Source Credibility Model Research Articles

Pengunaan NARS Power Players Sebagai Virtual Brand Ambassadors Untuk Memengaruhi Konsumen

Virtual brand ambassadors have become a new type of brand spokesperson with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). NARS Cosmetics, a pioneering cosmetics company, has introduced their own virtual brand ambassadors known as NARS Power Players. However, the existing literature has not yet answered whether the attributes of virtual entities can shape consumer response. The novelty of this research lies in its focus on NARS Cosmetics' virtual brand ambassadors, the NARS Power Players, which are a new phenomenon in the field of brand representation. While virtual brand ambassadors have emerged with AI technology, there is a gap in the existing literature regarding how the attributes of these virtual entities specifically impact consumer attitudes. This study addresses this gap by investigating the influence of credibility, attractiveness, congruence, and human-likeness of NARS Power Players on consumer attitudes. Additionally, the study incorporates several relevant theories, including Stimulus-Response Theory, Source Credibility Model, Source Attractiveness Model, Match-up Hypothesis, and Uncanny Valley Theory, to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the impact of virtual brand ambassadors. The use of quantitative methodology and the specific focus on NARS Power Players contribute to the novelty of this research, offering insights that can further enhance our understanding of consumer responses to virtual brand representatives.This study used quantitative methodology by distributing online questionnaires to 112 respondents. The results showed that the credibility, congruence, and human-likeness of virtual brand ambassadors had a positive and significant influence on consumer attitudes. However, attractiveness did not have a significant influence on consumer attitudes. Researchers can further explore this topic by conducting investigative qualitative research on consumer perceptions and comparative analysis with human endorsers and non-human endorsers.

Unique attributes of official endorsers in destination marketing

Along with the digital transformation of the administrative environment and the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, official endorsers have nurtured a new channel for tourism destination marketing, which is of great significance to local economic recovery. However, less attention has been paid to the different effects of endorsement between ordinary endorsers and official endorsers, mainly due to their contrasting social statuses. To bridge the research gap, the source credibility model and social identity theory are integrated to construct the distinctive attributes of officials, as well as structural equation model is utilized to explore the underlying mechanism of official endorsement. Findings indicate that trustworthiness, the sense of authority, expertise, and attractiveness have direct positive effects on official identification, while also indirectly influencing tourists’ attitudes toward the destination through official identification. These findings provide theoretical and managerial implications for the local government managers involved in tourism destination marketing.

The relationship of social media celebrities’ attributes and online consumer behaviour towards Malaysian purchase intention

The goal of this study is to investigate the impact that online celebrities had and still have on Malaysian customers' intents and purchasing behaviours. The use and gratification theory, the source credibility model and the source attractiveness model are the three theoretical frameworks that form the foundation of this study. These models provide the foundation for this research. 384 respondents who are older than 18 and use social media provided answers to the questionnaire which takes the form of an online survey. SPSS software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used for the data analysis and regression analysis was chosen as the method to use in order to establish the significance of hypotheses based on the data collected in order to determine whether or not the data collected supported the hypotheses. This study found that in order for social media celebrities to successfully influence consumers' intentions to make a purchase through the internet, they need to demonstrate that they are reliable, appealing and knowledgeable. In the context of Malaysia, these are the characteristics that are particularly important in determining whether or not a customer will make a purchase over the internet.

Research on the Effectiveness of Virtual Endorsers: A Study Based on the Match-Up Hypothesis and Source Credibility Model

In the digital era, businesses are actively integrating advanced technology and innovative marketing strategies to achieve sustained growth. Notably, virtual endorsers play a key role in driving enterprises towards digital transformation in the field of digital marketing. Understanding consumer attitudes towards the use of virtual endorsers in digital marketing is especially important for enterprises employing digital tools to realize a sustainable business model. To this end, this research adopts the match-up hypothesis and source credibility model as its theoretical framework, delving into the impact of virtual endorser–product fit and credibility features (attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness) on product attitudes, as well as the interactive effects of these features with product types. We collected feedback data from 376 participants through an online questionnaire and validated our hypotheses using the PLS-SEM model. The results demonstrate that virtual endorser–product fit positively affects credibility, with higher credibility further enhancing consumers’ attitudes toward products. Additionally, the source credibility model partially mediates the relationship between the match-up hypothesis and product attitudes, with attractiveness exerting the most significant impact. Finally, we observed variations in consumer attitudes toward products endorsed by virtual endorsers based on product types. The findings of this study provide a solid theoretical basis for a deeper understanding of consumer attitudes towards the application of virtual endorsers in marketing and offer practical suggestions for businesses to leverage digital tools for sustainable development.

Social Media Influencer: The Influence of Followers’ Purchase Intention through Online Engagement and Attitude

Marketing collaboration with social media influencers is rapidly developing into a promotional strategy. It is considered the most effective for marketers worldwide, including in Indonesia. Although effective, marketers face challenges in selecting the right Social Media Influencer (SMI) according to the company’s brand due to the high growth in the number of SMIs. The research aimed to examine the relationship between the influence of SMI credibility based on the source credibility model and the advertising value of SMI content on attitude toward SMI and online engagement. Then, it led to purchase intention as a determinant of the success of product/brand promotion activities. The research used the Stimulus-Organism-Responses (SOR) framework. The number of samples used was 261 social media users who followed at least one SMI and were domiciled in several regions of Indonesia. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) was used as a data analysis method, with software analysis tools of Smart PLS Ver.3.2. The results show that SMI’s credibility based on the source credibility model and content value based on advertising value act as a stimulus. They have a significant and positive effect on followers’ attitude and online engagement. They also subsequently influence purchase intention. Both attitude toward SMI and online engagement mediates the relationship between source credibility and the advertising value of content on purchase intention. These findings can help marketers’ strategies in determining the right SMI to use.

Exploring the impact of beauty vloggers’ credible attributes, parasocial interaction, and trust on consumer purchase intention in influencer marketing

The growing usage of digital platforms has made influencer marketing the most cost-effective marketing tool, especially for products consumed by young digital natives. Among other products, these include fashion and beauty-related items such as cosmetics, whose online marketing has created a particular category of influencers called ‘beauty vloggers.’ By applying the source credibility model, this study investigates whether beauty vloggers’ credible attributes (trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness) help consumers build trust towards them and whether followers’ trust leads to desirable marketing outcomes (increased purchase intention). Prior literature used the source credibility model in a fragmented manner. However, this study enhances the holistic framework of social media influencers’ impact on purchase intention by investigating all three credible attributes. It specifically addresses the significance of cultivating trust between beauty vloggers and followers, exploring the impact of vloggers’ credible attributes on consumer purchase intention. Additionally, beauty vloggers periodically engage in parasocial interactions to increase closeness with their audiences, affecting consumer behaviour. This study addresses the limited research on the consequences of parasocial interactions in an emerging market context, examining the impact of beauty vloggers’ repeated interactions on consumer behaviour, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of purchase intention using parasocial interaction as an antecedent. The research was conducted on consumers belonging to the age group of 16–45 who use social media platforms daily. Using structural equation modelling via SmartPLS software, the statistical analysis was done on 357 North Indian respondents. The study explores the influence of beauty vloggers on consumers’ purchasing behaviour in the Indian context. The results demonstrate that beauty vloggers’ credibility traits help in influencing consumer behaviour. The findings also revealed that trust partially mediates the impact of credible attributes of beauty vloggers and consumers’ purchase intention. Additionally, the results show that customers’ purchasing decisions might be influenced by repeated parasocial interactions done by beauty vloggers if they perceive them as credible information sources. The findings of the study contribute to help industrial marketers and practitioners of cosmetic companies use influencer marketing strategically in order to increase market sales.

Exploring the intermediary effects of TikTok on Generation Z’s visit intention

Short video applications, specifically TikTok, have been widely used in the tourism industry to engage audiences during COVID-19 and the post-pandemic era. However, there is limited research on TikTok's influence on domestic tourism recovery post-COVID. Guided by the technology acceptance model (TAM), social cognitive theory, and source credibility model, this study proposes a research model to examine the effectiveness of social media influencer TikTok videos on Generation Z's visit intentions towards domestic tourism destinations in Malaysia. 201 Generation Z Malaysians participated in the self-administered online questionnaire and data were analysed using IBM SPSS and SmartPLS 4.0. The study highlighted the significant mediating effect of self-efficacy in the extended TAM model, indicating the influences of TikTok-related perceptions and SMI credibility in enhancing the audience's self-efficacy to travel to the marketed destination. This study extends existing TAM research on utilising TikTok videos with SMI as a domestic destination marketing tool in the post-COVID-19 era, offering valuable insights to practitioners on harnessing the strengths of TikTok as an effective destination marketing tool and fostering a sense of self-efficacy among tourists, thereby contributing to the sustainable recovery of the industry.

The Effectiveness of Food Vlogger Review on Purchase Intention Toward Food Product (Study on Mega Influencer)

Objectives: The objective of this research is to investigate the factors, such as source credibility (attractiveness, trustworthiness, and competence) and brand-influence match up congruence, that might contribute to better customer attitudes and buy intentions. The study is focused on millennials and Gen Z between the ages of 18 and 34 who have recently seen food vloggers review products on Youtube.
 Method: This research utilizes using an online questionnaire that is made with Google Form distributed to 265 respondents. The full-scale data is analyzed through SmartPLS and bootstrapping analysis to test for reliability, validity, and the research’s hypotheses to identify the relationship between variables.
 Results: The findings of the research shows that trustworthiness, expertise, similarity, liking, and familiarity value has a positive and significant relationship with customer attitude toward food product. Customer attitude toward food product also has a positive and significant relationship with purchase intention. Then both Attractiveness and Brand-Influencer Match-up does not have a positive influence significant effect on customer attitude toward food product.
 Conclusion: The results of this research, it can be concluded there are 6 variables that measure food vlogger reviews that are included in the source credibility model, namely trustworthiness, attractiveness, expertise, liking, familiarity, and similarity. The more trustworthiness, expertise, similarity, liking, familiarity felt by food vloggers by customers, the more positive customer attitudes towards food products will be.
 
 
 Key words:
 Youtube, Food vloggers, Food Product, Customer Attitude, Purchase Intention

A Review of the Mechanism of the Influencer

Opportunities for marketing innovation have emerged in the new media era as a result of the fast diversification of social media platforms and the power of social media influencers. Influencer marketing, which includes user-generated content, multi-agent information distribution guided by social media influencers, and the expansion of influencers' advocacy and endorsement of goods and services, has its roots on social media platforms. The majority of recent studies on influencer marketing concentrate on specific influencers and followers. On the basis of the source credibility model, cognitive consistency theory, matching hypothesis, trust transfer theory, meaning transfer theory, etc., it investigates the influence processes of influencers on specific followers. The main topics of the current studies on the influencer marketing mechanism are the interactions between influencers and businesses or products, and the relationships between influencers and customers. By reviewing the latest developments in current research, this study sorts out and analyzes the mechanism of influencer marketing and interprets how influencers influence followers' behavior from the perspectives of sociology and psychology.

Kredibilitas Endorser Perempuan dan Laki-laki pada Iklan Pantene Miracle Hair Supplement

<p><em>This study aims to show that there are differences in the credibility of female and male celebrity endorsers in Pantene Miracle Hair Supplement video ads on Youtube. As well as to show that there are different responses between female and male audiences. The importance of using endorsers as communicators in advertising is because it is considered to affect the persuasion and process of communicating the information to their audiences, especially endorsers with strong credibility. In addition, the credibility of celebrity endorsers and gender endorsers is must be considered when targeting audiences with certain genders. A number of previous comparative studies compared the credibility of female and male celebrity endorsers by female and male audiences show contradict results. This study uses the source credibility model that suggest by Ohanian. This type of research is quantitative comparative with survey methods. The sampling technique uses nonprobability with quota sampling and use 125 participants. The hypothesis tested by paired and independent t-tests. This study finds results that; female celebrity endorsers are more credible than male celebrity endorsers; there is no difference in credibility for female celebrity endorsers by female and male audiences; Also, male celebrity endorsers are considered more credible by female audiences than by male audiences.</em></p>

The Influence of Source Credibility and Inspiration on Tourists’ Travel Planning Through Travel Vlogs

This study investigated the effects of viewing travel vlog experiences on online tourists’ travel planning behavior. Based on integrating cognitive emotion theory (CET) and the source credibility model (SCM), this study illuminates the mechanics of inspiration formation and its mediation role between credible vlogger characteristics and travel planning behavior. The study surveyed 423 online tourists in Vietnam who use travel vlogs to plan their travels. The study found that sincerity, professionalism, and attraction all positively affect inspiration, but attraction had the biggest effect. Inspiration partially mediated the relationship between sincerity and travel planning behavior, while the influence of professionalism and attraction on travel planning behavior was fully mediated by inspiration. The study suggests that travel vloggers need to create products that clearly portray their ethos and can connect emotionally with online tourists. Hospitality and tourism businesses should collaborate with travel vloggers to enhance their brand image.

Impact of social media influencers' credibility on millennial consumers' green purchasing behavior: a concept paper on personal and social identities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide the theoretical insights with regard to the green purchasing intention–behavior gap and the role played by social media influences in abating this gap. This paper takes into consideration a wider aspect with regard to the antecedents of behavioral intention through personal and social identities in place of the antecedents presented in the theory of planned behavior and social-identity theory. Furthermore, as the theories lack an explanation of how to reduce the intention–behavior gap, this paper also argues the source credibility model (SCM) in explaining the impact that social media influences can have on the behavioral gap. Design/methodology/approach Hypothetical deductive method is proposed for this concept paper under the positivism research paradigm. Findings Not applicable as this is a concept paper. However, the paper discusses the theoretical and managerial implications. Research limitations/implications This is a concept paper. Yes this paper discusses the theoretical, managerial, and social/ecological implications. Practical implications This paper highlights the relevance of consumers' personal and social identities when consumers make purchasing decisions regarding green products. How managers can make marketing strategies, based on credibility model, involving social media influences as product endorsers and ambassadors, as well as the policy makers to design products, earmark consumer behavior and to conduct marketing campaigns in time to come. Social implications As to how policies can be designed and adopted for bio-based economies where sustainability and circularity are given priority and to increase the attention of businesses moving toward sustainable practices. Originality/value Original thought developed based on research, theoretical and market gaps.

Examining the Role of Perceived Source Credibility on Social Media Influencer’s Ascribed Opinion Leadership

Building on the theoretical framework of the source credibility model, this study aims to investigate how the different dimensions of social media influencer’s (SMI) perceived source credibility, respectively expertise, attractiveness, and trustworthiness impact on influencers’ ascribed opinion leadership, and ultimately affect social media users’ purchase intentions. A cross-cultural analysis focused on the German and Portuguese markets of Instagram users was implemented. Data were collected with an online survey distributed in Germany and Portugal, resulting in a sample of 467 participants, 214 from Germany and 253 from Portugal. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM). Findings confirmed that expertise and attractiveness enhance the influencer’s ascribed opinion leadership. On the contrary, trustworthiness does not influence ascribed opinion leadership. The influencer’s ascribed opinion leadership promotes purchase intention. This study advances influencer marketing literature by deepening our understanding on the influence of online opinion leaders on social media user’s behavioral intentions.

Analysis of celebrity endorsement usage trends: a systematic literature review

This systematic literature review aims to analyze studies on the use of endorsement marketing by celebrities. The data comes from several sources from Crossref collected between 2020 and 2022. Keywords used include "Social Media Marketing," "Endorsement Marketing," and "Celebrity Endorsement." From this search process, fifteen articles related to the topic were found. The results show that the source attractiveness and credibility model is a model that brands trust to have an effective impact because the determining factor for the success of celebrity endorsement lies in the source or messenger, namely the celebrity. Celebrity endorsement through celebrity social media accounts is increasingly popular as a social media marketing strategy because it influences buying behavior.
 Keywords: social media marketing, endorsement, celebrity endorsement.

Celebrity political party endorsement and voter behaviour: a post-election empirical evidence

ABSTRACT The study submits a piece of real-life empirical evidence on voter choice influenced by celebrity endorsement in an election other than the dominant evidence of measured intentions in the scant literature on celebrity political party endorsements and voter behaviour. It responds to calls for more research on the subject, which is motivated by country-specific political nuances and their associated voter behaviour variations that affect measures of celebrity political endorsements. Drawing on the source credibility model, the study examined the influence of celebrity endorsements on voters’ choice of political party brands in Ghana. Attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise were conceptualised as a tri-component construct that influenced voters’ choices of endorsed political parties at the polls. Voters’ political salience was included in the model as a moderating variable, with voters’ age and gender as control variables. Leveraging scales from extant literature, data was collected from 1463 voters right after participating in the 2020 Ghanaian general elections using purposive sampling and the intercept mode. The results indicate positive relationships between trustworthiness, attractiveness, and voters’ political brand choice. While political salience moderated the relationship between trustworthiness and voters’ choice, the control variables provided no support for their hypothesised relationships. Compelling implications and recommendations are discussed.

Homefluencers' endorsement of millennial consumers' purchase intention in new normal

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine how “homefluencers” sponsored posts on millennial consumers' purchase intention in the international marketing sphere can be impacted in the new normal by drawing on source credibility, parasocial interaction (PSI) and persuasion knowledge model (PKM) theory.Design/methodology/approachThis research applies structural equation modeling (SEM) and mediation analysis as the data analysis method using non-probability purposive sampling of a total of 217 local millennial Instagram and Facebook users, who have followed homefluencers sponsored posts in fashion-beauty, yoga-fitness and food sectors.FindingsBased on hypothesis testing, advertising recognition strongly mediates purchase intention with the indirect effects of expertise and trustworthiness than attractiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThis research extends the international marketing literature on source credibility, PSI, PKM and purchase intention theory in the new normal by proposing “Homefluencer's Endorsement Model for Purchase Intention” (HEMPI). Specifically, the mediating role of ad recognition of homefluencers sponsorship disclosure (#paidad, #sponsored), positively affects “change-of-persuasion meaning” on Instagram and Facebook, where research is rare.Practical implicationsThis research provides valuable suggestions for global brand owners, consumers and authorities of Instagram and Facebook to consider post-COVID consumer behavior highlighting homefluencers sponsored collaboration.Originality/valueThe authors have contributed to the use of the source credibility model and PSI to identify the antecedents in determining how the homefluencer's effective sponsorship disclosure can positively activate ad recognition on millennial consumers' purchase intention in a crisis period from an international standpoint with the practical implications in post-COVID.

Creating Persuasive Environmental Communicators: Spokescharacters as Endorsers in Promoting Sustainable Behaviors

Effective communication strategies are vital to educating consumers about sustainable behaviors given that environmental problems such as climate change are a result of excessive human activities. This study examined the suitability of using anthropomorphic characters (i.e., spokescharacters) in environmental communication and investigated traits that make them persuasive communicators in promoting sustainable behaviors. Using the Source Credibility Model and Matchup Hypothesis as theoretical lenses, this study explored spokescharacter traits that can enhance their persuasiveness, particularly their ability to influence consumers’ recycling attitudes and behavioral intentions. An online questionnaire was administered to 314 U.S consumers recruited through Amazon’s MTurk platform. Research hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The results show that spokescharacter traits such as likability, expertise, and relevance positively influence spokescharacter trustworthiness, which in turn enhances the recycling attitudes and recycling intentions of consumers. Overall, the results suggest that spokescharacters can be effective communicators to promote sustainable behaviors like recycling. Theoretical and practical implications are offered, and future research directions are outlined.

Source Credibility and Emotions generated by Robot and Human Influencers: The perception of luxury brand representatives

Social Robots are increasingly encroaching into our daily lives by interacting with humans on the Internet. Luxury brands use Social Media Influencers to create brand awareness and enrich their emotional values. As the first study on a trending and largely unexplored topic, this paper aims to better understand the perception of Social Media Human Influencers and Social Media Robot Influencers by luxury brand representatives using the Source Credibility model, including Social-Emotional elements. Our study deepens our understanding of Brand-to-Social Media Influencers' relationships, mobilizing the wheel of emotions to analyze perceived emotions when using Social Robots to promote brand content and values. The study mobilizes a qualitative approach including 13 semi-structured interviews with luxury brand representatives. Our findings add to the Source Credibility model by identifying that Perceived Humanness enriches the brand perception analysis of Social Media Influencers. Our results also highlight the key emotions expressed by luxury brand representatives during their collaboration with both Human and Robot Influencers, favoring the acceptance of RI for luxury brands' future social media communications.

Celebrity Endorsement Influence on Destination Image

Abstract Destination image influences the tourist decision-making process, and their intention to visit, revisit and recommend. Therefore, a positive destination image is considered one of the key destination success factors. Tourists will form the image according to their own or others’ experiences and information related to the destination, one option to provide destination information is one of the most effective promotional tools called celebrity endorsement. With the assumption that a positive celebrity image will be transferred to the destination, this study will explore the effect of celebrity endorsement on destination image. The study aims to test the celebrity endorsement effect on destination image through the source attractiveness model, source credibility model, and the Match-up model. Data were collected using the online survey technique, the sample size was 204 respondents. Research hypotheses were tested by regression analysis. Results indicated that celebrity attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise, and match-up impact the destination image. The theoretical contribution is reflected in new information regarding the role of celebrity endorsement in tourism, which is limited in foreign and domestic scientific literature. As a practical contribution, the study provides information that may be useful to tourism service providers in creating a promotional campaign.

Influencer marketing effectiveness: the mechanisms that matter

Purpose The continued evolution of influencer marketing has created a need to better understand influencer marketing effectiveness. With brands increasingly partnering with influencers, research is yet to provide an integrated perspective examining the critical role of both parties. This study aims to draw on the source credibility model and signaling theory to explain the mechanisms that matter in influencer marketing effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach The proposed model of influencer marketing effectiveness is analyzed using partial least squares with data from 281 followers of social media influencers. Findings The authors establish influencer characteristics of popularity and attractiveness as heuristic cues that inform judgments of influencer efficacy. Further, category involvement and altruistic motives for collaboration are shown to moderate followers’ reliance on these heuristic cues. Then, a sequential mediating effect demonstrates the critical roles of the influencer and partner brand in three desired outcomes: enhanced perception of brand authenticity, enhanced brand engagement and positive attitudes toward influencer posts. Research limitations/implications Future research should consider other heuristic cues that could inform influencer efficacy judgments and switch the focus toward the partner brand’s impact on such judgments. Practical implications A step-by-step visual framework is presented to help marketers and influencers translate these findings into key responsibilities for developing more effective and collaborative partnerships. Originality/value Besides presenting an integrated perspective, signaling theory provides an original lens for explaining influencer marketing effectiveness, addressing the need to expand the theoretical boundaries of influencer marketing research.