The social media influencer (SMI) phenomenon is attracting attention from academia and business. A SMI refers to an individual who has accumulated a sizable social network of followers and thereby has influence over others (Ki et al., 2020). Due to the influence SMIs possess, an increasing number of brands are approaching SMIs and asking them to create and share branded content that includes product placements or brand recommendations. This practice is commonly referred to as influencer marketing. Reflecting the trend of influencer marketing, this study investigated: (1) whether consumers are ‘inspired-by’ SMIs and ‘inspired-to’ adopt the exemplars of SMIs (e.g., SMIs’ lifestyles, styles, and recommendations) as their social defaults that provide desirable standards that consumers will like and follow, and if so, (2) what are its causal factors and effects, and (3) whether the inspiration mechanism between SMIs and consumers differs between male and female consumers. In so doing, we drew on social defaults theory (Huh et al., 2014) and customer inspiration theory (Böttger et al., 2017).

The study builds and tests a framework investigating the determinants of customer engagement with luxury brands on social media platforms.

The study builds and tests a framework investigating the determinants of customer engagement with luxury brands on social media platforms.

In this study, we theorize that the way consumers communicate on social media (“liking”2 vs. posting) leads to consequential preferences for luxury products. Specifically, for light users, who spend less than one hour on social media, “liking” (vs. posting) strengthens (vs. weakens) preference for social value-framed luxury products (i.e., creates a good impression to others) compared to functional value-framed products (i.e., superior quality). This contrasts with heavy users, who spend more than two hours on social media, where posting (vs. “liking”) strengthens (vs. weakens) preference for social value-framed luxury products compared to functional value-framed products. Thus, the relationship between social media interaction (“liking” vs. posting) and preference for luxury products is conditionally mediated by communication expectation with others. Both the direct effect and indirect effect are moderated by the time spent on social media and luxury value type.

Employing national consumer panels in the US and Korea (N = 767), this research examined how consumer evaluations of graphic sexual ads on social media differ from those of non-sexual ads, and to what extent such evaluations are influenced by different cultural backgrounds (Individualism vs. Confucianism) and sexual self-schema (SSS) levels.

This paper reports a survey done that examined the relationship between the use of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Youtube on students’ academic performance in Osun State secondary schools. The study adopted the descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised all 7,767 teachers in Osun State secondary schools. The sample of 385 teachers was randomly selected. Two self-designed questionnaires were used. The data were analysed using Pearson Product Movement Correlation Statistics (PPMCS) at 0.05 level of significant. The findings showed that the use of Facebook (r = 0.692, df = 2071 & p<0.05), WhatsApp (r = 0.615, df = 2071 & p<0.05), Twitter (r = 0.542, df = 2071 & p<0.05), and Youtube (r = 0.461, df = 2071 & p<0.05) were significantly related to students’ academic performance of Osun State secondary schools. The study concluded that that the use of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Youtube among teachers and students had positive contributions to students’ academic performance of Osun State secondary schools. The findings implicate that the teachers and students in Osun State secondary schools and Nigeria at large should admire the use of social medial such as Facebook WhatsApp, Twitter and Youtube as an interactive forum for teaching-learning activities.

The research employs factor analysis, followed by a MANOVA procedure to explore relationships between fashion consumption and social media usage behavior based on data collected from 447 individuals. Findings suggest that social media usage and apparel consumption motivations interact, particularly for whom use social media for instant-self presentation.