customer loyalty intention under varying levels of product involvement is a highly debated topic among researchers.

The model was tested on a sample of 318 executives who have bought and are using deodorants. The respondents had given responses for loyalty intentions, brand commitment, brand credibility, brand awareness and involvement towards the brand of deodorant that they use. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the tool for measurement of constructs and multi-group structural equation modelling for testing the hypotheses and comparing the nested models.

The difference between high and low involvement groups in the given model supports the hierarchy-of-effects view. We found that attitude precedes behaviour for highly involved individuals but followed a different hierarchy among the individuals with low involvement.

This research investigates the proposed model for a single product category and so the scope of generalisability is limited to the product selected. This research has considered behavioural intention rather than the behaviour in this study.

The study demonstrates the differences in the hierarchy-of-effects among low/high involvement groups. Thus, the findings will have an impact on the approach of practitioners, as different strategies will have to be adopted for the enhancement of loyalty intentions based on the difference in perceived involvement of consumers.

This paper shows the need to differently target consumers with different levels of perceived involvement, within the same product class and thus between-subject involvement can be used as a segmentation variable.

This paper aims to model and estimate how celebrity chief executive officers (CEOs) credibility (i.e. expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness) is related to their brand image (i.e. functional, sensory/visual). This paper further examines the effects of consumer materialism on both celebrity CEOs’ credibility and the image of their brand.

A total of 260 participants knowledgeable of CEOs and their corresponding brands completed an online questionnaire in a cross-sectional study. The data were analyzed through covariance-based structural equation modeling.

Celebrity CEOs’ expertise and attractiveness are positively related to both functional and sensory/visual images of their brands. Results also demonstrate the positive effect of materialism on both celebrity CEOs’ credibility and brand image.

The research was conducted in one country (France) using a cross-sectional design. Additional studies in other settings or countries should be carried out to establish the generalizability of results and strengthen causality inferences.

CEOs need to understand and manage their key role as celebrities, given the direct influence they may have on consumer brand perceptions and behavior.

This study refines the relationship between celebrity CEOs’ credibility and brand image. It is the first to introduce and validate the effect of consumer materialism on the perception of celebrity CEOs.

The ever-growing popularity of social media platforms is evidence of consumers engaging emotionally with these brands. Given the prominence of social media in society, the purpose of this paper is to understand social media platforms from a “brand” perspective through examining the effect of consumers’ emotional attachment on social media consumer-based brand equity (CBBE).

This paper develops a model that outlines how emotional brand attachment with social media explains social media CBBE via shaping consumer perceptions of brand credibility and consumer satisfaction. An online survey of 340 Australian social media consumers provided data for empirical testing. The inclusion of multiple context-relevant covariates and use of a method-variance-adjusted data matrix, as well as an examination of an alternative model, adds robustness to the results.

The findings of this paper support the conceptual model, and the authors identify strong relationships between the focal variables. A phantom model analysis explicates specific indirect effects of emotional brand attachment on CBBE. The authors also find support for a fully mediated effect of emotional brand attachment on social media brand equity. Further, they broaden the nomological network of emotional brand attachment, outlining key outcomes.

This paper offers a conceptual mechanism (a chain-of-effects) of how consumer emotional brand attachment with social media brands translates into social media CBBE. It also finds that a brand’s credibility as well as its ability to perform against consumer expectations (i.e. satisfaction) are equally effective in translating emotional brand attachment into social media CBBE.

Social media brands are constantly challenged by rapid change and ongoing criticism over such issues as data privacy. The implications from this paper suggest that managers should make investments in creating (reinforcing) emotional connections with social media consumers, as this will favorably impact CBBE by way of a relational mechanism, that is, via enhancing credibility and consumer satisfaction.

Lately, social media in general has suffered from a crisis of trust in society. The enhanced credibility of social media brands resulting from consumers’ emotional attachments will potentially serve to enhance its acceptance as a credible form of media in society.

Social media platforms are often examined as brand-building platforms. This paper adopts a different perspective, examining social media platforms as brands per se and the effects of emotional attachments that consumers develop towards these. This paper offers valuable insights into how consumers’ emotional attachments drive vital brand judgments such as credibility and satisfaction, ultimately culminating into social media CBBE.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the synergistic effects of online multimedia by categorizing it into online broadcast media (OBM) and online interactive media (OIM).

The authors used an online experiment method to manipulate the online message stimuli level (online media synergy and online single media repetition).

The results revealed that participants exposed to message stimuli of online media synergy reported greater source credibility, cognitive responses (brand credibility and positive thoughts about the brand), attitude toward the brand and purchase intention. In online multimedia, source credibility influences attitude toward the brand through brand credibility and positive thoughts about the brand; in online single media repetition, source credibility influences attitude toward the brand through only brand credibility.

In addition, the relationship between online media synergy and marketing outcomes might be moderated by consumers’ goals and thought patterns, and future research could further explore the moderating effects of these variables.

This study contributes to media synergy research, assists marketing planners in their understanding of the importance of online media synergy and serves as a reference for marketing planners considering an integrated online marketing plan.

The current study investigated how the synergy of OBM and OIM influences message persuasiveness for consumers (cognitive responses, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay of brand experience and brand attitude and its influence on brand attitude. Specifically, it proposes that the relationship will be mediated by brand credibility.

The conceptual model is tested by estimating a structural equation model with survey data from a sample of new automobile users (n=405).

The analysis reveals a full mediation of brand credibility; that is, brand credibility is an underlying mechanism through which the effect of brand experience on brand attitude materializes. In addition, contrary to the general expectation, there was no direct effect of brand experience on brand attitude.

This study enables a new perspective on how experiential marketing underpins a brand’s influence on certain aspects of consumer behaviour. By elucidating the mediating role of brand credibility, this study adds to the understanding of how brand experience shapes brand credibility, leading to favourable brand attitude.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of product and customer dimensions in the contribution of brand experience to the formation of true brand loyalty. The dimensions included are brand credibility, affective commitment and involvement. Synthesising past studies, the researcher proposes brand credibility and affective commitment to mediate the relationship between brand experience and true brand loyalty. Furthermore, the researcher investigates the variation in hierarchical pattern, i.e. brand experience-brand credibility affective commitment-true brand loyalty, under different levels of involvement.

The variations in hierarchy were compared by design. The authors investigated the variations in hierarchy on the basis of products which belong to different level of involvement, on the basis of individual differences in involvement, and on the basis of the interaction of product involvement and subject involvement. Multi-group invariance tests in SEM were used to explore model variations.

The hierarchy-of-effect model was found to vary based on the level of product involvement, subject involvement and interaction involvement. Three patterns of hierarchy have been observed: the first pattern was observed in high-high groups (both product involvement and subject involvement were high), the second pattern was observed in low-low groups (both product and subject involvements were low) and the third pattern among high-low or low-high groups.

The variation observed highlights the need to segment the market by interaction involvement. This would be useful for managers engaged in building sustainable consumer-brand relationships.

This study considered the interaction of product approach and subject approach in defining involvement which is rarely attempted in research. The study also integrates the variations in the role of customer dimensions, namely involvement, brand credibility and affective commitment with the relationship between the central constructs brand experience and true brand loyalty. The variations observed are among a socio-economically homogeneous sample of respondents.

This study investigates how media brand knowledge, defined as a structural feature of the message, influences emotional and attentional responses to, and memory of, news messages.

Self-reports, facial electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography were used as indices of emotional valence, arousal and attention in response to 42 news messages, which varied along the valence and involvement dimensions and were framed with different media brands varying along the familiarity and credibility dimensions.

Compared to the no-brand condition, news framed with brands elicited more attention. The memory tests indicated that strong media brands override the effect of involvement in information encoding, whereas details of news presented with Facebook were not well encoded. However, the headlines of news framed with Facebook were well retrieved. In addition, negative and high-involvement news elicited higher arousal ratings and corrugator EMG activity. News framed with familiar and high-credibility brands elicited higher arousal ratings.

Relevant for both brand managers and audiences, the findings show that building credibility and familiarity both work as brand attributes to differentiate media brands and influence information processing.

The results highlight the importance of media brands in news reading: as a structural feature, the brand is used as a proxy to process the message content. The study contributes by investigating how the type of source influences the reception and encoding of the mediated information; by investigating the emotional effects of brands; and by confirming previous findings in media psychology literature.

This article proposes two studies to demonstrate the impact of three dimensions of perceived experiential advertising – cognitive/affective/sensory advertising, relate advertising and behavioural advertising – on consumer behaviour (brand credibility, affective commitment and emotions) in the banking sector.

For study 1, a total of 506 online panellists of a recognized Canadian research firm were asked to evaluate a local bank advertisement using an online self-reported questionnaire. For study 2, a total of 65 Canadian respondents recruited through Facebook and Google adverts were asked to watch two video advertisements (one more experiential and the other less experiential). After viewing the advertisements on a computer equipped with FaceReader software by Noldus, participants completed a short online questionnaire.

Using structural equations modelling, the first study shows that brand credibility explains the positive impact of perceived cognitive/affective/sensory advertising (complementary mediation) and perceived behavioural advertising (indirect mediation only) on affective commitment. The second study illustrates that the cognitive/affective/sensory dimension is more important for experiential advertising than experiential advertising. Employing FaceReader facial expression recognition software results indicate that the bank advertisement with a higher score of perceived cognitive/affective/sensory advertising produces a higher level of happiness among respondents.

Both studies provide new insights into perceived experiential advertising and the impact of the latter on consumers. Benefits to scholars and practitioners include an enhanced understanding of advertising effectiveness in the banking sector.