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Growing evidence asserts that individuals are inclined to buy impulsively in the social commerce environment due to interactive elements. However, extant literature does not reveal the influence of emerging digital celebrities and their communities on impulse buying, although users may encounter them synchronously. Hence, this study explores the impact of parasocial relationships and social climate on impulse buying following the stimulus–organism–response framework with the incorporation of the urge to buy. Besides, this research investigates the role of hedonic and utility gratification-seeking behavior in parasocial relationships following uses and gratifications theory (UGT).

An empirical research study was conducted on Facebook, and data were collected from Pakistani users who followed digital celebrities. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was employed to analyze the valid data of 231 respondents.

The results indicate that integrated constructs significantly influence impulse buying with complementary partial mediation of urge to buy. Besides, social climate significantly interacts the relationship of parasocial relationships and impulse buying. Further, passing time, enjoyment and information seeking has a significant impact on parasocial relationships, except for self-presentation.

This research provides key knowledge to comprehend the overall phenomenon of emerging digital celebrities through the integration of their parasocial relationships and the social climate of their communities, with potential intervening and interaction effects. This study also unveils the role of gratifications in building digital celebrities' parasocial relationships.

This study aims to examine the effectiveness (ad attitude, brand attitude and purchase intention) of celebrity endorsement in the form of explicit vs embedded advertising in the context of different new media (digital and social media).

An online experiment was conducted using a 2 (digital media vs social media) × 2 (explicit vs embedded celebrity endorsement) between-subjects design. Participants (n = 137) were exposed to a fictitious piece of online branded content using celebrity endorsement. Four experimental treatments were generated as the authors manipulated the new media and the explicitness of the celebrity endorsement in the ad piece.

The main result highlights that using social media (vs digital media) enhances celebrity endorsement's indirect influence on purchase intention via the serial mediating role of ad attitude and brand attitude, regardless of the explicitness of the message. In terms of the message format, no differences were observed.

The differential power of using celebrities across different new media to promote brands suggests the importance of interactivity in the context of celebrity endorsement. Additionally, the absence of differences in terms of message formats would show that the presence of the celebrity per se has a powerful effect.

Firms using new media to deliver their brand communication, including celebrity endorsements, can better understand the different capabilities of social media and digital media.

In the context in which empirical research equates new media with social media, this study provides an examination of celebrity endorsement assuming the complexity of the celebrity endorsement ion the current scenario: different types of new media and different types of message formats.

Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar la efectividad (en términos de actitud a la pieza publicitaria, actitud hacia la marca e intención de compra) del celebrity endorsement en la forma de publicidad explícita versus incrustada en el contexto de diferentes tipos de nuevos medios (medios digitales y redes sociales).

Se llevó a cabo un experimento en línea utilizando un diseño between-subjects de 2 (medios digitales vs. redes sociales) × 2 (apoyo explícito vs. incrustado de celebridades). Los participantes (n = 137) fueron expuestos a una pieza online ficticia de contenido de marca en línea que utilizaba celebrity endorsement. Se generaron cuatro tratamientos experimentales, en los cuales los autores manipularon el uso de nuevos medios y el nivel de explicitación del celebrity endorsement en la pieza publicitaria.

Los resultados principales ponen de manifiesto que el uso de las redes sociales (vs. medios digitales) mejora la influencia indirecta del celebrity endorsement en la intención de compra a través del rol de mediación en serie de la actitud hacia la pieza publicitaria y la actitud hacia la marca, independientemente del nivel de explicitación del mensaje. En cuanto al formato del mensaje, no se observaron diferencias.

El poder diferencial del uso de celebridades en diferentes tipos de medios nuevos para promocionar marcas sugiere la importancia de la interactividad en el contexto del celebrity endorsement. Además, la ausencia de diferencias a nivel del formato del mensaje muestra que la presencia de la celebridad per se tiene un efecto relevante.

Según los resultados de los autores, las empresas que utilizan nuevos medios para su comunicación de marca, incluyendo celebrity endorsements, pueden comprender mejor las diferentes capacidades de las redes sociales y los medios digitales.

En un contexto donde la investigación empírica equipara los nuevos medios con las redes sociales, este estudio proporciona un examen del celebrity endorsement considerando la complejidad de la técnica en el actual escenario: diferentes tipos de nuevos medios y diferentes tipos de formatos de mensajes.

This study explores identity signaling used by an emerging class of knowledge celebrities in China – Knowledge Wanghong – who sell knowledge products on online platforms. Because identity signaling may involve constructing unique online identities and controlling over product-related and seller-related characteristics, the purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to uncover different online identities of knowledge celebrities; and (2) to examine the extent to which the online identity type is associated with their product-related characteristics, seller-related characteristics and sales performance.

A unique data set was collected from a Chinese leading pay-for-knowledge platform – Zhihu – which featured the online profiles of tens of thousands of knowledge celebrities. Online identity types were derived from their self-edited content using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling. Thereafter, their product-related characteristics, seller-related characteristics and respective sales performance were analyzed across different identity types using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple-group linear regression.

Knowledge celebrities are clustered into four distinctive online identities: Mentor, Broker, Storyteller and Geek. Product-related characteristics, sell-related characteristics and sales performance varied across four different identities. Additionally, the online identity type moderated the relationships among their product-related characteristics, sell-related characteristics and sales performance.

As emerging-phenomenon-based research, this study extends related literature by using the notion of identity signaling to analyze a peculiar group of online celebrities who are setting an important trend in the pay-for-knowledge model in China.

The purpose of this study is to understand the individualism/collectivism and masculine/feminine cultural aspects presented in the endorsement content made and shared by digital influencers on Instagram.

The authors conducted a cross-cultural qualitative study, collecting endorsement posts published by six fitness mega-influencers from Brazil and the USA. A total of 147 posts were assessed through the semiotic analysis of still images.

The authors identified that, in collectivist and feminine cultures, endorsements focus on the emotional competence of the digital influencer and the content aims at interaction, whereas in individualistic and masculine cultures, the posts highlight the informational competence of the influencer and the content focuses on the endorser's self-promotion.

This study examined only two of the Hofstede's six cultural dimensions, limiting its scope. However, this study established a model that shows that the appeal of content posted by the influencer depends on individualism–collectivism dimension and the post symbolism is a result of the masculinity–femininity dimension. This study also identified the spectrum of appeal in messages and the role of advertising in building the influencer's narrative.

The authors identified cultural traits as an important criterion of congruence when choosing a brand endorser and as an element that impacts the marketing communication strategy in a social media environment. Therefore, this study suggests that organizations consider the influencer's culture as a criterion for choosing endorsers, which will guide the digital content strategy suited to the campaign's target audience.

This study emphasizes the illusory effectiveness of the internet in the search for convergence, establishing that the digital environment still requires socialization that brings feelings of cultural engagement, especially through new social actors arising from virtual media. Still on the social side, this study suggests the reflection of the economic characteristics of a country together with its cultural dimensions.

This study fills a research gap from previous studies that provide empirical evidence on the impacts of cultural differences on social media behaviors. This research adds the impact of the influencer in this virtual environment to restructure the communication and information model, mold it according to the culture, acting as indicators of social transformation resulting from technological advances. This research still innovates by proposing a new methodological approach for semiotic analysis in digital media.

Digital influencers, besides being a personal branding phenomenon, constitute, nowadays, important partners for brands in the digital environment. Despite the benefits for both parties, the brand and the endorser, there is a risk when the individuals or the brand take part in some scandal or questionable activity, which causes a loss of credibility and reputation. The contagious effect of personal or corporate brand crisis with the partners is well reported in the literature. However, there are no studies about such occurrence in the digital environment, considering that the phenomenon of digital influence has some particularities differing from traditional celebrity endorsement. This chapter focuses on the research of the consequences of a change in the credibility of influencers or brands, after the occurrence of a negative situation, and the way in which this change affects the two parties involved, the brand and the influencer. We conducted a netnographic study of the social media pages of three digital influencers and the social media pages of a recognized fast fashion brand recognized in the digital world. We analyzed 1500 social media comments from their audiences and found that influencers suffer from a loss in sympathy and credibility by scandals while crisis communication strategies in corporate brands can prevent such damages. Strategic implications for brand managers and digital influencers managing their endorsements are addressed in the discussion.