Virtual Influencers in Consumer Behavior
A Social Influence Theory Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/Abstract
This paper examines how virtual influencers affect consumer behaviour in terms of the Social Influence Theory, in response to the under-researched but increasingly important question of how the creation of artificially simulated digital personalities interacts with consumer attitudes and intentions to purchase. Even though the concept of influencer marketing has been extensively researched, very little empirical data has been done on virtual influencers in terms of how they apply the Social Influence Theory framework to drive certain processes like compliance, identification, and internalization. The quantitative, cross-sectional research design was utilized with the data being gathered by a structured questionnaire of about 55-60 social media users who subscribe to virtual influencers. The measurement items were evaluated with a 5-point Likert scale, and the reliability and validity were validated with the Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin (KMO = 0.873) and the Bartlett Test of Sphericity ( p = 0.001). The construct validity was determined by Explanatory Factor Analysis and simple linear regression analysis was done to test the hypotheses. It is found that virtual influencer empathy significantly positively predicts attitude towards behavior (b = 0.305, p = 0.024, R2 = 0.093) and higher with significance (b = 0.576, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.331) on purchase intention. By and large, the results show that perceived empathy empowers virtual influencers to act as an effective agent of social influence with a key role in influencing consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions in online marketing situations.
Keywords:
Consumer Behavior, Empathy, Purchase intention, Social Influence Theory, Virtual InfluencersReferences
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