 Trust me, trust me not: A nuanced view of influencer marketing on social mediaDo Yuon Kim and Hye-Young Kim Journal of Business Research, 2021, vol. 134, issue C, 223-232 Abstract: Social media influencers are widely employed as a marketing strategy as they successfully attain trust from followers. Applying the social exchange theory and its principle of reciprocity, this study investigated whether the source characteristics of an influencer (i.e., expertise, authenticity, physical attractiveness, homophily) can function as relational resources in the formation of follower trust. Whether followers’ trust in the influencer leads to their loyalty to the influencer and desirable marketing outcomes (i.e., product attitude, purchase intention) was also examined. Results revealed that trust mediated the impacts of expertise, authenticity, and homophily on loyalty and marketing outcomes. However, physical attractiveness was not significant in building relational trust. Also, the moderating role of relationship strength was confirmed in authenticity-trust and trust-loyalty linkages. The findings suggest implications for the strategic use of influencer marketing and provide a better understanding of persuasion mechanisms manifested in influencer-follower relationships. Keywords: Social media; Influencer; Social exchange theory; Reciprocity; Trust; Relationship strength (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:134:y:2021:i:c:p:223-232 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.05.024 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.