• 한국의류산업학회지
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.1-14
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• 2024

Virtual influencers, who are emerging as new players in digital marketing, impact consumers' purchase intentions. They promote positive perceptions and mimetic consumption of specific brands or products through interactions with followers. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of the characteristics of virtual influencers on the purchase intention for fashion products through the consumers' mimetic desire. As characteristics of virtual influencers, five factors were set: reality, attractiveness, professionalism, trustworthiness, and curiosity. Data for analysis were collected through an online questionnaire from the 8th to the 15th of August 2023, and 268 data points in total were analyzed using SPSS and Process Macro 4.3. The results of the study showed that the characteristics of virtual influencers all positively affected mimetic desire and purchase intention for fashion products. Moreover, it was found that mimetic desire has a mediating effect between the five characteristics of virtual influencers and the purchase intention for fashion products. Mimetic desire fully mediates the relationship between reality and the intention to purchase fashion products, and partially mediates the relationship between attractiveness, professionalism, trustworthiness, and curiosity and the purchase intention for fashion products. These findings further enhance the understanding of the relationship between virtual influencers and consumer behavior and identify the relationship between virtual influencers, mimetic desire, and fashion product purchase intentions. Consequently, leveraging virtual influencers strategically in digital marketing, the fashion industry can amplify positive brand perceptions, drive consumer engagement, and ultimately foster increased purchase intent.

• 산경연구논집
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.35-51
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• 2021

Purpose: As the digital environment has expanded opportunity for consumers to acquire information from social media and social network services(SNS), With this environment, influencer has not only promoted products, but also participated in distribution and influencing on their followers. Despite the increasing interest in influencers, there has not been enough research on the structure of fashion influencer, relationship of immersion and purchase intention. This study examined the effects of fashion influencers' characteristics to the immersion of relationship with followers and purchase intention. Research design, data and methodology: For data collection, a pilot survey and the final survey were conducted. The pilot survey data was conducted to 50 female SNS users following fashion influencers. Based on the pilot tests, questionnaire was revised and the final survey was conducted online from august 22 to September 1, 2019 to female SNS users who have followed fashion influencer. A total of 408 data were collected, and exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equational modeling techniques were employed for the data analyses using AMOS 26.0 and SPSS 26.0. Results: First, five factors were extracted for the fashion influencers' characteristics: interactivity, similarity, reliability, expertise and attractiveness. Second, fashion influences' reliability, expertise, similarity, interactivity have a positive (+) effects on relationship immersion; however, attractiveness has no effect on relationship immersion with followers and fashion influencer. It was also determined that relationship immersion had positive (+) influences on purchase intention. The relationship immersion has been found to have a partially mediated effect and similarity has complete mediated effects between interactivity, reliability, and expertise of fashion influencers and purchasing intentions. In terms of fashion opinion leadership, it was found to have a significant influence on purchase intention only for low fashion leadership groups. Conclusions: The present study found the structural relationships among the influencer characteristics, relationship immersion and purchase intentions to provide framework for succeeding research. This research revealed academic association of intention of purchasing through use of fashion social media and fashion influencer marketing. The results also showed the practical implications that fashion influencers' expertise and reliability perceived by their followers are key determinants to success in influencer marketing.

• 한국의류산업학회지
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.719-730
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• 2022

This study explored the impact of beauty influencers' characteristics and product characteristics on new product acceptance intentions and studied the mediating effects of consumer trust in this process. A survey was conducted from February 22, 2021, to February 28, 2021, with Gen Y and Gen Z women in China, and 379 questionnaires were analyzed. The conclusions are as follows: First, the characteristics of beauty influencers are authenticity and expertise, similarity, attractiveness, interactivity, familiarity, and trustworthiness; product characteristics are cost, image, product quality, product perception, sales promotion, and sustainability. Second, partial beauty influencers' characteristics and partial product characteristics have a positive impact on consumer confidence and acceptance intention of the new product. Third, the mediating effect of consumer trust in the process by which beauty influencers' characteristics and product characteristics influence the intention of new product acceptance was determined. Therefore, when beauty companies use influencers in marketing, it is necessary to understand their characteristics, consider their professionality and authenticity, examine their reliability, and assess their ability to form connections with images and viewers that match their products. Additionally, to increase the acceptance intention of new products, companies should present the price of high-quality products, product sensibilities, and corporate images of products and establish measures that can positively affect consumers' acceptance intention of new products by combining them with the characteristics of beauty influencers.

• 한국의류학회지
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.56-72
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• 2021

This study examines the effect of influencer characteristics (attractiveness, reliability, expertise, and intimacy) and consumer need satisfaction (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) on attachment to influencer, content flow, and purchase intention. The moderating effect of gender was also investigated. Survey data collected from 515 male and female Instagram users were submitted for analysis. The research findings are as follows. First, the reliability and intimacy of influencers had a positive effect on attachment to influencers whereas attractiveness and intimacy had positive effects on content flow. Second, the relatedness and competence that consumers felt during the use of influencer content had a positive effect on attachment to influencers whereas the autonomy had a positive effect on content flow. Third, the attachment to influencers increased the intention to purchase products introduced by influencers via content flow. Fourth, there were some gender differences in the relationships of attachment to influencer, content flow, and purchase intention. Implications were suggested based on the results.

• 한국의류산업학회지
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.27-35
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• 2019

Fashion Influencer of Instagram get a lot of attention from the public, and they play a major role in shaping peoples' taste. This study attempts to analyze the fashion design of fashion influencer in Instagram. The data was collected from Apr. 15th to April 30th, 2017, and the pictures were collected from May, 2016 to April, 2017. Total of 460 pictures were collected based on the number of "likes". The method of study was content analysis and the cross tabulation analysis and frequency using SPSS Statics 24 Based on the above results, influencers were mostly models that have many "likes" on their photos. Many of influencers were wearing black, white, or blue dresses that do not have any patterns. Many others were wearing indigo, black, or white jeans with T-shirts. In summary of the above contents, influencer also found out that the materials of their clothes were both hard and soft, and that the casual style was the most popular among influencer, and that influencer also liked elegant, modern, mannish, or sexy looks. Therefore, through this study, it was found that the fashion design of influencer had a unique fashion image. Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and Blake Lively are the representative influencers of fashion instagram. Gigi Hadid was a casual and manish image, Kendall Jenner was a casual and sexy image, and Blake Lively was an elegant image.

• 한국의류학회지
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• 제48권2호
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• pp.282-299
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• 2024

This study aimed to examine the impact of virtual influencers' characteristics on purchase intentions through attitudes toward the influencer and the brand, and to identify which factors are important depending on involvement. We used a scenario-based online survey of 320 female consumers in their twenties and thirties, and analyzed their responses through structural equation modeling using AMOS 21.0. Virtual influencers' attractiveness, reliability, familiarity, and virtuality had significant effects on consumers' attitudes toward those influencers, while their attractiveness, familiarity, and virtuality had significant effects on consumers' brand attitudes. Notably, in contrast to the other variables, virtuality had a negative effect. In addition, consumers' attitudes toward the virtual influencer significantly affected their brand attitudes and purchase intentions. We also analyzed which characteristics had significant impacts on high- and low-involvement groups. We found that reliability had the greatest influence on purchase intentions in the high-involvement group and that familiarity had the greatest influence on purchase intentions in the low-involvement group, which confirmed that the variables affecting purchase intentions differ depending on the level of involvement.

• 패션비즈니스
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.90-103
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• 2024

The advancement of information and communication technologies has led to the rise of social media, giving rise to a new type of celebrity known as the "social media influencer". Social media influencers exert their influence not only by promoting products for various companies and brands but also by launching their own businesses. In other words, influencers leverage their credibility to create value in multiple markets as human brands, based on their unique characteristics and diverse images. Nowadays, social media influencers have become a type of human brand, supported by followers who enthusiastically engage in the influencers' businesses, a phenomenon also known as social shopping. Based on the human brand theory and doppelgänger effects, this study aims to investigate the impact of influencers' credibility, specifically their expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness on consumers' social shopping behaviors. Additionally, it examines the influence of consumers' desire to imitate influencers on their social shopping behaviors. A survey conducted with 300 female social media users revealed that trustworthiness and attractiveness significantly influenced imitation intentions and social shopping behaviors, while expertise did not show significant effects. Furthermore, imitation intentions had a significant impact on social shopping behaviors. These findings suggest that the attributes consumers perceive in influencers as human brands evoke a desire to imitate them, ultimately leading to social shopping behaviors.

• 복식문화연구
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• 제26권5호
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• pp.777-792
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• 2018

As social media has become a part of daily life, new types of online opinion leaders are emerging, and in turn, changes in traditional fashion leaders and leadership are expected. Considering such changes, this study attempted to reexamine fashion leader types and influence characteristics from the perspective of college students as fashion followers. Students were asked to write an essay identifying their fashion leader and how and why they were influenced by him or her. Sixty essays entitled "My Fashion Leader" were collected and content-analyzed. A total of 78 fashion leaders were identified and categorized into four types including celebrities, social media influencers, friends/family/acquaintances, and people seen on the street in order of frequency. Influence characteristics of the identified fashion leaders included superiority, role model, similarity, and familiarity. Similarity was observed across all types of fashion leaders, while superiority and familiarity were identified for celebrities and friends/family/acquaintances, respectively. The results imply that celebrities, mostly those from the TV, movie, and music industries, are still important as fashion leaders in society regardless of their communication style, while friends/family/acquaintances as opinion leaders within a consumer group are important to provide information, advice, and help. However, social media influencers between the two groups are expanding the influence.

• 한국의류산업학회지
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.88-98
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• 2024

With the growing preference among Chinese consumers for purchasing beauty products through social media networks (SNS), influencer marketing has recently emerged as a crucial strategy for maximizing word-of-mouth effects. This study aims to ascertain the impact of SNS beauty influencers' characteristics on trustworthiness and consumers' intentions to engage in word-of-mouth promotion. Furthermore, the study seeks to explore the moderating role of consumer involvement in the relationship between SNS beauty influencer characteristics and the trust consumers place in them. As part of an empirical analysis, an online survey was administered to 259 Chinese female consumers who had previously purchased beauty products through influencers on SNS. The data gathered were scrutinized by conducting multiple and hierarchical regression analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings indicated that the attributes of "expertise,"' "intimacy," and "homogeneity" in SNS beauty influencers significantly affect influencer trust, whereas "charm" does not have a significant impact. Moreover, consumer involvement was found to moderate the relationship between SNS beauty influencer characteristics (expertise, intimacy, charm, and homogeneity) and influencer trust. Additionally, influencer trust positively influenced the intention to engage in word-of-mouth activities. These findings signify that leveraging influencers possessing qualities such as expertise, intimacy, and homogeneity can help enhance product exposure, popularity, and sales of the beauty industry. This study contributes valuable insights into the strategic utilization of influencer characteristics in the beauty industry and digital marketing, highlighting their pivotalrole in consumer engagement and the success of marketing strategies.

• 한국의류산업학회지
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.104-112
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• 2023

This study attempted to investigate the characteristics of beauty influencers' social media contents and examine their influence on color cosmetics purchase intention. For this, female millennials who have shown an interest or subscribed beauty contents on social media platforms as followers were selected by convenience sampling. In terms of a research method, a self-administered questionnaire was performed from September 19 to 30, 2022. Among a total of 220 questionnaires distributed, 200 copies excluding poorly answered ones were used for final analysis. The collected data were analyzed by frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, using SPSS 24.0, and the results found the followings: First, concerning characteristics of beauty influencers' beauty contents, five factors were derived: reliability, professionalism, social attractiveness, attractive appearance, sympathy In purchase intention, on the contrary, two factors were obtained: base makeup, point makeup. Second, regarding the effects of characteristics of beauty contents on color cosmetics purchase intention, 'professionalism (β = -.170 p = .015)' and 'physical attractiveness (β = -.148, p = .037)' revealed a negative influence with statistical significance. Through the result, by demonstrating the effect on the intention to purchase color cosmetics based on the beauty contents feature of the beauty influencer, it is considered that the purchasing power of the color cosmetics industry will continue to increase and help to suggest more effective color cosmetics promotion ways and indicators which companies can utilize.