Social media influencers and consumer engagement: A review and future research agenda

Abstract

The rise of social media influencers (SMIs) in the recent decade garnered wide interest from academicians and marketers. Academicians try to understand the effect of influencers on consumer behaviour, while marketers use influencers as part of their strategy to achieve marketing objectives. Although, plenty of practical and conceptual research is available in this area, literature reviews in the domain of SMIs and consumer engagement are scarce as it is still developing, and most of the studies have focused on these two concepts separately. In this study, the authors attempted to combine and understand how social media influencers affect consumers engagement. This systematic review of the literature offers a comprehensive view of previous research on social media influencers and consumer engagement. The study reviewed articles published in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC), Scopus, and Web of Science indexed journals till 5 June 2021. To understand consumers' engagement with SMIs, authors identified and theorized the antecedents, decision and outcome of such engagement. It also discusses the influencer‐follower parasocial relationship on different social media platforms. The study proposes an integrated conceptual framework that can be further used to test and validate the impact of social media influencer's marketing efforts on consumer engagement. This framework also may serve as a foundation for marketers to develop effective influencer strategies for brand promotions. The review concludes the discussion by highlighting theories, methodology, and context of studies conducted by past researchers.

Social media influencers: The formation and effects of affective factors during online interactions

“…Their persuasiveness depends on their perceived trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertise (Ohanian, 1990(Ohanian, , 1991 which are the core concepts of the source credibility theory. Recent literature reviews (Bergkvist & Zhou, 2016;Pradhan et al, 2023;Vrontis et al, 2021) found that many studies are using these source credibility factors as antecedents of brand attitude (e.g., De Veirman & Hudders, 2020) and purchase intention (e.g., Ashraf et al, 2023;Lee & Watkins, 2016;Reinikainen et al, 2020;Schouten et al, 2020).…”

“…One of the major merits of celebrity endorsement is the ability of the endorser to transfer meanings and values because they are regarded as sources of information (Moraes et al, 2019; Pradhan et al, 2023; Vrontis et al, 2021). According to the meaning transfer model, meanings associated with an endorser can be conveyed to the brand or product, and then to consumers through purchase and consumption (McCracken, 1989).…”

“…Their persuasiveness depends on their perceived trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertise (Ohanian, 1990, 1991) which are the core concepts of the source credibility theory. Recent literature reviews (Bergkvist & Zhou, 2016; Pradhan et al, 2023; Vrontis et al, 2021) found that many studies are using these source credibility factors as antecedents of brand attitude (e.g., De Veirman & Hudders, 2020) and purchase intention (e.g., Ashraf et al, 2023; Lee & Watkins, 2016; Reinikainen et al, 2020; Schouten et al, 2020). Although building credibility is a crucial strategy for social media influencers, this can also be risky because, just like celebrity endorsers, the perception of credibility can be easily damaged once followers find out that the influencer is paid to promote the product or service (Belanche et al, 2021).…”

“…Although building credibility is a crucial strategy for social media influencers, this can also be risky because, just like celebrity endorsers, the perception of credibility can be easily damaged once followers find out that the influencer is paid to promote the product or service (Belanche et al, 2021). Therefore, to enhance our understanding of influencer effects, other perspectives and constructs may need to be explored (Pradhan et al, 2023; Vrontis et al, 2021).…”

“…To understand how such influencers work, many scholars have applied theories from the area of celebrity endorsement, including source credibility theory, source attractiveness theory, meaning transfer model, and attribution model (Halder et al, 2021). Recent literature reviews (Bergkvist & Zhou, 2016;Moraes et al, 2019;Pradhan et al, 2023) and meta-analyses (Knoll & Matthes, 2017) revealed that the majority of the studies so far have focused on using source credibility attributes, such as perceived trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertise (Ohanian, 1990(Ohanian, , 1991 in explaining endorsers' influence on consumers' decision making. There is, however, insufficient attention paid to other factors such as the psychological characteristics and relational processes involved (Moraes et al, 2019;Pradhan et al, 2023) which may provide a fresh perspective to better understand the endorser effect.…”