# Sponsored-influencer marketing: effects of the commercial orientation of influencer-created content on followers’ willingness to search for information

Abstract

Purpose Despite the increasing popularity of influencer marketing, there exists a lack of understanding of how content created by social media influencers stimulates the pre-purchase behaviour of followers. Based on the stimulus-organism-response framework, this paper aims to address this lacuna by examining how influencer-created content affects the willingness of followers to search for more information related to the posted product. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional research design uses a web-based questionnaire among Instagram users in Sri Lanka. Structural equation modelling with analysis of moment structures 27 and SPSS PROCESS macro are used for hypothesis testing. Findings Findings indicate that the commercial orientation of influencer-created content reduces follower trustworthiness towards them and the perceived credibility of the content. Mediation results demonstrate that the commercial orientation of influencer-created content negatively affects follower willingness to search for more information related to the posted product through trustworthiness and perceived credibility. Practical implications When adopting influencer marketing to stimulate information search behaviour, marketing practitioners should carefully examine the commercial orientation of the content of the messages posted by social media influencers to maintain high levels of follower trustworthiness towards the influencer and positive follower credibility perceptions of the message. Originality/value This paper adds to influencer marketing literature by demonstrating the underlying process through which the commercial orientation of influencer-created content impacts follower willingness to search for product-related information.

The Impact ofMukbangLive Streaming Commerce on Consumers’ Overconsumption Behavior

“…The theory has been widely applied to different consumer behavior contexts, such as retailing (Chang, Eckman, and Yan 2011), e-marketing (Kamboj et al 2018), hospitality marketing (Emir et al 2016), and tourism marketing (Rajaguru 2014). In the past decade, the S-O-R model has been widely used in influencer marketing studies to measure the impact of online influencers as stimuli of affective organisms and subsequent behavioral responses (Aw et al 2023; Gamage and Ashill 2023; Ingrassia et al 2022; Lee and Chen 2021; Lin et al 2022; Seçilmiş, Özdemir, and Kılıç 2022; Zhou et al 2021). In Table 1, we summarize some recent studies using the S-O-R model in online influencer marketing settings to illustrate why we chose to use this model to study influencers’ impact on impulsive behavior in live streaming e-commerce.…”

Agent Trustworthiness, Electronic Word of Mouth (eWoM) and Social Media Influencer Roles in Purchasing Insurance: A Conceptual Paper

“…The source-credibility model states that the receivers' perception of the message's trustworthiness is significantly influenced by their perception of the sender's credibility (Gamage and Ashill, 2023;Lis, 2013). As a result, the source of a message (such as a post) directly affects how credible it is considered to be (Gamage and Ashill, 2023;Ismagilova et al, 2020).…”

“…The source-credibility model states that the receivers' perception of the message's trustworthiness is significantly influenced by their perception of the sender's credibility (Gamage and Ashill, 2023;Lis, 2013). As a result, the source of a message (such as a post) directly affects how credible it is considered to be (Gamage and Ashill, 2023;Ismagilova et al, 2020). More particularly, the recipient's confidence in the communication's source and the message's capacity to persuade its intended audience have a significant impact on the perceived credibility of a message (Gamage and Ashill, 2023;Wallace et al, 2020;Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018).…”

“…As a result, the source of a message (such as a post) directly affects how credible it is considered to be (Gamage and Ashill, 2023;Ismagilova et al, 2020). More particularly, the recipient's confidence in the communication's source and the message's capacity to persuade its intended audience have a significant impact on the perceived credibility of a message (Gamage and Ashill, 2023;Wallace et al, 2020;Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018).…”

“…They will contrast and evaluate the different options in light of the information they have discovered before selecting the ultimate product or brand (Varkaris and Neuhofer, 2017). Customers' personal traits (such as prior experience and competence) and situational (such as the setting in which the purchase choice is made) as well as external (such as corporate marketing communication efforts) elements all have an impact on this information search process (Gamage and Ashill, 2023;Varkaris and Neuhofer, 2017;Zhang et al, 2018).…”