The impact of social media influencer’s content value on repurchase intention: The role of parasocial relationship and trust

This study aims to analyze the impact of informative value, entertainment value, authenticity, and homophily on brand credibility and purchase intention mediated by parasocial relationships in digital marketing by social media influencers. The method used is Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the relationships between variables. The study's population consists of active social media users following influencers, with a sample of 155 respondents. The results show that informative value, authenticity, and homophily significantly influence parasocial relationships, which in turn affect brand credibility and purchase intention. Entertainment value does not have a significant effect on parasocial relationships or purchase intention. Parasocial relationships mediate the effect of informative value, authenticity, and homophily on brand credibility and purchase intention, but not for entertainment value. This study provides insights for marketers in selecting the right influencer based on informative value, authenticity, and similarity in characteristics with the target audience.

In recent years, social media influencers have become pivotal in shaping consumer behaviour, particularly in the fashion industry. This study explores the persuasive power of social media influencers in influencing purchase intentions of customers in the fashion industry. The research focuses on understanding the relationship between various factors such as informative value, entertainment value, authenticity, homophily, parasocial relationship, persuasion knowledge, and purchase intention for fashion brands. The study also aims to identify the factors that shape the parasocial relationship with online celebrities and examine the moderating effect of persuasion knowledge on the relationship between parasocial relationship and purchase intention for fashion brands. Additionally, the research seeks to investigate the influence of gender, age, and education on parasocial relationship, purchase intention, and persuasion knowledge. By understanding the factors that influence consumers; relationships with influencers and their subsequent purchase decisions, fashion brands and marketers can optimize their strategies for engaging with consumers through social media influencers. This includes focusing on providing informative and authentic content, emphasizing similarities with the audience, and considering the demographic characteristics of their target audience when designing influencer marketing campaigns. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on influencer marketing in the fashion industry and provides practical implications for marketers looking to leverage this phenomenon effectively.

This study investigates the influence of social media influencers on consumers’ well-being and purchase intention within the Douyin platform, employing the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as the conceptual framework. The research delves into key variables such as argument quality, source credibility, kindness, and parasocial interaction, and their respective impacts on consumers’ well-being, and purchase intention. By addressing the gaps in extant literature on influencer marketing in the Chinese context, this study explains the relevance of dual-process theories like the ELM in interpreting consumer responses to influencer endorsements. The literature review provides a robust theoretical underpinning, examining argument quality, source credibility, kindness, and parasocial interaction in shaping consumer attitudes and behaviors. Utilizing a quantitative methodology, data was gathered from 270 samples of Douyin users. Results indicate that argument quality, source credibility, kindness, and parasocial interaction significantly affect consumers’ well-being. This study also found that consumers’ well-being found to be a significant mediators towards purchase intentions. The findings yield critical theoretical and practical implications, underscoring the importance for brands to engage with credible, emotionally resonant influencers to boost consumers’ well-being and drive purchase behaviors. This study acknowledges certain limitations, including its cross-sectional design and focus on a single social media platform, suggesting future research to consider longitudinal effects and cultural variances in influencer marketing. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay between social media influencers and consumer behavior, providing actionable insights for marketers aiming to optimize influencer collaborations.

Purpose This study aims to analyze the influence of celebrity endorser characteristics on parasocial interaction, consumer engagement and value-in-use and investigates the implications of all three on repurchase intention. Design/methodology/approach Using a quantitative research design, data were collected from a sample of 305 consumers of beauty products labeled with celebrity approval. Sampling used a nonprobability sampling technique, specifically judgmental sampling. Hypothesis testing was carried out by applying covariance-based structural equation modeling. Findings This study found that similarity and authenticity affect parasocial interaction. Parasocial interaction subsequently has a positive impact on consumer engagement and value-in-use. Furthermore, parasocial interaction and value-in-use determine repurchase intention. Surprisingly, trustworthiness was not proven to affect parasocial interaction. Likewise, consumer engagement did not affect value-in-use or repurchase intention. Originality/value This study develops a new comprehensive model that emphasizes the critical role of parasocial interaction and value-in-use.

The rapid development of social media（such as live streaming, short videos, Vlogs, etc.）has attracted scholars’ attention to the theory of para-social interaction. Different from traditional media, social media provides new research ideas and content for exploring this kind of interaction between social media personae and consumers due to its characteristics of instant communication, interactivity, novelty of content, media personalization and social media scenario.Through literature reviews, this paper summarizes the psychological mechanism of para-social interaction in social media. Para-social interaction is distinguished from real social interaction by how it is influenced by social media. Media personae’s characteristics, consumers’ characteristics, and social platform characteristics, all of which are the main influencing factors of consumers’ para-social interaction engagement. According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model（ELM）, para-social interaction can stimulate consumers’ cognition of media personae’s self-disclosure and their perceived social presence through the central route and the peripheral route respectively, so as to improve the authenticity and accessibility of media personae perceived by consumers, and ultimately affect the para-social relationship between consumers and media personae. According to Skinner’s theory of reinforcement and previous studies, this paper also demonstrates that para-social interaction and para-social relationship will be continuously strengthened each other in a circular way, where para-social interaction drives the formation of para-social relationships, which will in turn motivate more para-social interaction. With each cycle of reinforcement between PSI and PSR, the para-social relationship between consumers and media personae rises to a higher level, presenting a spiral-upgrading state. Last but not least, when consumers and media personae establish the para-social relationship through para-social interaction, consumers tend to believe in media personas（source credibility）, and further believe in the brands recommended by media personae（brand credibility）, resulting in more marketing effectiveness（purchase intention and positive word-of-mouth）. Meanwhile, the influence of para-social relationships on source credibility may be moderated by the congruence between media personae and brands.In a word, both cyclic reinforcement mechanism and dual processing routes constitute the psychological mechanism of para-social interaction, which ultimately promotes more marketing effectiveness. Finally, this paper puts forward the marketing strategies to enterprises and the directions for future research.This paper makes two main contributions: On the one hand, it makes theoretical contributions through exploring the psychological mechanism of para-social interaction; on the other hand, it provides guidance for enterprises to effectively use social media, select and manage media personae, and promote enterprises to generate economic benefits.

With the popularity and success of food-related social media content, food marketers have begun utilizing social media influencers to promote their food brands. In particular, mukbang—video broadcasts of individuals eating copious amounts of food—is a prominent genre of public social media food exhibition that can provide opportunities for food-related social media influencer marketing. The present study examines how parasocial interaction (i.e. nonreciprocal interpersonal relationships formed with media personalities) with a mukbang social media influencer impacts advertising effectiveness and information credibility. A total of 404 U.S. participants completed an online survey. Structural equation modeling found that participants’ parasocial interactions with mukbang social media influencers predicted perceived source trustworthiness, perceived source expertise, and credibility of the information regarding the food content posted. Furthermore, influencer source credibility and information credibility positively impacted consumer brand and video attitudes, as well as behavioral intentions to consume the foods featured in the social media content. Study results provide evidence-based implications for food-related social media influencer marketing strategies and insight into the important role of information credibility on eating behaviors of social media consumers.

Background: The presence of Social Media Food Influencers (SMFIs) has created a new landscape in local food tourism. Despite extensive studies focusing on the crucial role of influencer marketing through the lens of parasocial relationships, how SMFIs can foster these relationships and consequently influence their followers' intentions to purchase local food remains underexplored. Purpose: This research examines how the parasocial relationship between SMFIs and their followers influences the latter's intention to purchase local food. Method: This research employed the quantitative approach. It involved 439 active Instagram users who follow SMFIs as research respondents. They were recruited using the purposive sampling technique. Additionally, using Smart-PLS software, the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (SEM-PLS) was applied to statistically test the data and the research hypotheses. Findings: This research reveals that influencers' content value (informative value), interaction strategy (interactivity), and credibility (expertise and attractiveness) positively and significantly influence the parasocial relationship between followers and social media food influencers (SMFIs). The results also indicate that this parasocial relationship influences followers' intention to purchase local food. Conclusion: This study highlights the critical role that food influencers play in fostering parasocial relationships, which significantly influence followers’ intentions to purchase local food. The findings reveal that the effectiveness of food influencers is largely contingent upon their ability to engage followers through informative content, interactive communication, and the establishment of perceived expertise. Research implication: The research findings offer significant implications for tourism marketers and local food business managers. Social media food influencers can be regarded as influential promoters of local food, enhancing tourists’ interest and purchase intentions through the parasocial relationships facilitated by social media.

While social media influencers are gleaning increasing trust and investment from brands, advertisers, and followers, insights on the role of influencers in adolescents’ relationship formation and consumption behaviors are still rare. Drawing on the literatures of influencer content value, influencer credibility, parental mediation, and parasocial relationship (PSR), this study proposed a conceptual model that expounds the appeal of influencers among adolescents. To test the model, we administered an online survey – recruited in proportion to demographic quotas (i.e., age, gender and ethnicity) – among 500 United States adolescents (aged 10- to 19-years old) via Qualtrics panel. Results revealed that, the entertainment value of influencer-generated content, influencer expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and followers’ perceived similarity to their favorite influencers, are positively related to the perceived PSR between adolescent followers and their favorite influencers, which in turn, are associated with adolescents’ materialistic views and purchase intentions. We also explored the role of parental mediation of adolescents’ social media use in their PSR with influencers. Results indicate that, neither active mediation nor restrictive mediation is related to the PSR between adolescents and influencers. Active mediation is negatively associated with adolescents’ materialism, whereas restrictive mediation is positively related to adolescents’ purchase intentions toward influencer-promoted products. This study proposed and tested a comprehensive conceptual model that accounts for the role of influencers in adolescent followers’ materialism and purchase intentions. This study yields three major theoretical contributions. First, it adopts and applies the concept of PSR from the literature of media psychology to explicate influencers’ appeal among adolescents, which lays a theoretical foundation for future research on the impact of influencers. Second, it advances the current literature on social media influencers by specifying key contributing factors for the development of adolescents’ PSR with influencers. Lastly, it explores the roles of the two facets of parental mediation – active and restrictive mediation – in the appeal of influencers among adolescents, which offers directions for future research of parental mediation in the influencer context.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore which content characteristics of social media influencers (SMIs) posted from Facebook brand pages (FBPs) can impact millennial consumers’ engagement by drawing on the advertising value model, source credibility model, parasocial interaction (PSI) theory and consumer engagement theory. Design/methodology/approach This research implements structural equation modeling (SEM) and mediation analysis as the data analysis method, using non-probability purposive sampling of 252 millennials who have followed fashion and beauty micro-SMIs content posted from FBPs. Findings Established on hypothesis testing, PSI strongly mediates consumer engagement with the indirect effects of entertainment value and trustworthiness rather than informativeness value. Research limitations/implications This research extends the influencer marketing literature on the advertising value model, source credibility model, parasocial interaction (PSI) theory and consumer engagement theory by conceptualizing an integrated model with the mediating role of SMIs’ PSI with millennials on FBPs, which resulted upon cognitive, affective and behavioral engagement, which was overlooked earlier. Practical implications Following the worthy recommendations in this research, the fashion and beauty brand owners and other stakeholders collaborating and following SMIs’ contents on FBPs benefit from reciprocal closeness affecting consumer engagement. Originality/value The researchers have identified antecedents from four separate models and theories regarding consumer engagement as a model inclusively for SMI content characteristics reinforcing PSI on millennial consumers’ engagement regarding FBPs with the practical orientation.

The power of social media influencers (SMIs) as effective endorsers for destinations and tourism products have been widely acknowledged. Despite being characterised as content generators by prior research, little has been done to examine how consumers perceive content produced by SMI, a key component of destination marketing campaigns. Moreover, parasocial relationship between SMI and the follower has been proven to enhance the persuasive impact of SMIs. Hence, this study aims to shed light on how consumers would assess the SMI and the content the SMI produced, as well as the effect of parasocial relationship on processing SMI destination marketing campaigns. Findings (N = 501) have highlighted that argument quality of SMI content has a stronger direct impact on campaign attitude, destination image and travel intention, as compared to source credibility. With the application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a framework, this study illuminates consumers’ interaction with the SMI destination marketing campaign and extends prior studies in understanding the importance of SMI content and parasocial relationship as a significant tool for future destination marketing.

Purpose This study explores the effectiveness of financial influencers (finfluencers) in promoting favourable financial behaviours. Guided by the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the customer inspiration theory, it investigates how individuals may be inspired by finfluencers’ characteristics and subsequently adopt their own financial practices. This research also examines the roles of financial stress, financial security and parasocial relationships (i.e. one-sided relationships where followers feel personally connected to finfluencers) in shaping the financial behaviours of finfluencers’ followers. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are assessed using data collected from 227 Millennial and Gen Z individuals in Malaysia. The data are analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling. Findings The results indicate that source characteristics (trustworthiness and similarity) and argument quality of the finfluencer message (accuracy and value-adding information) are positively associated with the parasocial relationship between finfluencers and followers. Parasocial relationship is found to function as a mediating variable for the association between trustworthiness, accuracy, information value-adding and being “inspired by” finfluencers. Being “inspired by” finfluencers is positively associated with how followers are being “inspired to” adopt finfluencers’ exemplars, financial security and financial stress, which are, in turn, associated with their intention to invest. Research limitations/implications The findings extend current theory in bank marketing using a finfluencer and offer practical implications underscoring the potential of finfluencer marketing as a strategic avenue for bank and financial marketers, offering valuable insights for financial institutions to leverage the persuasive power of finfluencers in promoting positive financial behaviours amongst individuals. Originality/value This study is amongst the first to integrate the ELM with the customer inspiration theory to explore how finfluencers and the parasocial relationship between finfluencer and young consumers influence followers’ attitudes, financial well-being and investment behaviours.

Given the burgeoning usage of influencers in social media marketing, the need to understand how consumers react to sponsored messages is on the rise. Drawing on the signaling theory, Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), and the message sidedness literature, this study illustrates the interaction effect between two types of sponsorship disclosures—brand influence disclosure (brand vs. honest opinion) and compensation type disclosure (gift vs. payment vs. sales commission)—on purchase intentions via influencer credibility, influencer-follower parasocial interaction (PSI), and brand attitudes. Through an experiment with 401 female participants, we found that a proper combination of these two types of disclosures generates a two-sided disclosure message and motivates people to scrutinize this two-sided message, which will boost influencer credibility, PSI, brand attitudes, and eventually, purchase intentions.

Introduction: Increased use of social media in shaping consumers' behaviour has significantly influenced tourism marketing, and social media influencers (SMIs) have become significant drivers in the formation of destination images and travel plans. This review investigates the effects that specific influencer attributes—credibility, authenticity, and the quality of content—have on consumers' decision-making processes and the mediating psychological processes. Methods: Systematic review of peer-reviewed academic literature between the period 2010 and 2024 in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar was conducted. Empirical and theoretical research on influencer marketing, digital tourist behaviour, and psychological models of persuasiveness were included in the review. The analysis employed the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). Results: Results confirm that influencer credibility, relatability, and content consistency have significant effects on destination image and travel intention. These effects are mediated by the most important psychological processes of emotional engagement, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), parasocial interaction, and social comparison. In addition, the existing literature focused primarily on Instagram without exploring other platforms such as TikTok and Pinterest, less researched destinations, and the application of nano-influencers. Conclusions: This review highlights the need for more culturally diverse, ethically reflective, and methodologically varied research. It calls for increased focus on nano-influencers, long-term behavioural outcomes, and the integration of immersive technologies (AR/VR) and AI-generated content. Practical implications are outlined for marketers, tourism brands, and destination management organizations seeking to leverage influencer partnerships effectively and responsibly.

This study examines the moderating role of audience comments in influencer marketing. A YouTube vlog entry by a social media influencer featuring the endorsement of a brand was studied, and an experimental design featuring two conditions related to audience comments was created. The results indicate that a parasocial relationship with the influencer builds the perceived credibility of the influencer, while comments by other audience members moderate the effect. Influencer credibility positively affects brand trust and purchase intention. The findings enhance the understanding of the role of an active audience in influencer marketing.

Extensive research conducted notes that no researchers holistically consider these problems. This research focus on the role of influencers in digital marketing, and the framework consist of a (Hwang, 2018) model with a UGT (User and Gratification Theory), and some variables are influenced by the Persuasion Knowledge Model (Friestad, Wright, 1994). Additionally, researchers have done their research on one YouTube video for a particular brand, so there is a need to research a public domain in which the focus is on all platforms of social media so that the result can be holistic. Further, researchers have conducted their research on generation Y, so there is also a need to conduct this research holistically. The paper used the SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) technique to analyze the data we have collected. The present research is based on a broad framework; this is why the paper has used PLS (Partial Least Square) to evaluate the hypothetical model. The findings reveal that social media users' para-social relationship with the social media influencers has a positive and significant relationship with EWOM by social media users and a negative and not significant relationship with the purchase intention of the social media users. Thus, it shows that para-social relationships increase EWOM, not purchase intention. Moreover, social media users' para-social relationship also depicts a positive and significant relationship between influencers' credibility and EWOM. Moving further, results reveal that para-social relationships with (Parasocial Relationship -> Influencer Credibility -> Brand Trust) and (Influencer Credibility -> Brand Trust -> Purchase Intention) have a partial mediation relationship. Lastly, moderation analysis indicates that there is a two positive (MOD (PR with IC)_ -> Influencer Credibility), (MOD (IC with Willingness)_ -> Willingness to search) and 1 (MOD (IC with PK)_ -> Product Knowledge) moderation relationship. The findings serve as essential evidence for social media influencers that their credibility impacts the purchase intention of the social media user as well as their excellent para-social relationship with the social media users will highly impact their EWOM. This study indicates that the para-social relationship of social media users with the social media influencers enhances the consumers' purchase intention and increases the EWOM (electronic word of mouth) between the social media users.