Effect of Influencers' Credibility on Consumer Purchase Intentions: The Moderating Role of Influencers' Perceived Fraud

Abstract

Influencer marketing (IM) has become increasingly common in business strategies because of the exponential growth in the popularity of social media influencers (SMIs) over the past several years. Despite the growing attention of academics and professionals, the scholarly work is still inconsistent, incomplete, and disjointed. A thorough and critical review of the existing research on this subject, particularly the influencers' credibility, is desperately needed, considering the crucial role that SMIs play in the consumer decision making process and the fact that this field of study is still emerging. As a result, this thesis is the first to compile the current state of IM research centered on perceived social media scams. Furthermore, there are rising doubts as to whether disclosure of sponsorship on influencer promotional postings helps viewers to evaluate the advertising message critically. This study examines the congruence of the three fundamental components of any influencer marketing campaign: the influencer, the customer, and the sponsored products or services to comprehend consumers' behavioral intentions when they come across recommendations from influencers. This study uses a hybrid approach that combines qualitative and quantitative data, where focus groups supplemented the quantitative study. Quantitative data was collected from 450 followers of well-known influencers. Findings disclose that less credible influencers (scammers) on social media platforms harm product or service perception and consumer purchase intentions. An integrative framework that considers antecedents, mediators, and moderators of prospective outcomes, as well as contextual elements that affect customer purchase intentions, is offered based on the analysis. In doing so, several research gaps are discovered, and directions for future study are suggested that consider significant growing fields and uncharted territories with relation to theory, context, and technique. KEYWORDS: Social media, Affiliate marketing, Social media influencers, Source credibility, Influencers' perceived frauds, Product or Service perceptions, Consumer purchase intention