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Despite the increasing popularity of influencer marketing, there exists a lack of understanding of how content created by social media influencers stimulates the pre-purchase behaviour of followers. Based on the stimulus-organism-response framework, this paper aims to address this lacuna by examining how influencer-created content affects the willingness of followers to search for more information related to the posted product.

A cross-sectional research design uses a web-based questionnaire among Instagram users in Sri Lanka. Structural equation modelling with analysis of moment structures 27 and SPSS PROCESS macro are used for hypothesis testing.

Findings indicate that the commercial orientation of influencer-created content reduces follower trustworthiness towards them and the perceived credibility of the content. Mediation results demonstrate that the commercial orientation of influencer-created content negatively affects follower willingness to search for more information related to the posted product through trustworthiness and perceived credibility.

When adopting influencer marketing to stimulate information search behaviour, marketing practitioners should carefully examine the commercial orientation of the content of the messages posted by social media influencers to maintain high levels of follower trustworthiness towards the influencer and positive follower credibility perceptions of the message.

This paper adds to influencer marketing literature by demonstrating the underlying process through which the commercial orientation of influencer-created content impacts follower willingness to search for product-related information.

Drawing on insights from social influence theory, the MAIN model of digital media affordances and the literature on the attention economy, this study aims to investigate how social media influencers’ community and content strategy contribute to follower engagement behavior in the presence of competition.

This study used a web-scraped data set of Instagram influencers. It measured community strategy using influencers’ number of followers, number of following and breadth of interest; content strategy using modality type and number of posts; competition using number of influencers operating in the same primary domain of interest; and follower engagement behavior using number of likes and comments. A negative binomial regression model was estimated to test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings reveal that elements of influencers’ community and content strategies, such as number of followers, modality type and number of posts, influence follower engagement behavior. Similarly, competition significantly influences follower engagement behavior both independently and by interacting with influencers’ community and content strategy.

The findings offer insight for brands to identify suitable influencers for partnerships. For instance, brands can judge influencers’ suitability for partnership based on how many followers they have, how many posts they share and how many competitors they have. Further, the findings offer insight for influencers on how they can drive follower engagement behavior by managing their social media community and content.

This study develops an integrated model of factors that determine follower engagement behavior for social media influencers. The findings emphasize influencers’ strategy as the primary driver of follower engagement behavior. Extant studies focus on followers’ motivation and perception to explain follower engagement behavior while the role of influencers’ strategy is underplayed.

Considering the growth of the at-home smart technology industry and the increasing power of social media influencers, this study aims to examine how influencer endorsements affect individuals’ attitudes and trial intentions toward smart technology products.

An online experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of follower number and expertise domain of influencers and the trust propensity of individuals on their attitudinal and behavioral responses to influencer endorsements of smart technology products. The moderated mediation effect of perceived credibility was further examined.

The results demonstrated that individuals with lower trust propensity responded more positively to a microinfluencer with fewer followers and a specific area of expertise, which led to favorable attitudes and increased intention to try a smart technology product. However, the expertise domain was not a significant factor for the megainfluencer condition with a more extensive follower base. Interestingly, the interaction effects were not observed for individuals with higher trust propensity.

The results of this research provide practical implications for marketers who look for effective strategies for influencer marketing by demonstrating the significant impact of source-related cues, including follower number and expertise domain.

Based on the modality, agency, interactivity and navigability; source credibility; and persuasion knowledge models, this research explains how source-related cues of influencers affect credibility judgment, attitude formation and trial intentions for new technology products and how trust propensity as a personal dispositional factor varies the relationship.

The purpose of this study is to address these questions. Word-of-mouth (WOM) is increasingly important in business-to-business (B2B) decision-making. Yet, research on this topic is rather limited, and often borrows from business-to-consumer (B2C) WOM literature. The question remains as to whether these assumptions realistically occur in B2B WOM. Specifically, this study explores the following questions: What value does B2B WOM have? Why do social media influencers in B2B engage in WOM? What type(s) of social media influencers spread WOM in B2B?

To address these questions, this study adopts a qualitative research strategy. This study focuses on industry analysts in information technology markets who often influence the buying decisions of customers through their expertise and recommendations of technology solutions. Based on interviews with these influencers, this study explicates B2B WOM, an area the authors know much less of in comparison to B2C WOM.

This study reveals differences in who spreads WOM within B2B, their roles, key features of their content and how they spread WOM. Second, this study demonstrates the types of actors spreading WOM in B2B in relation to the type of WOM and how it actually influences B2B markets.

This study broadens the current definition of WOM and, specifically, showcases WOM not only as amplifying messages but as a means to co-create the market itself with vendors and clients. This research offers several contributions to the B2B WOM literature and influencer practice.

This paper aims to present a mechanism that explains how followers become loyal to social media influencers. It suggests influencer interactivity as a unique feature of influencer brands and investigates how it affects influencer authenticity, emotional attachment, and thus brand loyalty.

A cross-sectional survey of 282 social media users was conducted to estimate the conceptual model. Participants were asked to respond to the survey questions based on their perceptions of a specific influencer they follow on social media. The relationships among variables were tested via structural equation modeling.

The findings show that influencer interactivity is positively related to influencer authenticity and emotional attachment. Influencer authenticity mediates the effect of interactivity on emotional attachment and directly affects brand trust. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that followers’ emotional attachment to influencer brands increases brand loyalty through brand trust.

This study is the first to approach influencers as a brand, rather than a brand endorser. Specifically, this study conceptualizes the influencer brand’s interactivity and finds a link between influencer interactivity and the followers’ perception of influencer authenticity. It discusses why influencer interactivity and authenticity play key roles in shaping influencer brand equity. This study contributes to both the human brands and the influencer marketing literature by proposing a model to understand how the brand equity of the influencer brand is formed.

Internet celebrities have become key resources for consumers making purchase decisions. An increasing number of internet celebrities have begun to exert their influence by creating self-branded products. This study aims to examine the antecedents of consumer attitudes and purchase intentions towards internet celebrity self-brands by integrating cognitive consistency theory, cue utilisation theory and the literature on brand authenticity and celebrity involvement.

Two sub-samples of different social media brand communities were collected via online surveys of consumers with experience purchasing targeted internet celebrity self-brands. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data.

The results of the two sub-samples provide convergent evidence that brand–consumer congruence, brand authenticity and internet celebrity involvement have positive correlations with consumer attitudes towards internet celebrity self-brands, which then positively correlate with purchase intentions in both psychological (Sub-sample 1) and social (Sub-sample 2) brand communities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to develop a comprehensive model of consumers’ attitudes towards internet celebrity self-brands, which predict purchase intentions. The model is empirically tested in different social media brand communities, and the convergent results show the power of the proposed model. Internet celebrity involvement is proposed as a key driver of brand attitudes, which has received little attention. We conceptualise internet celebrity involvement and develop a scale to measure it. Based on the findings, we propose strategies to improve the marketing effectiveness of internet celebrity self-brands.

This study aims to introduce, explicate, offer a framework and provide future research directions for a phenomenon herein named rogue marketing. Rogue marketing is explored vis-à-vis a phenomenon that occurred over the summer of 2019 with a new product category, hard seltzers. It is proposed that rogue marketing occurs when an unaffiliated individual creates and posts an informal message about a brand on social media that becomes viral. Although the post is not funded or endorsed by the company that owns the brand, reaching viral status results in free and unexpected advertising (positive or negative).

Rogue marketing is first explored through a comparative analysis with company produced advertisements. Then, the company’s response to rogue marketing is gauged through both qualitative and quantitative data. The sample of 210 respondents was recruited from students enrolled in college hospitality courses and through posts made on social media.

Rogue marketing is found to be somewhat more compelling than company produced advertisements and those who found the rogue marketing message more compelling had stronger sentiments regarding the company’s response.

This exploratory study of rogue marketing provides a conceptualization and starting framework for future research concerning this phenomenon.

Rogue marketing is a new phenomenon and is distinct from influencer marketing and viral marketing in its characteristics. Additionally, the company’s response to rogue marketing messages may influence behavioral outcomes.

Social media pose serious challenges to information evaluation, which can make credibility evaluation more difficult compared to other information resources. As a result, this paper aims to explore related challenges and research directions to put forth a set of criteria practical for actual users in their decision-making.

Related literature in such disciplines as information, communication and media sciences were carefully searched and assessed. Once challenges and research directions were identified, a literature coding approach was considered to design a conceptual framework incorporating the main criteria used for evaluating information found from social media.

Some areas of consideration such as political concerns, health information, organizational issues and purchasing behavior are among the main challenges inevitable in evaluating current social media information. The relative importance of credibility criteria varies from study to study depending on factors such as the characteristics of the participants, the type of the source and the type of information.

A conceptual framework developed including four main dimensions of the information source, information presentation, information credibility and decision-related issues as a set of criteria useful for the decision-making of social media users when evaluating information.

The literature review and the conceptual framework incorporate a set of most important criteria for exploring the credibility evaluation of social media information, which are also useful for future related studies.