SOURCE CREDIBILITY THEORY APPLIED TO INFLUENCER MARKETING
Date Issued
2022-06-01
Author(s)
Abstract
Social media represent a strategic resource for companies
to promote and build relationships with consumers. Since social media
marketing, as a part of the company’s promotional mix, facilitates brandrelated
e-WOM through influencer marketing (a valuable alternative for
brand promotion among other valuable instruments), companies nowadays
use digital influencers which are online personalities who post content with
expertise in a certain area, and generate a base of followers interested in their
area of expertise. Digital endorsers i.e., influencers are perceived as credible
and thus positively affect customers’ purchase intention and in cases when
the recipient has little or no information except the message being advertised,
the endorser’s credibility is especially important. Source credibility is
related to the communicator’s character and positive characteristics that
affect message persuasiveness. The source credibility theory explains the
existence of different dimensions of the message source credibility that
affect customers’ purchase intention. This study focuses on four dimensions
of source credibility, that is expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and
similarity. Source expertise refers to the extent to which the communicator
is perceived as a source of valid assertions, whereas a trustworthy source
is perceived as honest, sincere, and truthful. Regarding physical aspects
of the source, attractiveness is associated with likeability, elegance, classy,
beautiful, or sexy characteristics of the source of the message. Similarity
dimension refers to similarities in cultural background, demographics, and values between the source of the message i.e., the endorser, and the message
recipient i.e., the social media user. Despite a solid base of past research
that investigates source credibility, there is still a gap mainly because most
od previous studies focus on investigating advertisement effectiveness and
purchase intention through the mediating role of source credibility, and, to
the author’s knowledge, no previous study investigated the direct effect of
perceived credibility of influencers on customers purchase intention with a
focus on one social network. Having in mind previously stated, the purpose
of the study is to analyze Instagram influencers’ credibility to determine the
impact of social media users’ perceptions regarding influencers’ credibility
on their purchase intention. Previous studies confirmed that source
credibility dimensions positively affect customers’ purchase intention.
To test the proposed hypotheses a survey was conducted, with an online
questionnaire as a method of data collection, on a purposive sample of 76
Instagram users in North Macedonia that follow influencers. The results
revealed that the trustworthiness and attractiveness of influencers positively
affect customers’ purchase intention. The findings of the conducted research
add value to the scientific community and the growing literature in the field
of influencer marketing regarding the role and impact of digital influencers
on consumer behavior by focusing on the four-dimensional construct of
source credibility unlike most of the past research that investigates three
dimensions of credibility. Finally, the study provides a direct insight into
the dimensions of digital influencers’ credibility that influence potential customers’ intention to purchase the product being advertised. Moreover,
the study can serve as a guide to marketing managers regarding the effective
implementation of influencer marketing for increasing the customers’
purchase intention.
to promote and build relationships with consumers. Since social media
marketing, as a part of the company’s promotional mix, facilitates brandrelated
e-WOM through influencer marketing (a valuable alternative for
brand promotion among other valuable instruments), companies nowadays
use digital influencers which are online personalities who post content with
expertise in a certain area, and generate a base of followers interested in their
area of expertise. Digital endorsers i.e., influencers are perceived as credible
and thus positively affect customers’ purchase intention and in cases when
the recipient has little or no information except the message being advertised,
the endorser’s credibility is especially important. Source credibility is
related to the communicator’s character and positive characteristics that
affect message persuasiveness. The source credibility theory explains the
existence of different dimensions of the message source credibility that
affect customers’ purchase intention. This study focuses on four dimensions
of source credibility, that is expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and
similarity. Source expertise refers to the extent to which the communicator
is perceived as a source of valid assertions, whereas a trustworthy source
is perceived as honest, sincere, and truthful. Regarding physical aspects
of the source, attractiveness is associated with likeability, elegance, classy,
beautiful, or sexy characteristics of the source of the message. Similarity
dimension refers to similarities in cultural background, demographics, and values between the source of the message i.e., the endorser, and the message
recipient i.e., the social media user. Despite a solid base of past research
that investigates source credibility, there is still a gap mainly because most
od previous studies focus on investigating advertisement effectiveness and
purchase intention through the mediating role of source credibility, and, to
the author’s knowledge, no previous study investigated the direct effect of
perceived credibility of influencers on customers purchase intention with a
focus on one social network. Having in mind previously stated, the purpose
of the study is to analyze Instagram influencers’ credibility to determine the
impact of social media users’ perceptions regarding influencers’ credibility
on their purchase intention. Previous studies confirmed that source
credibility dimensions positively affect customers’ purchase intention.
To test the proposed hypotheses a survey was conducted, with an online
questionnaire as a method of data collection, on a purposive sample of 76
Instagram users in North Macedonia that follow influencers. The results
revealed that the trustworthiness and attractiveness of influencers positively
affect customers’ purchase intention. The findings of the conducted research
add value to the scientific community and the growing literature in the field
of influencer marketing regarding the role and impact of digital influencers
on consumer behavior by focusing on the four-dimensional construct of
source credibility unlike most of the past research that investigates three
dimensions of credibility. Finally, the study provides a direct insight into
the dimensions of digital influencers’ credibility that influence potential customers’ intention to purchase the product being advertised. Moreover,
the study can serve as a guide to marketing managers regarding the effective
implementation of influencer marketing for increasing the customers’
purchase intention.
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