• 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.

• 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.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.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.238-249
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• 2021

This research aims to present effective influencer marketing strategies against a heavy blow in Korean influencer marketing industry because of the paid advertisement controversy and the reinforcement of regulations for online advertisement. By investigating the effects of influencer reputation, which is composed of communication skills, influence, authenticity and professionalism on marketing effect, as well as the mediating effect of parasocial relationship, the study provides some implications for influencer selecting. The effect of economic interests is examined under 4 experimental conditions of paid advertisements, brand collaboration, brand gifts and organic review to figure out how to arrange an appropriate sponsorship plan. According to results of PLS structural equation analysis, it shows that the influence and authenticity of an influencer have a significant positive effect on marketing effect and the mediating effect of parasocial relationship is partially proved. It seems that the effect of influencer reputation on marketing effect is significantly differentiated in different contexts, which confirms the moderating effect of economic interest. Distinguish from previous studies, this study focuses on types of economic interest rather than a simple comparison between sponsorship disclosure versus no disclosure and makes contributions to expanding reputation research. Meanwhile, findings of this study could give some practical implications for marketing practitioners in planning influencer marketing.

• 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 Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.12 no.4
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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.

• 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.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.83-97
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• 2023

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the influencer's impacts of cryptocurrency markets. By using Elon Musk's twitter activity to compute effects of influencer's impacts in cryptocurrency markets, this study aims to analyze influencer's impacts and to offer implications for cryptocurrency markets. This study used the tweets that Elon Musk posted for the period between the April 1, 2019 to July 31, 2021 to conduct event study to evaluate influencer's impacts in cryptocurrency market. The results revealed that (1) influencer's impacts was disappearing, and (2) speculative investments was still made in the cryptocurrency market, (3) duration of the influencer's impacts was becoming short. The results indicate that objective evaluation system for cryptocurrency and sanction of bad cryptocurrencies should be needed, in order to ensure right cryptocurrency investment environment. On the other hand, the government should make policies to create the right cryptocurrency investment environment and flatform.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.193-204
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• 2023

In recent years, the concept of influencer marketing has experienced rapid growth in both academia and industry, leading to its emergence as a crucial consideration in the marketing strategies of many businesses. Despite the significance and expansion of the influencer market, however, research on the topic has not kept pace with its growth. Thus, this study seeks to address this gap by empirically analyzing the impact of influencer characteristics on consumer behavior through the coexistence of buyers and providing an empirical contribution to expand the relevant literature. To accomplish this, a survey was conducted with a sample of 400 individuals who had purchased a product through an influencer, and 384 responses were ultimately utilized in the analysis. The results revealed that the attractiveness and empathy of influencers had a positive impact on satisfaction among coexisting buyers, while also having a negative impact on dissatisfaction. In contrast, expertise had no impact on satisfaction, but a positive impact on dissatisfaction. Moreover, satisfaction was found to have a positive impact on brand image and recommendation intention, whereas dissatisfaction had a negative impact on both. Overall, this study adds to the growing body of literature on influencer marketing by providing empirical evidence of the impact of influencer characteristics on consumer behavior, specifically through the lens of coexistence with buyers. These findings hold important implications for businesses looking to develop effective influencer marketing strategies that can enhance their brand image and recommendation intention among consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.17-32
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• 2019

This study examines the effects of SNS fashion influencer's authenticity on the followers' relationship maintenance intention and product purchase intention through the mediating role of fanship. In addition, influencer's attractiveness is proposed as a moderator affecting the authenticity on fanship; in addition, authenticity is operationalized as honesty and expertise. A written survey is developed for 181 female Instagram users. The analyses of the data yields the following findings. First, honesty has a positive effect on fanship, relationship maintenance intention and purchase intention, while expertise affects fanship and relationship maintenance intention, but does not have a significant effect on purchase intention. Second, honesty and expertise have a positive effect on follower behavior intention through the partial mediation of fanship. Third, social attractiveness and physical attractiveness have a significant effect on fanship. However, all interaction effects between authenticity and attractiveness are not significant. Unlike authenticity, attractiveness has no direct effect on follower behavior intention. This study verifies the critical role of authenticity for an influencer in the context of SNS marketing and commerce, as this factor leads to followers behavioral intention as well as fanship in both direct and mediated paths.