Ki, C., & Kim, Y. (2019). The mechanism by which social media influencers persuade consumers: The role of consumers’ desire to mimic. Psychology & Marketing, 36(10), 905-922.
Dr Chloe Ki (right) and Prof. Youn-Kyung Kim (co-author, left) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
ITC is pleased to announce that a paper written by Dr Chloe Ki and published in Psychology and Marketing has been recognized by Wiley-Blackwell as the one of the top most downloaded papers among work published between January 2018 and December 2019. According to the March 2018 issue of the Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Quality Guide, Psychology and Marketing is one of the most highly regarded journals in the field.
In recognition of Dr. Ki’s research entitled “The mechanism by which social media influencers persuade consumers: The role of consumers’ desire to mimic”, she received a certificate of achievement from Wiley-Blackwell which was also given to recognize that her research has had immediate impacts and helped to increase the visibility of Psychology and Marketing.
In this study, Dr. Ki and Dr. Kim investigated the mechanism through which social media influencers (SMIs) persuade consumers to adopt certain brands. Their research provided empirical evidence after analyzing the responses of 395 U.S. consumers on how the process of influence by SMIs occurs in four principal stages: (1) the attempts of SMIs to influence (showcasing H1: attractive; H2: prestigious; H3 and H4: expert; H5: informative; and H6: interactive Instagram contents); (2) the attitudinal response of the target consumers to the influence exercised (evaluating the SMI as a H7: taste and H8: opinion leader); which, in turn, affects (3) the desire of the targets to comply (the desire to mimic); and ultimately (4) their favorable behavioral outcomes (H9: social media word‐of‐mouth and H10: purchase intentions).
The empirical findings provide important insights for the current SMI literature as follows. First, the research work has identified the principal traits — i.e., specific qualities of the social media contents of SMIs (e.g., attractiveness, prestige, expertise, information and interaction)—that enable SMIs to appeal to peer consumers and amass followers. Second, the research indicates that it is both the taste and opinion leadership of SMIs that serve as equally important criteria in the evaluations of consumers of them. Third, the research provides initial insight for the literature by indicating that the desire of consumers to mimic SMIs plays a critical mediating role in translating the positive attitudes of consumers (i.e., viewing SMIs as taste and opinion leaders) into favorable behavioral outcomes (i.e., sharing the posts of SMIs or purchasing the same products, services or brands endorsed by the SMIs).
