Firms are increasingly using social media influencers to promote their products. We develop a two-period model to investigate a firm’s strategy for introducing a product via an influencer, where there is uncertainty in the influencer-product match. In the second period, the influencer exerts an effort to promote the product to her followers, who can spread the product information to non-followers via word-of-mouth (WOM). In the second period, the firm sells to the non-followers. We show that the firm’s pricing, production, and commission contract decisions depend on the influencer’s incentive-independent excess payoff from the promotion and on the difference between the WOM effect of followers who do or do not make a purchase rather than the WOM effect of each group. As the influencer’s incentive-independent payoff increase, the firm will increase (decrease) commissison rate and commission rate when the followers’ sensitivity to product price is relatively low (high) compared with that to the influencer’s effort. As the marginal WOM benefit of the first-period sales increases, the firm tends to reduce his unit net profit from sales. The influencer with a medium-sized follower base receives the highest commission rate and exerts the largest promotion effort. While the followers of influencers with a medium-sized follower base may pay the highest price. We also show that (i) there exists a threshold for the probability of match, above which the firm faces zero demand in the first period if an influencer-product mismatch occurs; and (ii) the firm may charge followers a lower price than non-followers, even though followers are less sensitive to price than non-followers. Finally, regarding influencer selection, we find that the firm may not be better off employing an influencer with a larger follower base.

Social networking sites (SNS) is an image-oriented sharing platform and can form social relationships among users. This allows individuals to create and share the contents which include their stories, ideas, reviews, opinions, and evaluations, etc. Consumers who sympathize with and trust these contents will follow them and form the relationships. Contents created and shared by individual users is more effective than advertisements delivered by brands in generating electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). Accordingly, opinion leaders and influencers who influence potential customers based on their opinions and style related contents have emerged in various fields such as health, fitness, fashion, beauty, food, and high-tech.

This study examines the impact of influencer-audience and audience-audience interactions in Livestream e-commerce by extending halo of the influencer to the brand and snowballing the opinions that empower other watchers. It finds that halo effect generates from influencer physical attraction and bandwagon effect from audience live comments significantly influenced product preference and purchase intentions.

This study examines how brand-influencer, influencer-users, and user-brand congruences affect perceived fantasy about the influencer and closeness toward the brand when an Instagram ad is endorsed by celebrity (vs. non-celebrity) influencers. The study employed a between-subject online experiment by manipulating an advertisement endorsed by a celebrity and a non-celebrity influencer. The results suggest that congruence between brand-influencer matters in building effective relationships.

Sponsored product reviews have emerged as an important tool in influencer marketing. In particular, non-monetary sponsorships, where brands give influencers a product as a gift for a free trial, are widely used in influencer marketing. Yet, there is little understanding of i) the impact of non-monetary sponsorship on consumers’ downstream behaviors, such as social media engagement, ii) the moderating effect of influencer type, and iii) the underlying mechanisms through consumer perceptions of the brand (i.e., brand trust) and product (i.e., perceived product quality). To fill this gap, we first empirically examined the impact of non-monetary sponsorship on customer engagement using an Instagram dataset through regression analyses. In this analysis, the propensity score matching (PSM) method was employed to match non-monetary sponsored posts with other similar posts, which controls unobserved confounding variables and resolves the endogeneity problem. The empirical analysis shows that non-monetary sponsorship increases social media engagement, and the positive impact is stronger when a micro-influencer generates a non-monetary sponsored post. Next, using a lab experiment, we provide evidence for a causal link between non-monetary sponsorship and consumers’ downstream behavior (i.e., social media engagement, purchase intention, and brand attitude) and support the mediation through higher perceived product quality and brand trust. We contribute to the literature on influencer marketing by documenting the positive impact of non-monetary sponsorship on social media engagement, examining the moderating role of influencer type, and providing novel mechanisms underlying the effect of non-monetary sponsorship. The findings also highlight the changes in consumer perception of sponsorship and offer insights into the design of influencer marketing campaigns for marketing practitioners.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology offers many opportunities for use in influencer marketing. There is however, no standardised ethical frameworks for use in this specific field. We offer a foundation framework to emphasise the social well-being goal and relate it to stakeholders involved.

With the rise of social media platforms, influencer marketing has become an essential tool for marketers to promote their products and services. Value co-creation behavior of influencers involves collaborating with their followers and brands to create content that provides value to their audience. This approach can help to build stronger relationships with followers and drive engagement and sales for the brands they work with.

With social media spreading and social media influencers (SMIs) becoming popular and monetising their content, research on how they become entrepreneurs and the enterprising characteristics of SMIs remains limited. Due to this, the study examines through the use of case studies the evolution of hobbyist SMIs into professional entrepreneurs.

Considering the popularity of virtual influencer (VI) marketing while its effectiveness remains fully unexplored, there is a need of academic attention testing consumer responses to VIs in comparison with human influencer marketing. Hence, this study aims to fill this gap by comparing consumers’ perceptions of a human versus virtual influencer’s endorsement. Specifically, based on the construal level theory and psychological reactance, this study investigates how consumers differently evaluate human and virtual influencers’ endorsement motives, which may further influence their attitudes toward a brand, advertising (i.e., endorsement), and an influencer and purchase intentions. Additionally, the moderating role of the number of endorsements (single vs. multiple) and perceived innovativeness are examined.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) refers to the customer's perception of being anxious for not engaging in an experience. FOMO is an anxiety feeling positively associated with social media usage that one cannot catch up on something important in life. Fear of missing out (FOMO) marketing appeals initiated from social media usage were found to significantly affect consumer purchase decisions including choice of destination. Consumers usually browse social media and social networking sites such as forums and reviews in online tourism agents (OTAs) when they make travel decisions. Although FOMO is expected to affect tourists' perception and urgency in making a tourism decision, the use of FOMO-laden message to promote travel destination through different types of influencers has not yet been widely studied. This study fills this research gap by examining the effect of using FOMO laden content to promote travel destination through different types of influencers. An online experiment was conducted with four experimental conditions in which different influencers share about a destination using the same FOMO-laden message: (1) travel KOL, (2) tourists who post user-generated-content (UGC), (3) personal friends, and (4) a control condition with the absence of influencer and FOMO message. The 984 respondents were randomly assigned into one of the four experimental conditions. Data collected was analysed using PLS-SEM and PLS-MGA. Results indicated that anticipated elation, anticipated envy, and social influence predicted 30.2% variance of FOMO and FOMO explained 31.6% of variance of intention to visit the destination promoted. Multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA) found that exposure to message shared by travel KOL and personal friends significantly strengthen the FOMO feeling of participants resulting in strong intention to visit the destination promoted. UGC posted by tourists showed similar effect as the non-FOMO laden control group and are less significant in driving the FOMO feeling that leads to visit intention. Findings of this study provide insights into how effectiveness of destination promotion can be enhanced by using FOMO-laden message on social media through influential influencers.

Social media influencers have become a powerful tool in marketing in the past decade; consumers who engage with the influencers are more likely to trust their recommendations. A VI is a very attractive marketing tool for brands and businesses. However, there is little empirical work about why and how consumers react to the anthropomorphism of virtual agents. Therefore, this study develops an understanding of how consumers interact with VI, emphasizing the perceived anthropomorphism's role. Consequently, we aim to investigate antecedents and outcomes of perceived anthropomorphism of the VI from online consumers' perspectives to develop and implement effective marketing strategies on social media platforms.

Existing studies report that social media influencers’ number of followers is a determinant of their influence. However, not every consumer follows an influencer with a high number of followers. Therefore, differences in individual characteristics should be considered in the effectiveness of influencer marketing. This study draws on the cultural dimensional theory to examine the moderating role of consumers’ cultural values at the individual level in the effects of social media influencers with many followers. The results show that the relationship between social media influencer follower count and brand reputation depends on the cultural values of individual consumers. This study makes certain contributtions to the advancement of research on influencer marketing and cultural values by identifying the different impact of follower account of social media influencers with many influencers.

이 논문의 목적은 어떻게 조지 화이트필드가 메토디스트의 전통을 형성하고 변혁시켰는지를 밝히는 것이다. 2장에서 연구자는 화이트필드가 메토디스트 전통에 끼친 영향의 결정적인 단서들로 홀리클럽에서의 훈련과 신세계에서의 선교를 꼽는다. 3장에서는 어떻게 화이트필드가 메토디스트 전통을 변화 또는 개혁시켰는지를 논한다. 연구자는 신생 경험과 야외설교 라는 측면에서 화이트필드가 메토디스트 전통에 선교적 영향력이 있는 사람이라고 주장한다. 마지막으로 4장에서는 어떻게 화이트필드가 메토디 스트 운동의 미래에 영향을 끼쳤는지를 연구한다. 메토디스트 운동의 미래 를 위한 화이트필드의 중요성은 웨슬리와 관계를 통하여 드러난다. 먼저 그들의 차이점들을 다루고 그 다음에는 그들의 우정과 메토디스트 운동의 미래를 위한 그 우정의 중요성을 논한다. 결론에서 연구자는 화이트필드를 언급하지 않고는 메토디스트 부흥을 말할 수 없을 만큼 그는 참으로 메토디 스트 운동에 핵심적인 영향력이 있는 사람이라는 주장을 이어간다. 이 논문은 화이트필드와 웨슬리로부터 물려받은 자산이요 유산인 다양성 속의 일치가 반드시 메토디스트 선교 전략이 되어야 한다고 말하며 마무리된다.

Not disclosing or inadequate disclosing of material relationship between an influencer and an advertiser(brand) when the influencer is paid or provided with any benefit by the advertiser to create contents including endorsement or testimonial could lead to a type of unfair advertising prohibited by the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising as a deceptive advertising. The Act only contains provisons that impose penalty surcharges on business entity and business entities’ organization and accordingly amendments were proposed which include articles imposing influencers sanction such as penalty surcharges and administrative fine for inadequate disclosure of material relationship with advertisers on their endorsement or testimonial. In this context, a review on constitutional legitimacy of such sanction on an influencer based on international regulation trends is called for. As a new kind of advertisement emerges in which commercial and non-commercial speech are mixed and it is difficult to discern between the two, the ground of more lenient and relaxed judicial review standard the Constitutional Court has been applied to decision on legitimacy of restrictions to commercial advertisement is weakening. Subtle marketing using influencers’ endorsement and testimonial lacking appropriate disclosure of material link to advertisers is also an example of the novel advertising expression. Even if the more lenient approach as well as the original proportionality test is applied, there is little room for constitutional justification of sanctions against individual influencers for inadequate disclosure because the sanctions is more extensive than is necessary to achieve the goal of legislation and the additional burden imposed on individuals is greater than the public interest promoted by the introduction of sanctions. It is also difficult to justify sanctions on individual influencers in terms of the Void for Vagueness doctrine. Rather than introducing sanctions on influencers not disclosing conspicuously, alternatives like means of securing voluntary regulatory compliance(commitments decision), activating civil damages claim and development of contractual provisions influencers should comply with, and use of self-regulatory code of conduct and self-regulatory review board are the solutions which is more constitutionally justifiable and more consistent with regulatory trends for inadequate disclosure in influencers’ endorsement and testimonial.

본 연구는 뷰티 인플루언서 마케팅의 중요한 소비계층인 20-30대 여성 소비자를 대상으로 뷰티 인플루언서의 특성이 메이크업행동과 색조화장품 구매의도에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 규명하고자 하였다. 더불어 뷰티 인플루언서를 활용한 색조화장품 마케팅 및 시장 확대에 도움이 되는 기초정보를 제공하기 위해 수행되었다. 설문지는 서울 및 수도권 지역에 총 563부를 배포하였으며, 최종 531부를 분석 자료로 사용하였다. 연구 결과, 인구통계학적 특성(연령별)에 따른 뷰티 인플루언서 특성의 영향 요인은 신뢰도, 전문도에 따라 차이가 있는 것을 확인하였다. 뷰티 인플루언서 특성의 하위요인별 신뢰도와 전달능력은 모든 메이크업행동에 정(+)의 영향, 전문도는 베이스 메이크업에만 정(+)의 영향, 색조화장품 구매의도에는 신뢰도, 전달능력, 매력도가 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며, 그 중 신뢰도가 가장 큰 정(+) 의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 뷰티 인플루언서 특성을 바탕으로 소비자와 소통·공감하고, 보다 다양한 메이크업 및 색조화장품 관련 정보를 더욱 정직하게 전달함으로써 장기적인 관계 유지를 위해 노력해야 할 것이다.

This study examined the effect of Instagram usage time (short, long) and spending on fashion products (light, heavy) on product attitude and purchase intention of products promoted by an influencer. The moderating effect of influencer type (mega, macro, micro) was also investigated. A total of 515 males and females in their 20s participated in an online survey. Descriptive statistics were analyzed and exploratory factor analysis and two-way ANOVA were conducted. Research findings were as follows. First, the usage time, both short and long, had a positive effect on product attitude. Also, the interactive effects of usage time and influencer type on product attitude were found. Consumers with short Instagram usage time displayed the highest attitude toward products promoted by a macro-influencer whereas consumers with long Instagram usage time displayed the highest attitude toward products promoted by a micro-influencer. Second, usage time and influencer type did not show interactive effects on purchase intention. Third, both categoriacl variables of users’ spending on fashion products had a positive effect on product attitude. Fourth, the interaction effects of spending on fashion products and influencer types on purchase intention were found. The group of light buyers showed the highest purchase intention on products promoted by the macro-influencer while the group of heavy buyers showed the highest purchase intention of products promoted by the micro-influencer. Based on the results, implications were suggested.