Paper Type
Complete
Paper Number
1246
Description
Comments on social networking sites are ubiquitous. This study delves into their impact on social media influencers’ (SMI) source credibility, i.e., the trust an audience has in a source, in influencer marketing. Using a between-subject online experiment (n=272) mimicking real sponsored posts of two SMI, we manipulate and randomize comments to reference either the person or the product and to be of negative, neutral, or positive sentiment. We find that source credibility significantly and positively influences the purchase intention. Negative comments referencing the advertised product harm an SMI’s source credibility and, thereby, the product’s purchase intention. Splitting source credibility into its four components, we find that an SMI’s expertise and trustworthiness mainly drive this effect. Surprisingly, we do not observe a significant impact of negative comments referencing the person of the SMI on the source credibility. Controlling for the respective SMI reveals some minor effects, calling for future research opportunities.
Recommended Citation
Weber, Patrick; Lowin, Maximilian; and Kumpf, Johanna Sophie, "How Negative Comments Shape Source Credibility and Purchase Intention in Influencer Marketing" (2024). PACIS 2024 Proceedings. 6.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2024/track19_userbeh/track19_userbeh/6
How Negative Comments Shape Source Credibility and Purchase Intention in Influencer Marketing
Comments on social networking sites are ubiquitous. This study delves into their impact on social media influencers’ (SMI) source credibility, i.e., the trust an audience has in a source, in influencer marketing. Using a between-subject online experiment (n=272) mimicking real sponsored posts of two SMI, we manipulate and randomize comments to reference either the person or the product and to be of negative, neutral, or positive sentiment. We find that source credibility significantly and positively influences the purchase intention. Negative comments referencing the advertised product harm an SMI’s source credibility and, thereby, the product’s purchase intention. Splitting source credibility into its four components, we find that an SMI’s expertise and trustworthiness mainly drive this effect. Surprisingly, we do not observe a significant impact of negative comments referencing the person of the SMI on the source credibility. Controlling for the respective SMI reveals some minor effects, calling for future research opportunities.
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