The effects of social media influencers’ self-disclosure on behavioral intentions: The role of source credibility, parasocial relationships, and brand trust

By Fernanda Polli Leite, Paulo de Paula Baptista. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 2021

222 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ABSTRACT We investigate the effects of social media influencers’ (SMIs) intimate self-disclosure (ISD) on consumers’ intent to purchase products from an endorsed brand through the underlying mechanisms of source credibility, parasocial relationships, and brand trust. The results of a survey with 433 participants indicated that high levels of ISD by SMIs can enhance consumers’ intention to purchase the products of an endorsed brand and that a parasocial relationship with an SMI has a stronger effect on consumers’ behavioral intentions than source credibility. The findings suggest that marketing managers should consider SMIs’ ISD and their relationship with their followers to develop consistent marketing strategies.

Subfields: Literature and Literary Theory, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9f7dc06b3062b5e1615a58c142d10cbcd5bf7f94