Endorsement Literature Research Articles

Deeds speak louder than words: Employees' responses to supervisors' word‐oriented and deed‐oriented voice endorsement

AbstractIntegrating the voice endorsement literature and behavioral integrity theory, this research first advances the constructs and develops the scales for supervisors' word‐oriented and deed‐oriented voice endorsement in Study 1. In Study 2, we examine how supervisors' word‐oriented and deed‐oriented voice endorsement influence employee voice behavior. Results from a four‐wave field study demonstrate that supervisors' word‐oriented voice endorsement is negatively related to perceived supervisor behavioral integrity, whereas supervisors' deed‐oriented voice endorsement is positively related to perceived supervisor behavioral integrity. Perceived supervisor behavioral integrity enhances employees' willingness to discuss ideas and ultimately promotes their voice behavior. In addition, a higher (versus lower) level of explanation providing weakens the negative impact of supervisors' word‐oriented voice endorsement and strengthens the positive impact of supervisors' deed‐oriented voice endorsement on perceived supervisor behavioral integrity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Adopting Underdogs' Ideas Triggers Fairness? When and How Underachievers' Voice Endorsement Promotes Team Voice

SummaryPrevious research on employee voice endorsement has mostly focused on its antecedents. In particular, most scholars seem to consider employee voice endorsement as a factor influencing only the voicers themselves. Thus, they have ignored its interpersonal influences, such as at the team level. The present study explores the influence of underachievers' voice endorsement on team voice. Specifically, we not only examine a boundary condition in this relationship but also develop and test a new construct of supervisors' voice judgment fairness as a mediator. Data from two multi‐wave, multi‐source surveys show that when underachievers' voice quality is higher (versus lower), the positive relationship between underachievers' voice endorsement and supervisors' voice judgment fairness is stronger, which in turn enhances team voice. These results offer meaningful theoretical implications for the voice endorsement literature and practical implications for organizations.

Exploring consumer responses to official endorsement: roles of credibility and attractiveness attributes in live streaming.

Official endorsement, distinct from celebrity, expertise, and peer endorsement, introduces a new paradigm where local government officials use online platforms, particularly live streaming, to promote local products and brands. This study examines the influence of official endorsement on consumer responses using the source credibility and source attractiveness models. We developed a framework that considers official credibility and attractiveness attributes as antecedents, and consumer perceived security and enjoyment as mediators, affecting purchase intention and local brand awareness. The study also incorporates variables such as consumer region and power distance belief. Data from 594 responses obtained through an online survey were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that official credibility attributes (expertise, trustworthiness, government credibility) enhances consumer perceived security, while official attractiveness attributes (physical attractiveness, interaction friendliness, and similarity with consumers) increases consumer enjoyment. Both perceived security and enjoyment positively influence purchase intention and local brand awareness. These relationships are partially moderated by consumer region and power distance belief. This research pioneers the study of official endorsements, expanding the endorsement literature. It also provides practical insights for marketing professionals and government officials on leveraging official endorsements to enhance the value of local products and brands..

MODERATING ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT AND PRODUCT ADOPTION

This study aims to extend knowledge by linking celebrity endorsement to the adoption theory by examining the role of the media as a moderating factor. This adds value to the present knowledge of celebrity endorsement literature and further explains the media's role in the relationship. The research adopted a quantitative methodology approach. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. Having taken 500 responses from respondents, including 30 Business Executives and 470 consumers. Both stratified and simple random sampling methods were used to select the business executives and consumers, respectively. The study used a test moderation approach for the analysis of the data. The outcome of the study has proved that for an endorsement to be effective, it depends on the vibrancy of the media used that are mostly used by the targeted audience. The results suggest that if the right medium and the appropriate vehicles are used to convey messages, then the effectiveness of endorsement promo is ensured. The study found that Celebrity endorsement could be used to speed up the acceptance of products and services successfully through media moderation. This creates awareness in the communities, which comes through social learning from each other. It was revealed that media could alter and make consumers adjust their behavior towards accepting such endorsed brands, which would result in adoption. The multiplicity of the media has made the social system more cohesive and interactive and has accelerated the time taken for the spread of endorsed product information, which has improved adopters’ access to information. Management should note that the media platform drives the circulation of product and service information because it creates community awareness. This adds value to the present knowledge of celebrity endorsement literature and further explains the media's role in the relationship. Celebrity endorsement and adoption models were applied to capture media influence on customers' behavior towards endorsed products and service acceptance.

Comparing E-Commerce Micro- and Macroinfluencers in TikTok Videos: Effects of Strategies on Audience Likes, Audience Shares, and Brand Sales

This article compares how micro- and macroinfluencers promote audience likes, shares, and brand sales in TikTok videos (Douyin in China). Using insights from the extant literature, the study examines how influencers’ charisma strategy (including attractiveness), content strategy (including message quality), and bonding strategy (audience relationship) affect audience likes, audience shares, and brand sales. The findings confirm the core tenet of charisma and content strategies. Some unexpected effects of the bonding strategy that correspond to the two (micro versus macro) influencer groups are also revealed. The salience of these strategies justifies the uniqueness of influencer marketing and helps link it to the celebrity brand endorsement literature. It also shows how microinfluencers, a topic of emerging significance, can thrive. The study provides insights for future research and industry advancement.

Influencers' “organic” persuasion through electronic word of mouth: A case of sincerity over brains and beauty

AbstractDespite the growing importance of influencers' word‐of‐mouth through audiovisual content, little is known about its effect on consumers' brand evaluation, purchase intentions, and decisions. Drawing on Ohanian's source credibility framework, we conducted two studies across different influencers, product categories, and respondents' gender and tested the hypotheses using covariance‐based and partial least square structural equation modeling. Study 1 focuses on a mega‐influencer of cosmetic and beauty brands and predominantly involves female respondents. The findings show that the influencer's attractiveness affects perceptions about source expertise and source trustworthiness but not brand attitude, while source expertise predicts source trustworthiness, and both mediate the effect of source attractiveness on brand attitude. In contrast, brand attitude predicts purchase intention and mediates the impact of source credibility dimensions. Study 2 focuses on various influencers of hedonic products (lifestyle, fashion, and beauty). The results confirm the influence of source attractiveness and expertise on source trustworthiness, which ultimately predicts consumer purchase decisions. This study reveals the interdependencies between different source constructs, contributing to source credibility theory. Furthermore, we show that the effect of source dimensions that are relevant in the celebrity endorsement literature, such as source attractiveness, do not directly influence consumers' intentions and decisions in the context of influencers' electronic word of mouth. Finally, the two studies confirm that only influencers perceived as honest and sincere can influence consumers' purchase decisions.

A Consumer Typology Based on Celebrity Endorsement Factors

Celebrity endorsement is one of the most prominent advertising and promotional strategies used by organizations to seek consumer attention. It has been examined extensively by academicians in the last few decades. Still, existing studies have not focused much on understanding the typology of shoppers related to specific celebrity-related factors. This study endeavours to segment the consumer market and develop corresponding profiles based on shoppers’ importance to various celebrity factors. Survey-based research was undertaken using the mall-intercept technique, and data were collected from shoppers in India. Cluster and correspondence analysis techniques were used on the responses received from 232 survey participants. The results suggested the presence of three distinct clusters, namely ‘Indifferent-to-celebrity Buyer’, ‘Fascinated Buyer’ and ‘Star Power Buyer’. The findings suggest the clusters—fascinated buyers and star power buyers—are influenced by different components related to celebrity endorsement. The present study contributes to the marketing and celebrity endorsement literature by offering an insight into the need of identifying the differences among the consumers with respect to their propensity of acceptance of a celebrity endorser. These results would help managers in mapping them to target consumer segments with an appropriate celebrity effectively.

Celebrity endorsement in marketing from 1960 to 2021: a bibliometric review and future agenda

PurposeThis study deployed a bibliometric analysis of 604 academic articles on celebrity endorsement collected from the Scopus database from January 1960 to August 2021 (the first published article dated back to 1976). This study integrated three bibliometric analyses: timeline visualization, co-citation cluster analysis, and historical direct citation analysis. This study conducted a qualitative review to further examine the obtained quantitative results.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviewed the existing research on the celebrity endorsement domain. Based on a bibliometric review of existing literature, this study aimed to provide main theoretical roots and research trajectories and propose new research avenues concerning the theory, context, characteristics, and research methodologies adopted within the marketing discipline.FindingsThe findings revealed that the existing relevant research focused on celebrity endorsement in different periods. The main theoretical roots and research trajectories identified were developed under the influence of primary articles from co-citation analysis and historical direct citation.Research limitations/implicationsBased on the quantitative bibliometric analysis and a qualitative literature review, this study has provided a comprehensive overview of the current stage of this domain. The study also has underscored an abundance of celebrity endorsement literature and revealed the research topics that require further investigations to theoretically and empirically advance the understanding of celebrity endorsement.Practical implicationsSome topics were recommended for further research within the theory, context, characteristics, and methodology aspects. Some practical examples and suggestions are also given in the study.Originality/valueThis study proposed a bibliometric overview of celebrity endorsement in the marketing discipline, especially based on timeline visualization, co-citation cluster analysis, and historical direct citation analysis. Furthermore, this study offered a research agenda for further studies in the marketing discipline.

An integrated model of congruence and credibility in celebrity endorsement

Based on psychological theories of associative learning and self-concept, this study proposes an integrated conceptual framework of dual-path relationships between two types of congruence (product-celebrity congruence vs. self-celebrity congruence) and two dimensions of source credibility (endorser expertise vs. endorser trustworthiness), and their impact on advertising effectiveness in celebrity endorsement. Path analysis using data from college students (N = 273) in the U.S. supports the proposed dual-path relationships in the model. First, perceived endorser expertise (EE) mediates the effects of product-celebrity congruence (PCC) on attitude toward the ad (Aad). Furthermore, Aad mediates the effect of PCC on attitude toward the brand (Ab). Second, perceived endorser trustworthiness (ET) mediates the effects of self-celebrity congruence (SCC) on Aad. Furthermore, Aad mediates the effect of SCC on Ab. The new framework contributes to celebrity endorsement literature by integrating two congruence factors and two source credibility dimensions into one model, and by uncovering the serial mediation relationships between these factors and attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the brand. In addition, this study focuses on the effects of congruence between actual self and celebrity for low-risk functional products, extending previous research that has focused on the congruence between ideal self and celebrity for symbolic products. The study findings have practical implications on celebrity selection and message framing according to advertisers' positioning strategies.

Attractiveness, Trustworthiness and Purchase Intention in Social Media Instagram: The Moderating Role of The Number of Followers

This study examines the influence of influencers' credibility on purchase intention on Instagram. The framework in this study includes attractiveness and trustworthiness as an indicator of influencer credibility and independent variables, number of followers as moderator, and purchase intention as dependent variable. Respondents in this study were 200 Instagram users in Indonesia who had done via Instagram. The results show that attractiveness and trust have a positive effect on purchase intention. And, the number of followers moderates the relationship between attractiveness to purchase intention and trustworthiness to purchase intention. In addition, the results of this study also prove that the number of followers has a direct influence on purchase intention. This study contributes to the product endorsement literature, how an influencer can increase the purchase intention of a consumer on Instagram social media.

Attractiveness, Trustworthiness and Purchase Intention in Social Media Instagram: The Moderating Role of The Number of Followers

This study examines the influence of influencers' credibility on purchase intention on Instagram. The framework in this study includes attractiveness and trustworthiness as an indicator of influencer credibility and independent variables, number of followers as moderator, and purchase intention as dependent variable. Respondents in this study were 200 Instagram users in Indonesia who had done via Instagram. The results show that attractiveness and trust have a positive effect on purchase intention. And, the number of followers moderates the relationship between attractiveness to purchase intention and trustworthiness to purchase intention. In addition, the results of this study also prove that the number of followers has a direct influence on purchase intention. This study contributes to the product endorsement literature, how an influencer can increase the purchase intention of a consumer on Instagram social media.

Influencer endorsements: How advertising disclosure and source credibility affect consumer purchase intention on social media

This paper investigates the impact of social media influencer endorsements on purchase intention, more specifically, the impact advertising disclosure and source credibility have in this process. The proposed framework argues that advertising disclosure has a significant impact on source credibility subdimensions of attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise; subdimensions that positively influence consumer purchase intention. Empirical findings based on 306 German Instagram users between 18 and 34 years of age reveal that source attractiveness, source trustworthiness and source expertise significantly increase consumer purchase intention; whilst advertising disclosure indirectly influences consumer purchase intention by influencing source attractiveness. Furthermore, the results reveal that the number of followers positively influences source attractiveness, source trustworthiness as well as purchase intention. All in all, this paper makes a unique contribution to product endorsement literature, with evidence highlighting how social media influencers and advertising disclosure may be used on Instagram to effectively increase consumer purchase intention.

Celebrity endorsement: Conceptual clarifications, critical review, and future research perspectives

Although the literature on celebrity endorsement is abundant and complex, few studies have provided a review of this issue. Our article thus seeks to complement this dearth of studies by presenting a critical, prospective, and innovative review on the celebrity endorsement literature. Paying special attention to current management practices, we will first build on the concepts of endorsement and celebrity. Second, we will focus on the mechanisms of the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement and highlight their limitations. We will also propose a theoretical framework which suggests that considering consumers’ relationships with both the brand and the celebrity may provide complementary information on the effects of celebrity endorsement. Finally, we will broaden the traditional view of the usual effects of endorsement by analyzing its consequences for both the celebrity and the consumer. Through this article, we hope to help build upon existing scholarship and reinvigorate the academic vision of celebrity endorsement.

Celebrity influences on consumer decision making: new insights and research directions

ABSTRACTThroughout human history, people have expressed admiration for heroes who possessed extraordinary abilities and achieved superhuman goals. For many, modern-day celebrities fulfil this role and are prominent in various marketing communications activities. This paper addresses the literature review gaps and provides an in-depth review of the psychological and social psychological perspectives which are relevant to the celebrity endorsement literature. The contributions of this paper consist of a detailed analysis of important types of consumer-celebrity relationships, key emotional drivers (e.g. envy and admiration) of celebrity influence and the development of an original conceptual model. The conceptual model pulls together the past research and identifies new research gaps, which synthesises different research perspectives and provides a sound theoretical basis guiding future researchers and marketing managers.

Marketing communications via celebrity endorsement: an integrative review

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to perform an integrative analysis, mapping the main areas of the celebrity endorsement literature of the last 20 years, offering a taxonomy of subject subareas and a research agenda for the topic. Design/methodology/approach The research was divided into two stages: the first was a systematic review of literature, and the second consisted on complementary information based on the generation and analysis of the maps elaborated by the VOSviewer software based on the data collected. The searches for the data occurred between the months of January and March of 2017. Findings The paper provides a decentralization framework in terms of authors regarding the celebrity endorsement. The country with the largest number of research works in the area is the USA; also, the paper reveals the most cited document, also the main journals about the theme, the main keywords, the main authors and their discussions. Thereafter, the paper presents tables containing the main author’s and respective theme inside celebrity endorsement. Research limitations/implications One possible limitation of the research is that it was performed only in the Scopus database, and it may be suggested as future searches that other databases are included as well. Practical implications The results of this paper can serve as a facilitating guide for researchers and for managers that want to know more about the topic. Originality/value A categorization table was proposed containing the subthemes of celebrity endorsement that were discussed in the last 20 years and a list of their respective authors, including the following subjects: cultural comparison, congruence, adverse effects, efficacy and intention to purchase, marketing destinations, social media, models and reviews, multiple endorsements, social policy, values of brand/economic.

HOW TO INCREASE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CELEBRITY-BASED COMMUNICATION FOR LUXURY BRANDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

With the tremendous development of social media in recent years, luxury brands have welcomed social media with open arms as a means to engage with their customers. How luxury brands can make good use of social media marketing strategy is a top priority for both academicians and partitions but has not been well investigated. Many significant research gaps are present in this area warranting further explorations. For example, there is little research on the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on social media (except for Chung and Cho’ (2017) study), even less for luxury brands. In addition, previous research on social media marketing mainly focuses on western-based platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Given the mentioned research gaps, this study builds on social media marketing and celebrity endorsement literature and aims to investigate the key factors influencing the effectiveness of celebrity-based social media marketing efforts for luxury brands. In particular, China market and Sina Weibo are selected as our research setting. We propose the message characteristics, celebrity characteristics, celebrity-brand relationship and brand characteristics have impact on customer engagement in celebrity-based social media marketing activities. We combined two data sources to generate the key variables. First, we derived posts on the brand pages of 12 luxury brands (e.g., Cartier, Tiffany, BVLGARI and PIAGET) that were published on Sina Weibo from September 2016 to March 2017 on the middle of December 2017. Then celebrity-related posts were all picked out. The final sample includes more than five hundred celebrity-related brand posts. For each post, it contains three kinds of engagement measures (i.e., the number of Likes, Retweets and Comments) observed on Sina Weibo. They are dependent variables in our model. We built up regression models to test the hypotheses. To generate those variables that cannot be derived directly from the posts, a set of independent coders was recruited to quantify those variables. The exploratory results show that posts related to celebrities (e.g., brand ambassador/spokesman) take a significant part of posts on Sina Weibo brand pages.

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS IN ORGAN DONATION ADVERTISEMENTS: ALTRUISM AS A MODERATOR

Health and psychology literature suggests the use of celebrity endorsement in organ donation advertisement in changing the attitude to register as organ donors. However, very limited literature was found that discussed the effect of source attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness towards attitude in the context of organ donation. In addition, there is limited knowledge established in understanding the impact of charisma and authenticity in celebrity studies. The role of altruism as a moderator in the relationship between the attributes of celebrity endorsers and attitude towards organ donation registration is also unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to fill the gaps by determining the impact of celebrity endorser attributes towards attitude towards organ donation. This paper also examines the role of altruism as a moderator to the relationship between celebrity endorser attributes and attitude towards organ donation. The target sample of this study was university students and data collection has been conducted in various universities from four regions in Malaysia. Data from 466 university students were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 23 and SmartPLS 3.0. Of five important celebrity endorser attributes that were tested in this paper, the findings show that authenticity and charisma are great predictors to attitude towards organ donation. In addition, the relationship between charisma and attitude is found to be weakened among individuals with high altruism. The findings of this paper are beneficial as they contribute to the celebrity endorsement literature and provide insights to the relevant agencies in selecting celebrity endorsers for their social marketing campaign.

The effects of association strength on attention and product evaluation

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to test whether endorsements that show a low strength of association (bottom-up bias) benefit from increased attention and processing efforts. The current study also tested whether consumer involvement level (top-down bias) dynamically interacts with the bottom-up attention phenomena.Design/methodology/approachThrough a series of pretests, 36 potential celebrity-product matches were identified using real athletes and product brands. Two experiments were conducted: 330 individual responses (110 participants × three conditions) were obtained in a within-subjects lab experiment, and 868 participants were recruited for a between-subjects online experiment. Linear mixed modeling and moderated mediation analysis were performed.FindingsThe relationships between the strength of image associations and attention time to endorsements and recall and choice consideration of endorsed brands were U-shaped and curvilinear. Attention largely mediated the relationship between the strength of association and recall/choice. Involvement effects were diluted by the strength of association effects, rejecting top-down attentional control.Practical implicationsBrand managers for both products and celebrities are recommended to search for corresponding not only image-matched partners but also endorsement partners with dissonant pre-existing images.Originality/valueThe majority of the existing endorsement literature has conventionally suggested that congruence between the endorser and the endorsed property, rather than incongruence, induces consumers’ positive endorsement evaluation. This study constructs important theoretical advancements to the existing literature by empirically proving that through an attentional process, an endorsement contract, conventionally perceived as mismatched, can also generate positive outcomes.

Star power: the evolution of celebrity endorsement research

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to summarize the celebrity endorsement literature to identify trends and challenges related to key research areas. Based on a critical review of existing literature, this paper presents several recommendations regarding potential future directions of celebrity endorsement research in hospitality and tourism.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a critical review of literature from both the general marketing and hospitality and tourism fields.FindingsOver the past decade, significant progress has been made in hospitality and tourism celebrity endorsement research, with several new constructs being revealed and tested. However, the extant findings are rather mixed and inconclusive because industry features have not been systematically examined and study contexts and samples have varied widely. To advance the hospitality and tourism celebrity endorsement research, an extended meaning transfer model with six propositions is proposed. Several areas for future research are also discussed.Practical implicationsThis paper offers up-to-date findings on celebrity endorsement to practitioners, and the proposed extended meaning transfer model can provide marketers useful guidelines on selecting appropriate endorsers for their products/brands.Originality/valueIn previous studies, scholars mainly used one or more of the three types of celebrity endorser selection models and only examined specific antecedents of effective endorsement. To date, researchers have not yet conceptualized a modified model that captures the unique features of the hospitality and tourism industry and reconciles the mixed findings in the extant literature. This paper proposes an extended meaning transfer model to explain the endorser selection process, provides a good foundational understanding of the extant celebrity endorsement research and makes several recommendations regarding future research directions for hospitality and tourism scholars with implications for practitioners.

Beyond the Firm: Brand Endorsement, Reputation, and Marketplace Prominence

Management researchers have long been interested in the impact of endorsement on firm performance. While previous research has focused predominantly on how differences between endorsing parties moderates the impact of their endorsements on target firms, we seek to better understand the opposite side of the equation, namely how differences between firms influences the value of endorsements they receive. The present study examines endorsements within the major home appliance industry over the years 2006- 2015. We focus on a largely unexplored type of endorsement within the endorsement literature, specifically brand endorsement, and the impact that those endorsements have on market share growth. We argue that not only does receiving endorsement positively impact the performance of firms’ brands, but that the value of those endorsements are moderated by the brands’ own reputations and prominence in the market.