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Paper Number
1756
Paper Type
Short
Description
Social media influencers endeavour to attract, retain, and engage their followers, which drives a prevalent issue of problematic engagement of followers. However, scant research has examined followers’ problematic engagement with influencers, and little is known about how followers may respond to their problematic engagement. In this study, we propose a research framework to fill this gap. Drawing from coping theory, we propose that three facets of problematic engagement (cognitive, affective, and behavioral) would lead to followers’ coping responses (emotion-focused and problem-focused) via the mediation of followers’ situational appraisal (perceived threat). Moreover, we suggest that two key factors in social media influencing, i.e., social identification with influencers and perceived opinion leadership, would moderate the effect of perceived threat on followers’ coping responses. Two waves of online survey will be conducted to test the hypotheses. Results will provide useful insights to social media users as well as influencers.
Recommended Citation
Farivar, Samira; Wang, Fang; and Turel, Ofir, "Better or Worse: Responding to Problematic Engagement with Social Media Influencers" (2022). ICIS 2022 Proceedings. 8.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2022/user_behaivor/user_behaivor/8
Better or Worse: Responding to Problematic Engagement with Social Media Influencers
Social media influencers endeavour to attract, retain, and engage their followers, which drives a prevalent issue of problematic engagement of followers. However, scant research has examined followers’ problematic engagement with influencers, and little is known about how followers may respond to their problematic engagement. In this study, we propose a research framework to fill this gap. Drawing from coping theory, we propose that three facets of problematic engagement (cognitive, affective, and behavioral) would lead to followers’ coping responses (emotion-focused and problem-focused) via the mediation of followers’ situational appraisal (perceived threat). Moreover, we suggest that two key factors in social media influencing, i.e., social identification with influencers and perceived opinion leadership, would moderate the effect of perceived threat on followers’ coping responses. Two waves of online survey will be conducted to test the hypotheses. Results will provide useful insights to social media users as well as influencers.
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Comments
19-UserBehavior