How influencers’ credibility on Instagram is perceived by consumers and its impact on purchase intention

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the perception Instagram users, in other words consumers, have of influencers they follow on Instagram. Consumer perceived credibility of influencers, and its impact on the purchase intention, is therefore studied. This dissertation aims to highlight which credibility dimensions better explain the purchase intention. Gender is also explored to verify behavior differences between female and male consumers. To better analyze the perceived credibility of influencers and purchase intention, scales previously developed were applied and adapted as proposed by Ohanian (1990) and Dodds, Monroe & Grewal (1991), respectively. The present study is exploratory and quantitative. It was implemented through an online survey, where only active Instagram users that follow one or more influencers on the platform were selected. Overall, 285 valid responses were collected. The results of the present study indicate that perceived “attractiveness” and “trustworthiness” of influencers are the dimensions of credibility that better explain consumers’ purchase intention. In what concerns gender differences, it is verified that more female than male consumers are influenced by perceived trustworthiness. The developed model aims to support brands and marketers in better understanding the effects perceived credibility of influencers has on consumption, and of its impact in purchase intention.O propósito desta tese é compreender as percepções que os utilizadores do Instagram, que neste caso são os consumidores, têm para interagir com influenciadores no Instagram. Desta forma, é estudado o impacto que a credibilidade percebida pelos consumidores nestes Influenciadores tem na intenção de compra. Esta dissertação visa destacar quais os tipos de credibilidade que melhor explicam a intenção de compra. Os dois géneros dos consumidores são também explorados, de modo a verificar se há diferenças no comportamento entre os homens e mulheres. Para compreender melhor o impacto que os influenciadores têm nas percepções de credibilidade dos consumidores e na intenção de compra, foram utilizadas e adaptadas escalas previamente propostas por Ohanian (1990) e Dodds, Monroe & Grewal (1991), respectivamente. O presente estudo é exploratório e quantitativo. Na fase de recolha de dados foi feito um questionário online, onde foram selecionados apenas os utilizadores do Instagram que se consideram activos e que seguem um ou mais influenciadores na plataforma. No total foram obtidas 285 respostas válidas. Os resultados obtidos neste estudo indicam que a “atractividade” e a “confiabilidade” percebida pelos consumidores nos influenciadores são as dimensões de credibilidade que melhor explicam a intenção de compra. Relativamente às diferenças entre homens e mulheres, constata-se que a percepção da confiabilidade de um influenciador tem mais influência nas mulheres do que nos homens. O modelo desenvolvido tem como objectivo auxiliar marcas e marketeers a compreender melhor o impacto que a credibilidade percebida pelos consumidores nos influenciadores tem na intenção de compra

Short video marketing : what, when and how short-branded videos facilitate consumer engagement

Purpose This study explores whether and how four main factors of short-branded video content (content matching, information relevance, storytelling and emotionality) facilitate consumer engagement (likes, comments and shares), as well as the moderating effect of the release time (morning, afternoon and evening) in such relationships. Design/methodology/approach This study uses Python to write programs to crawl relevant data information, such as consumer engagement and short video release time. It combines coding methods to empirically analyze the impact of short-branded video content characteristics on consumer engagement. A total of 10,240 Weibo short videos (total duration: 238.645 h) from 122 well-known brands are utilized as research objects. Findings Empirical results show that the content characteristics of short videos significantly affected consumer engagement. Furthermore, the release time of videos significantly moderated the relationship between the emotionality of short videos and consumer engagement. Content released in the morning enhanced the positive impact of warmth, excitement and joy on consumer engagement, compared to that released in the afternoon. Practical implications The findings provide new insights for the dissemination of products and brand culture through short videos. The authors suggest that enterprises that use brand videos consider content matching, information relevance, storytelling and emotionality in their design. Originality/value From a broader perspective, this study constructs a new method for comprehensively evaluating short-branded video content, based on four dimensions (content matching, information relevance, storytelling and emotionality) and explores the value of these dimensions for creating social media marketing success, such as via consumer engagement.© 2023 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Mobile Curated News Readers’ Intention to Read Full-length Articles: Focusing on Heuristic and Systematic Factors

Background: Mobile curated (shortened) news is now increasingly popular. Each curated news article is accompanied by a link that readers can click to read the full-length article on the news provider’s website. To date, little empirical research has examined the factors that influence mobile newsreaders’ intentions to read full-length articles from their curated short forms. To address this gap, this study employs the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM) of information processing and examines: 1) how the heuristic and systematic factors of online curated news influence newsreaders’ intention to read full-length articles; and 2) how newsreaders’ language proficiency levels moderate these effects. Method: A survey was conducted with 195 participants recruited from Amazon MTurk. The participants first read a sample curated news item developed for this study and then filled out the questionnaire to measure the variables of interest. To test the hypotheses, a partial least square method was used with SmartPLS 4.0. Results: Our results showed that people have stronger intentions to read full-length articles when they perceive the curated news to have highly relevant information, an attractive title, a credible source, or less understandable information. Furthermore, newsreaders\u27 language proficiency level has a moderating impact on some of these effects. The effects of these factors can be attributed to how they influence newsreaders’ reading behaviors and their heuristic or systematic processing of the curated news. Conclusion: The curated news can be properly designed to motivate newsreaders’ intention to read full-length articles. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge on HSM and mobile news adoption. The findings also provide mobile-curated news service providers and online full-length news media platforms with valuable practical implications

The Mediating Role of Customer Trust on the Relationships of Celebrity Endorsement and E-WOM to Instagram Purchase Intention

This study aims to reanalyze and reconfirm the relationships of celebrity endorsements and E-WOM on consumer purchasing intentions and examine the indirect influence of celebrity endorsements and e-WOM and trust as the mediation of purchase intentions. This study is the first in Indonesia to analyze the above mediating relationships. The data are from 100 Instagram users responding to online questionnaires and analyzed with PLS-SEM. The results showed that celebrity endorsement and e-WOM positively influence consumer confidence and purchasing intentions by mediating trust variables. This research highlights the role of influence in creating positive buzzes to the promoted sales

The Influence of Brand Ambassador and Price Discount on Consumer Purchase Intention in E-Commerce Shopee (Case Study on Shopee Users in Bandung City)

This study aims to find out how the influence of Brand Ambassadors and price discounts on consumer purchase intentions in e-commerce Shopee (a case study of Shopee users in the city of Bandung). In this study, the independent variables were Brand Ambassador and price discount. While the dependent variable is purchase intention. The research method used in this research is descriptive and verification method. The population in this study are consumers who use e-commerce Shopee. The sampling technique used in this study was non-probability sampling using a purposive sampling technique with a total sample of 100 respondents. While the analytical method used in this study is the analysis of the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and the coefficient of determination. The program used in analyzing the data uses the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Ver. 24.00. The results showed that the Brand Ambassador variable had an influence on purchase intention by 21.3% and the price discount variable had an influence on purchase intention by 29%. Furthermore, simultaneously the Brand Ambassador and price discount variables have an influence on purchase intention by as much as 34%

The Effects of Social Media Influencers’ Source Credibility on their Ascribed Opinion Leadership and Consumers’ Purchase Intention

In the last years, social media with its networking platforms and online communities gained extreme popularity. With this emergence, brands all around the globe became well aware of people’s increasing daily social media activities on platforms such as Instagram. Consequently, influencer marketing got extremely important for businesses as a new marketing communication tool. However, there are concerns around the social media influencers’ perceived source credibility and their impact on consumers’ purchase intentions. The present research focuses on the Portuguese and German market and investigates how the perceived source credibility of Instagram social media influencers and its dimensions, namely attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise affect their ascribed opinion leadership and consequently influence consumers’ purchase intentions. As well as it examines the role of consumers’ self-esteem on the relationship between ascribed opinion leadership and consumers’ purchase intention. An online survey was conducted to collect data from 467 respondents from Portugal and Germany. The statistical analysis of the questionnaire was performed with structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of the study indicate that especially the influencers’ attractiveness as one of the source credibility dimensions has a positive impact on their ascribed opinion leadership. The findings provide evidence that social media influencers perceived as opinion leaders positively influence consumers’ purchase intention. Based on these results, further research directions and practical implications are provided

German and Israeli Innovation: The Best of Two Worlds

This study reviews – through desk research and expert interviews with Mittelstand companies, startups and ecosystem experts – the current status of the Israeli startup ecosystem and the Mittelstand region of North Rhine- Westphalia (NRW), Germany. As a case study, it highlights potential opportunities for collaboration and analyzes different engagement modes that might serve to connect the two regions. The potential synergies between the two economies are based on a high degree of complementarity. A comparison of NRW’s key verticals and Israel’s primary areas of innovation indicates that there is significant overlap in verticals, such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), sensors and cybersecurity. Israeli startups can offer speed, agility and new ideas, while German Mittelstand companies can contribute expertise in production and scaling, access to markets, capital and support. The differences between Mittelstand companies and startups are less pronounced than those between startups and big corporations. However, three current barriers to fruitful collaboration have been identified: 1) a lack of access, 2) a lack of transparency regarding relevant players in the market, and 3) a lack of the internal resources needed to select the right partners, often due to time constraints or a lack of internal expertise on this issue. To ensure that positive business opportunities ensue, Mittelstand companies and startups alike have to be proactive in their search for cooperation partners and draw on a range of existing engagement modes (e.g., events, communities, accelerators). The interviews and the research conducted for this study made clear that no single mode of engagement can address all the needs and challenges associated with German-Israeli collaboration

Behavioral finance in fintech : biases & opinions

Fintech has become a worldwide and continuously growing phenomenon, yet fintech adoption has still not reached its full potential. The customer value proposition is now the core of development of any platform, and it is necessary to implement tools and measures that improve the experience. As such, the present thesis proposes the introduction of Behavioral Finance into modern fintechs as a provider of an enhanced customer engagement and increased value. The behavioral finance tool is described as an abstract algorithm, based on the concepts and methodologies of the subject, then tested via a two-part survey. The first part aims to understand the impact of two drivers behind the adoption of fintechs, namely behavioral biases and pre-conceived opinions. It is found that, on average, opinions have a positive impact on the likelihood of fintech adoption, whereas behavioral biases, despite present in the population, are not statistically significant in the engagement decision. In addition, past usage had a positive influence on the future usage, and this expected use had a positive influence in the future recommendation of the technology. The second part aims to study whether the introduction of the behavioral finance tool impacts the decision of adoption. It is found that, on average, future usage and future recommendation increase with the insertion of the algorithm, but the increase is not statistically significant. Furthermore, market perception of adoption is above 70%, indicating a possible opportunity.Fintech tornou-se num fenómeno mundial, e de crescimento constante, mas a sua adoção ainda não atingiu o seu potencial. Hoje em dia, o valor para o cliente é o centro de desenvolvimento de qualquer plataforma, tomando-se necessário implementar ferramentas e medidas que melhorem a sua experiência. Como tal, a presente tese propõe a introdução de Finanças Comportamentais nas fintechs modernas como uma ferramenta que permite fornecer uma experiência superior e adaptada ao cliente. A ferramenta de finanças comportamentais é descrita como um algoritmo abstrato baseado nos conceitos e metodologias da disciplina, e seguidamente testada, através de um questionário de duas partes. A primeira parte tem como objetivo estudar o impacto de dois fatores determinantes para a adoção das fintech, nomeadamente, os comportamentais irracionais e as opiniões pré-concebidas. Constatou-se que, em média, as opiniões têm um impacto positivo na probabilidade de adoção das fintech, embora os vieses, apesar de presentes na população, não são estatisticamente significativos na decisão de utilização. A utilização passada tem uma influência positiva no uso futuro, sendo que o último influencia positivamente a recomendação futura da tecnologia. A segunda parte visa analisar se a introdução da ferramenta afeta a decisão de adoção da tecnologia. Verifica-se que, em média, o uso futuro e a recomendação futura aumentam com a inserção do algoritmo, mas o aumento não é estatisticamente significativo. Ademais, a perceção de adoção do mercado supera os 70%, indicando uma possível oportunidade

Social Media Engagement and Influencer Personal Branding Relations Journal

The most excellent and straightforward method for creating a personal brand today is using social media to gain visibility in a particular industry or specialty. Personal branding can flourish in this environment because almost everyone is now online and will go there to discover more about someone’s personality and activities. This study aimed to determine the connection between some influencers’ branding and social media involvement. This study used a Google Form Survey to collect information from Indonesians born between 1965 and 2022 and familiar with Dedy Corbuzier and Cinta Laura as influencers with different personal branding strategies. The result shows that influencer social media engagement is affected by their branding. The independent variable (personal branding) tested influences the dependent variable (social media engagement). The implications of this research can be used for people working in a business where influencers’ specific criteria will affect their engagement

‘I create therefore I virtually exist’: digital content creation, virtual consumption, and motivation in Second Life

User-generated content (UGC) has been receiving increasing attention given its spread throughout digital media platforms and applications. Previous research focusing on Web 2.0 based platforms highlighted linkages with personal characteristics, user attitudes, and social as well as individual motivators. Interestingly, UGC has not been addressed on other platforms such as 3D virtual worlds, and the purpose of the current study is to fill this gap in the literature. More specifically, we explore virtual content creation within the particular 3D virtual world of Second Life, via comparing key demographic, usage and motivational attributes of creator versus non-creator residents. Results revealed differential patterns as a function of age, gender and usage. Digital content creators were also more likely to purchase goods reflecting stability, expand greater financial resources on the Second Life Marketplace, and while acknowledging greater difficulty in ease of use, reported higher esteem and self-actualization. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio