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

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.2491-2508
• /
• 2019

This research investigates the media consumers' behavior with behavioral economics perspective, especially regarding TV content viewers' behavior; how do online communications influence TV viewers' decision when choosing a new TV content among options. We focus on quantity and attribute of comments or reactions on the online news articles. We analyze that online communications data, which were generated before the first broadcast, affect the TV content consumers' choice for a new TV series. Here we identify a predicted utility, experienced utility and distinction bias in TV media consumption to find the effectiveness of the first viewing choice on whole TV series' episodes. To avoid the crucial influence by exogenous factors, such as season and social issue, the test was done with specific conditions. This research found that the total number of reactions to the comments by itself positively affects the audiences' decision-making behavior for a new TV content choice. This influence was regardless of favor/ non-flavor reactions. This study contributes to the literature on media economics and management by exploring the media content users' consuming behavior and making a first step for finding an important influencer on the media content consumption.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.152-161
• /
• 2023

Modern people live a life connected with the real world and the virtual world by relying on the new media of enterprises and social consumption led by innovative technologies. In this environment, virtual influencers actively communicate with consumers and build relationships through social media, which is a new marketing tool that has attracted widespread attention. From a business perspective, it is necessary to have a solid understanding of this phenomenon, and then explore communication strategies to effectively develop virtual influencers. To investigate followers' preference for virtual influencers, this study employs the Q-method, which studies human subjective attributes, an empirical research effort to uncover complex issues in human subjectivity. To determine the factors that trigger people's voluntary and active practice and the preference degree of virtual influencers, the Q method is implemented to examine human subjectivity, thoughts and attitudes. According to the results of this study, virtual influencers are a new group of idols full of vitality. The interviews found that there are still many virtual influencers who do not know about followers, but each type can be clearly understood through the intuitive understanding of the interviewees. Divided out, type 1 one egoideal virtual influencers aim to represent an idealized version of the creator or target audience. Embodies ideal physical characteristics, personality or lifestyle desired by the audience. Type 2 is charismatic and attractive, and has the characteristics of most virtual influencers. It is suggested that it can be developed into a potential type, doing brand cooperation, and content production on social media platforms. Type 3: Game animation, derived from the image of characters in games or comics, with stylized features and energetic personalities, which can be integrated into games or entertainment experiences. Type 4 development potential type is the most successful type among virtual imagers, and it is also the purpose of marketing virtual influencers. It is essential that brand endorsement on social media platforms, integrated marketing, and driving advertising traffic. It is recommended to improve production technology to reduce investment costs.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.41-57
• /
• 2020

This study investigates the posting strategies of influencers for sales: what kind of contents should the influencers provide and how? Influencers used to have seven days of advertising period before the event date (sales begins) and provide both (or either) commercial and (or) non-commercial contents. Some influencers have large number of followers, while others have very small followers. We empirically investigated whether the sequence of posting the commercial and non-commercial contents influence sales, and whether such effects are susceptible to the size of followers. Through the analysis of 1,153 events of 298 influencers on Instagram, we found that commercial contents are more important than non-commercial contents for both small and large influencers. In more detail, the quantity of commercial contents is very important for the large influencers, while the quality of commercial contents is important for small influencers.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.125-147
• /
• 2020

On the World Refugee Day in 2017, Yao Chen, a Chinese actress, philanthropist, and social media influencer, posted messages in her Weibo in support of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Yet, social media users quickly interpreted this supportive message of the refugee program as encouraging people to "accept and receive refugees" (jieshou nanmin) into China. Particularly, the category of Middle Eastern refugees elicited most criticism in China's cyberspace. As the inclusion of refugees is an integral part of immigrant multiculturalism, this article examines the limits of multicultural imagination of refugees―particularly those from the Middle Eastern and North Africa―in contemporary China. I argue that the limits of multicultural imagination in contemporary China is profoundly shaped by an intricate interweaving of domestic policies and global imaginaries toward refugees. By deploying a mixed methodology, such limits are examined from legal-institutional, ideological, and sociocultural perspectives. More specifically, three interrelated aspects will be highlighted in the article: (1) the global circulation of right-wing populism imaginaries, and their entanglements with the anti-Muslim sentiments in contemporary China; (2) the current insufficiency of the legal-institutional framework regarding refugees and asylum-seekers, which needs to be contextualized in China's modern history of dealing with refugee issues; (3) population politics, the rise of Han-centric nationalism, and their constraining impact on the interpretation of historical events related to cultural diversity. In conclusion, this article also offers potential implications for further examining the different yet potentially intersected genealogies of multicultural imaginaries beyond the Middle Eastern and North African refugees in Asia.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.219-236
• /
• 2024

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of micro and macro-influencers on consumer purchase intentions, specifically focusing on the role of the product's origin (domestic or foreign). The study will specifically analyze the markets of South Korea and Kyrgyzstan to understand how various types of influencers impact consumer behavior within these unique cultural and economic settings. Design/methodology/approach This study evaluates hypotheses using the factorial design method among social media users in South Korea and Kyrgyzstan. The experiments involve scenarios with eight different groups. The analytical research methodology used is analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings The study findings confirmed that micro- and macro-influencers have varying effects on consumer behavior, which supports previous research. The inclusion of the product origin factor resulted in more accurate data. In both the South Korean and Kyrgyzstan markets, the findings indicated that micro- and macro-influencers have limited success in promoting local products. However, when it comes to promoting foreign products, there are notable differences in effectiveness between micro- and macro-influencers, with macro-influencers being more effective.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.37-46
• /
• 2024

Purpose: Social media influencers (SMIs) have become significant sources of information influencing their followers' purchase intentions; few studies have been published on the effect of the number of followers and package tour prices on followers' purchase intention within the Vietnam travel industry utilizing naïve theories. This study examined the relationship between the number of followers and purchase intention and tested the moderating role of package tour price. Research Design, data and methodology: A 2 (number of followers: high vs. medium) × 2 (package tour price: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design was used. 395 Vietnamese students (114 men, 281 women; M_age = 19.99, SD_age = 1.25) from Thuongmai University participated in the study. ANOVA and PROCESS MARCO were used to test hypotheses. Results: Findings indicate that participants show a higher purchase intention for SMIs with a higher number of followers than those with a medium one. When the package tour price is high, participants with a medium number of followers show a greater purchase intention than those with a high one. Conclusion: This recommendsthat tourism managers collaborate with SMIs with a high number of followers when the package tour price is low and with SMIs with medium ones when the package tour price is high.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.147-173
• /
• 2022

Purpose As the use of social network services has become common, it has become possible to freely communicate and establish relationships with other people anytime, anywhere for communication and information sharing. Influencers who have a strong influence on consumers' perceptions and attitudes through their own opinions and stories have appeared on various social media channels such as YouTube. Recently, companies utilize influencers with a large number of followers to check interactions with customers to understand customer attitudes and opinions about products in real time. Start-ups with insufficient resources need to quickly examine customer responses to reduce the probability of failure after product planning. The Lean process of creating an MVP and quickly confirming and learning the market response should be repeated over and over again. Findings In this paper, we try to suggest that the YouTube platform can play a sufficient role as a customer experiment space through examples. The case company is a company that has successfully commercialized products by continuously interacting with customers through the YouTube platform for the first four months of its founding. This paper is expected to be helpful in the experimental process for prospective founders and early founders to examine customer responses to reduce the probability of market failure before commercialization. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyzed the YouTube channel data of case companies based on the netnography methodology and presented the contents of the lean process management carried out in the experimental stage and the post-production stage through interview research.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.199-209
• /
• 2019

The importance of business strategy for successful social media engagement has quickly increased as more businesses engage in social media. The importance is even greater for startup companies because startup companies are genuinely new to business, and they need to increase their presence in the market, and quickly access future customers. The objective of this paper lies in exploring key indicators of social media engagements by selected startup companies. The key indicators include two aspects of social media usages by the companies: i) overall social media activities, and ii) properties of network structure of the information flow platform provided by social media service. To better assess and evaluate the key indicators of social media usages by startup companies, the indicators will be compared with those of selected large established companies. Twitter is selected as a social media service for the analysis of this paper, and using Twitter REST API, data regarding the key indicators of overall Twitter activities and the Twitter follower-network of each company in the sample are collected. Then, the data are analyzed using social network analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis to examine the characteristics of the follower-network structures and to compare the characteristics between startup companies and established companies. The results show that most indicators are significantly different across startup companies and established companies. One key interesting finding is that the startup companies have proportionally more influencers in their follower-networks than the established companies have. Another interesting finding is that the follower-networks of startup companies in the sample have higher modularity and higher transitivity, suggesting that the startup companies tend to have a proportionally larger number of communities of users in their follower-networks, and the users in the networks are more tightly connected and cohesive internally. The key business implication for the future social media engagement efforts by startup companies in general is that startup companies may need to focus on getting more attention from influencers and promoting more cohesive communities in their follower-networks to appreciate the potential benefits of social media in the early stage of business of startup companies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.46 no.5
• /
• pp.805-826
• /
• 2022

This study explored the process by which consumers purchase products from small fashion business owners via online and mobile channels. In addition, group types were classified given that the purchasing process depends on the consumers' life cycle. The consumer focus group interview (FGI) was conducted on 18 participants that were divided into six groups by age, work, and children. Results revealed that first, consumer journey comprised four stages. Factors influencing need recognition were "attention to information of social media influencer," "attention to information of affiliated groups," and "repeated advertising of SME products/brands." For information searching, "exploring purchase reviews," "environment for mobile shopping information exploration," and "continuous product tracking" were important factors. Purchasing and shopping stages were affected by "price-free, improvised purchase decision" and "convenient mobile payment system and point benefits." After the purchase, "active sharing and repeated purchase when satisfied" and "blocking relationships when dissatisfied" occurred. Second, six consumer groups based on the fashion life cycle are the "Platform lover," "Influencer follower," "Trust builder," "Novelty seeker," "Convenience seeker," and "New designer supporter." Ultimately, small business owners can develop the process of planning and selling fashion products more efficiently.