Acceso usuarios
Raja Ahmed Jamil, Urba Qayyum, Syed Ramiz ul Hassan, Tariq Iqbal Khan
Purpose– Extending the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study investigates the impact of social media influencers (SMI) on consumer well-being (CW) as well as the influence of CW on purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach– A between-subjects experiment (macro- vs mega-influencer) was conducted to assess the proposed hypotheses. A total of 190 consumers participated in the experiment, and SmartPLS 3.3 was used for multigroup analyses. Findings– Overall, argument quality (AQ), source’s credibility (SC) and influencer’s kindness positively predict CW,andCWpredictspurchaseintention.ItwasalsofoundthatSCismoreimportantwheninformation comes from a mega-influencer, whilst kindness is essential for a macro-influencer. Practical implications– The results of this study imply that CW should be an essential component of influencer marketingstrategy.Marketingmanagersshouldhirecredibleandkindinfluencerswhocanproduce quality arguments. Additionally, the selection of SMI (macro- vs mega-influencer) should be aligned with the marketing objective and type of persuasion required. Originality/value– This is one of the early attempts to extend ELM by introducing influencer kindness as a peripheral cue. Moreover, the study offers novelty by examining the effects of influencer characteristics (AQ, SC and kindness) on CW and comparing these effects across macro- and mega-influencers.
