• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.45 no.1
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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.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.101-111
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• 2021

Purpose: This study discusses and discovers the important role of fashion product coolness in affecting consumers' perceived value and consumers' value creation behavior. Accordingly, fashion product coolness exerts a direct effect on perceived value while perceived value has a direct impact on value creation. Besides, fashion product coolness has an indirect effect on value creation through perceived value. Research design, data, and methodology: This study adopts the quantitative research approach by cross-sectional technical on a sample of 319 respondents in Vietnam. PLS-SEM has been used to analyze the survey data. Results: The result indicates that the proposed direct and indirect effects are significant. Specifically, utilitarian "coolness" and hedonic "coolness" have positive impacts on perceived value. The perceived value poses an impact on consumers' value creation behavior, including customer lifetime value and influencer value. Finally, the perceived value links utilitarian "coolness", hedonic "coolness" with customer lifetime value and influencer value. Conclusions: Fashion distribution is playing an increasingly important role in the retail sector of the economy. Fashion distribution activities are greatly influenced by the perceived value of consumers. The findings are supposed to strengthen the beliefs of fashion brands and retailers in the promotion of value creation and consumers' perceived value in the field of fashion distribution.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.574-585
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• 2019

The acceleration of digital transformation (DX) has resulted in SNS influencer marketing trends becoming the mainstream of the new market. SNS influencers act as early adopters in the process of new products being accepted. Chinese consumers are most affected by Hallyu, which increases interest in K-beauty products. This study analyzes how K-beauty SNS influencers are related to Chinese consumers. A survey was conducted among Chinese millennial consumers after watching videos provided by K-beauty SNS influencer; subsequently, 456 responses were used for data analysis. As a result, the analysis based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) distinguishes the central route and the peripheral route in the process of Chinese consumers accepting new SNS products. The study findings suggested that information quality, credibility, accuracy, and usefulness had significant effects on acceptance intention for new products among central route factors, and similarity, trustworthiness, pleasure, expertise, and attractiveness also had significant effects on the acceptance intention of new product among peripheral route factors. It was found that variables of the central route, rather than those of peripheral route, had stronger effects on the acceptance intention for new products. Consequently, the central route of K-beauty SNS influencer is more important to Chinese consumers' acceptance of new products. It is expected that this study will offer beauty influencer marketing-based cosmetics brands efficient consumer management suggestions.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.557-567
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• 2023

The rapidly evolving social platform marketing landscape has led businesses to increasingly rely on social platform influencers for brand and service promotion. Despite growing interest in these influencers, there remains a dearth of empirical research examining the impact of their characteristics on consumer attachment and brand loyalty. This study, therefore, investigates the relationships between social platform influencer characteristics, consumer attachment, and brand loyalty. An online survey targeting Chinese consumers was conducted, and a total of 360 responses were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. The findings reveal that among the various social platform influencer characteristics, reliability, professionalism, and intimacy significantly influence consumer attachment. Furthermore, it was confirmed that higher attachment to a social platform influencer leads to increased brand loyalty.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.85-96
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• 2022

The MZ Generation likes watching YouTube videos produced by senior influencers despite the big age gap. In addition, the final goal of collaborative YouTube videos between senior influencers and brands is to increase sales. Accordingly, this study examined this interesting phenomenon and aimed to provide useful insights for creating YouTube videos targeting the MZ generation. This study was divided into two parts. Study 1 explored the viewers' perceived benefits by looking at the YouTube video comments of a senior fashion influencer, and then classified the perceived benefits into informational, psychological, and hedonic benefits. Study 2 analyzed the relationships among the viewers' perceived benefits (informational, psychological, hedonic benefits), attitude toward a brand, and behavior intention. Study 2 found that only informational benefits, among the three perceived benefits, enhanced attitudes toward a brand, thereby affecting behavior intention. Based on the results of two sub-studies, this study highlights the importance of informational benefits to maximize the marketing effects employing the collaborative YouTube videos of senior influencers and brands.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.163-170
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the research trend on social media influencers in Korea. To this end, a total of 178 papers on social media influencers were analyzed from 2009 to 2021 among the academic papers registered in the Korean Academic Citation Index. As a result, the early social media influencer research, which was limited to only a few fields such as fashion, beauty, and communication, has expanded to various ones as time passed and achieved quantitative growth. The proportion of empirical studies has been on the rise in recent years, and studies that applied qualitative research methodologies have shown a tendency to decrease. The proportion of research focusing on specific media platforms and influencer types gets lower, although both the characteristics of social media platforms and the attitudes of each influencer are very diverse. This study has academic significance in that it is the first empirical study to investigate the current status of the social media influencer research in Korea.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.200-211
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• 2021

This study examines the effects of fashion influencers' body types (realistic versus ideal body types) on self-expression, self-representation, and recommendation intentions, as mediated by familiarity toward influencers. Although fashion influencers lead to a positive consumer response compared to traditional advertisements, previous research on the effects of fashion influencers on consumers is limited. Thus, this study tests the role of consumers' socio-psychological aspects in understanding how and why fashion influencers affect consumers' behavioral intentions associated with self-expression, self-representation, and influencer recommendation. A total of 180 women in their 20s and 30s participated in the survey. The responses were collected after showing them stimuli featuring fashion influencers with either ideal or realistic body shapes. The data were analyzed using SPSS18.0 for descriptive statistics, and AMOS 18.0 for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results showed that participants who were shown realistic body types perceived familiarity, which generated positive effects on self-expression, self-representation, and recommendation intentions. Hence, the effects of influencers' body types on recommendation intention are mediated by familiarity. Self-expression and self-representation intentions also increase influencer recommendation intention. Comparatively, participants who were shown ideal body types only induced higher self-representation intention, which increased their recommendation intention. The current findings can help fashion marketers select the appropriate influencers who fit their target customers as promotional models, as well as to induce changes in consumers' behavioral intention.

• 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.