IMPACT OF SELF-DISCLOSURE AND AUTHENTICITY OF INFLUENCER ON CONSUMER REACTION: FOCUSING ON MEDIATING EFFECT OF ENVY

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the world of SNS, once ordinary users get recognized for discriminated fashion taste, they affect other users’ choice of fashion products. Fashion companies capture the importance of these influencers and tries to take advantage of their ability. However, the benefits offered to influencers such as financial compensation may provoke negative consumer reactions. The purpose of this study is to identify what aspects of SNS influencers and how they influence other fashion consumers. We suggest that influencers’ self-disclosure and authenticity of posts are important factors which elicit positive response from consumers. We also investigate the psychological mechanism of envy which can mediate the impact of self-disclosure and authenticity on consumer response. This study was conducted by an online survey of 120 Korean women in their 20s and 30s with a 2 x 2 between-group experimental design. The data was collected from 28 November to 5 December 2016. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 23.0 for ANOVA analysis and regression analysis.
The results were as follows. The main effect of authenticity was confirmed, while self-disclosure did not play a significant role, which indicates authenticity is the main factor in exercising influence on consumer response. The interaction of authenticity and self-disclosure was also observed. The participants of high in both self-disclosure and authenticity showed the strongest consumer reaction. However, the participants of high self-disclosure and low authenticity induced the weakest consumer response. For the impacts of self-disclosure and authenticity on envy, the participants exposed to the condition of both high self-disclosure and authenticity showed benign envy. On the other hand, malicious envy was aroused when both self-disclosure and authenticity were low. In relations between authenticity and consumer response, partial mediating effect of benign envy and malicious envy was confirmed. But, there was no mediating effect between self-disclosure and consumer response.
This research on consumer response to influencers’ posts will provide key implications to fashion companies in building marketing strategies. In order for influencers' posts displaying their daily lives to have a positive impact on consumer response, not only self-disclosure but authenticity has to be considered. Such posts can induce benign envy and subsequently impact consumers indirectly. Influencers’ posts which narrow the gap between daily lives and products and raise the authenticity are important keys to successful marketing.