• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.141-152
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• 2022

Purpose - This study attempts to explore the factors that affect the consumer's response to the influencer's "backdoor advertisement" which has been a social media controversy recently. Accordingly, this study focuses on the importance of the information source's characteristics in influencer marketing, and demonstrates the impact of influencer credibility, attractiveness, and expertise on consumer responses after the influencer's sponsorship controversy. Design/methodology/approach - To this end, a study was conducted on adults who subscribed to one or more channels of influencers, and a virtual newspaper article was used in the survey. 196 sample data were collected and SPSS PROCESS Macro was used for data analysis. Findings - As a result, there was a negative impact on the credibility of the influencer which carried over to a negative reception of their shared content, while the attractiveness of the influencer had a positive impact on the reception of their shared content, even after the controversy over the influencer's backdoor advertisement. Research implications or Originality - This study contributes to the expansion of research on influencer marketing. Also, it provides insight into understanding and interpreting the phenomenon of influencers' backdoor advertisements and consumer reactions.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.323-333
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• 2021

Lil Miquela, who appeared on social media in 2016, is one of the most popular virtual influencers. In particular, Miquela is having a great impact on society by continuing to collaborate with many fashion brands through Instagram. As the activity of virtual influencers is emerging today, this study aims to derive the meanings of contemporary fashion through analyzing Miquela's social media case. This study analyzed Miquela's Instagram posts as research subjects. As a result of the above analysis, it was possible to classify the methods and devices for expressing fashion in Miquela's social media into three categories: storytelling, reality, and tags & hyperlinks. In addition, the meanings of fashion could be derived from three aspects: the object of experience, the direction of technology, and the realization of the spirit of the times. After appearing on social media, Miquela, who has gradually expanded her domain, is a virtual fashion influencer who has built her identity through fashion, and is expected to give new meaning to fashion in the future.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.26-47
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• 2023

In the age of digital media transformation, the rapid rise of social media has changed the paradigm of traditional marketing techniques by leveraging the influence of influencers. However, the influence of influencers cannot be freed from ethical issues that arise as individuals, so virtual influencers are emerging as a countermeasure. This study is a study on how to increase the influencer effect of virtual models with a focus on the MZ generation in medical service. This study investigated whether respondents in their 40s or younger were aware of 'Rosy', a virtual influencer, and then conducted a survey on those who recognized 'Rosy'. As a result of this study, first, both cognitive and emotional motivation had a positive influence on fanship and attractiveness for virtual influencer. In addition, it was found that there was a difference in follow motive according to gender. Second, in order to lead to the intention of visiting hospitals, which is the medical service industry, only the cognitive motives with useful and reliable information and useful information for the virtual influencer were found to be significant in intention to visit.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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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.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.75-100
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• 2022

Purpose Recently, hyper-realistic virtual influencers have received much attention in the field of corporate marketing. However, there is a lack of research that suggests specific processes affecting behavioral intentions through trust and attachment between virtual influencers and consumers. In addition, previous studies have failed to consider the characteristics of hyper-realistic virtual influencers. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of trust and attachment to hyper-realistic virtual influencers on consumers' behavioral intentions based on the trust-building model. Design/methodology/approach Based on the previous research, seven antecedent factors for trust-building were derived: Reality, Attractiveness, Awareness, Interactivity, Professionalism, Social Presence, and Predictability. Next, the survey was conducted on Chinese people who had experienced interacting with hyper-realistic virtual influencers on social network services within the last 3 months at the time of data collection. A total of 326 respondents were used for the final analysis and hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model technique. Findings The results of this study are as follows. First, this study confirmed that reality, attractiveness, awareness, social presence, and predictability as antecedent factors for trust-building of hyper-realistic virtual influencers have a positive effect on trust. Second, this study confirmed that trust in hyper-realistic virtual influencers has a significant positive effect on attachment. Lastly, this study confirmed that trust and attachment to the hyper-realistic virtual influencer significantly and positively affect relationship retention and purchase intentions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.295-310
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• 2023

The current virtual fashion influencers are a hyper-real prototype in that it has a higher presence than the virtual humans in the past. Also, they are leading fashion trend with more than tens of thousands of followers on social media. This study investigated the physical and social presence of virtual fashion influencer perceived by consumer and verified effects on evaluation attributes of influencers and the relationship maintenance behavior. A total of 321 Korean women in their 20s and 30s who have Instagram account participated in the online survey. The data was analyzed using AMOS 23.0. The results revealed that the physical presence had a significant impact on attractiveness of virtual fashion influencers. In case of social presence had a positive effect on friendliness and reliability of virtual fashion influencers. In addition, evaluation attributes of virtual fashion influencers' friendliness, attractiveness and reliability in the order of influence on relationship maintenance behavior. This study suggested that the development of social presence of virtual fashion influencers with friendliness and attractiveness is more important than the physical presence that has already reached a high level.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.23-51
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• 2023

Purpose: Live commerce is a new type of electronic commerce in combination with live streaming services. It is expected to increase virtual presence in the context of online shopping by overcoming a lack of social interactions between sellers and buyers which have been raised as a limitation in electronic commerce. Drawing on the studies of communication media, this study examines how live commerce contributes to the increase of virtual presence which consists of telepresence and social presence. Telepresence refers to a buyer's perception that he or she is present at the physical shopping mall during live shopping streaming whereas social presence refers to a buyer's perception of social interaction with a seller which is human warm, social, sensitive, and personal. In this study, we verify key determinants of virtual presence and its consequences. More specifically, this study proposes virtual presence contributes to the increase of buyers' trust in products and further purchase intentions. Furthermore, we verify influential factors of virtual presence from the technical and influencer perspectives of live commerce. Design/methodology/approach: To test the proposed hypotheses, the partial least squares (PLS) analysis is conducted with a total of 250 data collected on users with experience in the TaoBao live streaming shopping platform. Findings: The results show that first, telepresence and social presence are increased by visibility, media richness and attractiveness in the context of live shopping streaming. Second, buyers' trust in product trust and purchase intentions are positively influenced by telepresence and social presence. Finally, buyers' trust in product has a direct, positve effect on their purchase intentions. Overall, the findings offer new insights into the studies of electronic commerce by introducting the concepts of virtual presence and media richness from the literature of communication media in the field of live commerce.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.446-462
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• 2020

The objectives of this study are to explore the information source, assessment, and preferred styles of 3D virtual influencers(VI), to investigate the expected impact of advertisements with 3D VIs on brands, and to explore ways of expanding the use of 3D VIs. In-depth interviews with 40 males and females in their 20s and 30s were conducted and qualitative data were analyzed. The study results are summarized as follows. First, the information source of the 3D VI was SNS, acquaintances, and broadcasting. Second, 3D VIs were considered positively due to their attractive appearance, wide utilization, innovative use, freshness, separation from private identity, and time and cost savings, while considered negatively due to their unrealistic appearance and antipathy against replacing a person's role. Third, the preferred appearance styles of the 3D VI differed according to the level of virtuality although the majority of interviewees preferred similar looks to real people with low virtuality. Fourth, diverse image qualities such as innovative, differentiated, trendy, high-value, professional, and future-oriented were considered as transferred to the brand advertised by 3D VIs. Fifth, advertisements with 3D VIs may help build positive perceptions of advertised brands that may lead to purchase behaviors for some consumers. Lastly, to expand the use of 3D VIs, the specific advantages of virtual models should be maximized with consideration of how to implement a variety of body types and images of models. Findings present an important foundation to generate strategies to better apply 3D VIs to the fashion market.

• Journal of Advanced Technology Convergence
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2024

The study confirmed the relationship between attractiveness and suitability in the relationship between the formativeness of creating the artistic form of a virtual influencer who acts as an advertising model, advertising attention, and advertising attitude. To confirm this, the subjects of the study were the MZ generation and X generation, which have a high rate of SNS use. The analysis method used SPSS statistics 27.0 and SPSS process macro version. The research results are as follows. First, it was confirmed that attractiveness and suitability fully mediate the relationship between formativeness and advertising attention. In the path of formativeness and advertising attention, the total effect was found to be higher than the direct effect, and it was confirmed that there was a double parallel mediation effect through attractiveness and suitability in the relationship between the formativeness of virtual influencers and advertising attention. Second, it was confirmed that formativeness affects the mediating variable, attractiveness, but attractiveness does not affect attitude toward advertising. Since formativeness affects suitability and suitability in turn influences attitude toward advertising, it was confirmed that there is a full mediating effect between these variables. According to these results, the parallel mediating effect of attractiveness and formativeness was not confirmed in the relationship between formativeness and attitude towards advertising. The above study is significant in that it presents academic implications and practical implications by examining the dual and parallel mediating effects of attractiveness and suitability in the relationship between formativeness, advertising attention, and advertising attitude variables, which are considered in the production of virtual influencers.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.99-105
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• 2021

In addition to the OTT video production service represented by Nexflix and YouTube, a personalized recommendation system for content with artificial intelligence has become common. YouTube's personalized recommendation service system consists of two neural networks, one neural network consisting of a recommendation candidate generation model and the other consisting of a ranking network. Netflix's video recommendation system consists of two data classification systems, divided into content-based filtering and collaborative filtering. As the online platform-led content production is activated by the Corona Pandemic, the field of virtual influencers using artificial intelligence is emerging. Virtual influencers are produced with GAN (Generative Adversarial Networks) artificial intelligence, and are unsupervised learning algorithms in which two opposing systems compete with each other. This study also researched the possibility of developing AI platform based on individual recommendation and virtual influencer (metabus) as a core content of OTT in the future.