Abstract

Despite the exponential growth of virtual influencers marketing and the rising emphasis on collaborative strategies, existing research has overlooked how the type of collaboration partner (human versus virtual) shapes user engagement. To address this gap, we analyze collaborative posts published on Instagram through the end of 2024 and draw on social identity theory to examine this phenomenon. We find that collaborations with non-human partners elicit significantly higher engagement than those with human partners. This effect is moderated at both the VI and partner levels: at the VI level, environmental embeddedness diminishes the negative effect while identity disclosure amplifies it; at the collaborating party level, partner fit weakens the negative effect whereas partner asymmetry strengthens it.

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