Content marketing in e-commerce platforms in the internet celebrity economy

Abstract

Purpose With the popularity of social media and, recently, live streaming, internet celebrity endorsements have become a prevalent approach to content marketing for e-commerce sellers. Despite the widespread use of social media and online communities, empirical studies investigating the economic value of user-generated content (UGC) and marketer-generated content (MGC) still lag behind. The purpose of this paper is to contribute both theoretically and practically to capture both first-order effects and second-order effects of internet celebrity endorsements on marketing outcomes in an e-commerce context. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts a cross-sectional regression to evaluate the economic value of internet celebrity endorsement, and a panel vector autoregressive model is adopted to examine the relationship between celebrities’ and consumers’ content marketing behaviors and e-commerce sales performance. The authors also adopt look-ahead propensity-score matching technique to correct for selection bias. Findings The empirical results show that the content generation efforts of marketers and the interaction behaviors between marketers and consumers will significantly influence the e-commerce sales, which refers to the first-order effects of internet celebrity endorsement. Moreover, interactions within the fan community exert second-order effects of content marketing on sales performance. Originality/value This paper provides new insights for e-commerce retailers to evaluate the economic values of internet celebrity endorsement, a new content marketing practice in e-commerce platform.

The Impact of Impulsive Consumption on Supply Chain in the Live-Streaming Economy

“…Livestreaming marketing can also be considered a form of green advertising that promotes sustainable development [7]. A study by Geng et al [8] demonstrated that online influencerconsumer interactions can increase sales through promotions on live-streaming platforms. In addition, Ki et al [9] and Jin et al [10] asserted that consumers can become dependent on online influencers for purchase decisions.…”

O marketing de conteúdo em plataforma digital: análises bibliométrica e textual

“…Vale destacar que o apoio de influenciadores digitais e famosos da internet está cada vez mais preponderante nas plataformas on-line, atribuindo maior credibilidade ao marketing de conteúdo. Destaca-se também que ao mesclar diversos canais, o marketing de conteúdo consegue atingir o seu desempenho ideal (Geng et al, 2019).…”

“…Isto é, constitui-se uma relação menos eficiente para alcançar possíveis compradores. Assim, resultados empíricos sugerem que vendedores de volume médio falham em conduzir com eficácia consumidores em potencial ao processo de compra de fato (Geng et al, 2019).…”

Social Media Influencer Research: An Bibliometric Analysis

“…Geng, et al [4] Celebrity endorser a celebrity endorser is 'any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement.…”

“…There are similar terms that are related to social media influencers, such as Internet celebrity, opinion leader, and celebrity endorser. Internet celebrity acts as an endorser bridging marketers and consumers together, and generates informative and persuasive content on social media or other online communities to actively engage consumers [4]. Both Internet celebrity and social media influencer are defined in the similar meaning as generating content on social media and being able to influence consumers' attitudes, but social media influencers have interactive relationships with consumers in social media.…”