• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.471-483
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to find out audience' response of virtual influencer at the starting line of virtual influencer marketing. Therefore, posts, comments, number of likes, and video reviews were collected from Instagram of virtual influencers active in Korea. Python 3.7 and Textom were used for data collection and analysis. Sentimental analysis showed that the rate of positivity was higher than the rate of negativity and neutrality. The appearance of virtual influencer was found to be a major factor in both positive and negative. Consumers' interest in virtual influencer could be inferred from the neutral sensibility. This study is meaningful in that it presented data to help establish strategies for virtual influencer marketing by examining consumer reactions to virtual influencer and identifying factors of positive and negative emotions toward virtual influencer.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.86-94
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• 2023

In recent years, advertisements and brand promotions using virtual influencer have been actively conducted, and this study focused on the characteristics of virtual influencer, including Attractiveness, to examine the Attractiveness of virtual influencer through previous studies and to test the hypothesis that Attractiveness has an effect on Brand attitude and Advertising attitude when mediated by Immersion. For this purpose, data were collected from university students who experienced marketing contents using virtual influencer, and Process macro was conducted to analyse the mediating effect. The results showed that virtual influencer Attractiveness partially mediated the relationship between Brand attitude and Advertising attitude. These results suggest that virtual influencer Attractiveness not only affects Brand attitude and Advertising attitude, but also positively increases consumer attitude when mediated by Immersion. This study has both academic and practical implications by examining the mediating effect of Immersion on the effect of virtual influencer Attractiveness on consumer attitudes.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.89-110
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• 2022

Purpose To verify the factors that encourage consumers' favorable reaction toward virtual influencer, we proposed consumers' perception of subjective and objective similarity. The purpose of this study is to comprehensively investigate the impacts of consumers' perception toward virtual influencer on purchase intention through psychological distance and parasocial relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study was designed to examine the structural relationships among consumers' perceived external similarity, internal similarity, controllability, animacy toward virtual influencer, psychological distance, parasocial relationship and purchase intention. Findings The results are as follows. First, perceived external similarity, internal similarity, perceived controllability, and animacy had a positive impact on psychological distance. Second, psychological distance had a positive impact on parasocial relationship, whereas it had no significant impact on purchase intention. However, we found that the relation between psychological distance and purchase intention was mediated by parasocial relationship. Lastly, parasocial relationship had a positive impact on purchase intention. Based on these results, this study can propose the way to generate revenue to companies that consider advertising campaign using virtual influencer.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.245-251
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• 2022

This study attempted to examine the effect of virtual influencer, which is highly interested in consumers, and has recently been increasing the frequency of use in corporate marketing activities. In particular, the purpose is to examine the effect of the attributes of virtual influencer on consumers as an information source for a product or brand. To this end, the effect of perceived attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise of virtual influencer on SNS usage intention and imitation intention consumers was examined. As a result of the study, it was found that attractiveness among the attributes of virtual influencer had a positive effect on the usage intention, and attractiveness and trustworthiness had a positive effect on imitation intention. In addition, it was found that imitation intention had a positive effect on usage intention. In other words, the perceived attractiveness of virtual influencer by consumers through SNS is the most important attribute. These findings imply that when virtual influencer is used in marketing, companies must perceive the attractiveness of virtual influencer through content posted on SNS as well as their attributes as information sources. We expect the results of this study to provide major implications for marketing activities such as companies and public institutions that consider using virtual influencer.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.309-314
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine how the characteristics of virtual influencer, which are rapidly emerging in recent years, affect consumers. To this end, the change in information accecptance intention was examined using the perceived attractiveness and social distance of consumers toward virtual influencers as independent variables. I found the more attractive consumers feel about virtual influencer and the closer they perceive social distance, the higher the intention to accept information. However, when virtual influencer was perceived as attractive, there was no difference in information acceptance intention according to social distance. On the other side, even if the virtual influencer was perceived as less attractive, the information acceptance intention was higher when the social distance was perceived as close than when it was not. Based on these results, I provided implications for the marketing strategy of virtual influencers.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.130-139
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• 2023

With the increasing popularity of computer-generated virtual influencers, the trend is rising especially on social media. Famous virtual influencer characters Lil Miquela and Imma were all created by CGI graphics workflows. The process is typically a linear affair. Iteration is challenging and costly. Development efforts are frequently siloed off from one another. Moreover, it does not provide a real-time interactive experience. In the previous study, a real-time graphic workflow was proposed for the Digital Actor Hologram project while the output graphic quality is less than the results obtained from the CGI graphic workflow. Therefore, a real-time engine graphic workflow for Virtual Influencers is proposed in this paper to facilitate the creation of real-time interactive functions and realistic graphic quality. The real-time graphic workflow is obtained from four processes: Facial Modeling, Facial Texture, Material Shader, and Look-Development. The analysis of performance with real-time graphical workflow for Digital Actor Hologram demonstrates the usefulness of this research result. Our research will be efficient in producing virtual influencers.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.59-70
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• 2022

Recently, in platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, virtual characters resembling human life become the main characters, produce various contents, breathe with the public, and create the era of virtual humans. For example, existing game characters appear as virtual characters with unique AUs, or AI characters created by reflecting the public's preferences are actively communicating with the public through advertisements and SNS activities. As the consumption of video content through smart devices increases significantly in the post-corona era, virtual influencers are being used as all-round entertainers because there is little risk of personality controversy or production cost. there is a trend In this study, we investigated the characteristics of the case of being active as an influencer among the activities of a virtual character, and how the interactive aspect of the influencer appears by identifying the current situation through major cases. Combining this, based on the analysis of the influence of virtual influencers, the parts that producers should recognize are derived, and the differentiated characteristics of interactive virtual influencers are summarized. In addition, the difficulties of virtual influencers were investigated and problems were identified, and for the development of the content industry, a more favorable method for interaction was presented and suggestions were made to secure inner sincerity.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.163-188
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• 2023

Purpose The study examines the impact of the level of anthropomorphism (both in appearance and behavior) of virtual humans on user liking. It investigates whether this relationship is mediated by social comparison experiences, with the moderated mediation effect of users' desire for self-improvement. Design/methodology/approach A between-groups experimental design was employed to examine the impact of different levels of appearance(low/mid/high) and behavior(low/high) anthropomorphism on user liking of virtual humans. The experiment was conducted in an online environment, and participants were randomly exposed to one of six stimuli, which were Instagram-like posts. Findings The results indicate that as virtual humans become more anthropomorphic, they have a positive impact on user liking. However, once the level of anthropomorphism in appearance reaches a certain point (mid vs high), there is no significant difference in user liking. Users who perceive virtual humans as highly anthropomorphic tend to engage in more social comparison experiences, which positively affects their liking for these virtual humans. Conversely, individuals with a high desire for self-improvement found that the positive effect of appearance anthropomorphism on liking through social comparison experiences was reduced. The study extends the application of social comparison theory by examining its impact on influencer marketing with virtual beings. It provides valuable insights for the formulation of influencer marketing strategies using virtual humans.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1073-1080
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• 2023

This study aims to explore the psychological factors influencing the persuasive effect of virtual influencers, with a specific focus on the impact of social exclusion. Additionally, it examines the mediating effect of parasocial relationships on advertising effectiveness. To achieve these goals, the study conducted an experiment using a 2 (influencer type: human vs. virtual human) × 2 (social exclusion: social exclusion vs. social acceptance) between-group factorial design. The results revealed that consumers who experienced social exclusion exhibited more positive attitudes toward the influencer and the product, higher intentions to purchase the product, and a greater willingness to share or recommend it, especially when the influencer was a real human (vs. a virtual influencer). These moderating effects were found to be mediated by parasocial relationships.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.2
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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.