Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 67 (2022) 103026

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

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Effective influencer marketing: A social identity perspective

Samira Farivar a, *, Fang Wang b, **
a
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
b
Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Social networking in the form of online communities and social groups is a characteristic of social media
Instagram communication that has profound implications on the identity dynamics and behavior of social media users.
Social media influencers Drawing from social identity theory, this research brings the social identity construct (i.e., followers’ perception
Social identity
of the self in relation to the influencer community) to the literature on influencer marketing and examines the
Storytelling
Promotional post
effect of followers’ social identity, along with their interest fit and the influencer’s opinion leadership, on their
Opinion leadership purchase intention. This research also examines the moderating role of storytelling, a pervasive approach of
Interest social media influencers, in enhancing the social identity–purchase intention link. Empirical results from 467
Influencer community Instagram users show that all three factors positively impact followers’ intention, but social identity has a more
salient effect than the others. Storytelling posts can enhance these effects. Studying influencer marketing through
the social identity angle contributes to better understanding of influencer marketing effectiveness.

1. Introduction 2017; Woodroof et al., 2020), affect their behavioral intentions toward
the influencer’s recommendations. Followers’ individual characteris­
Influencer marketing, or marketing through social media influ­ tics, such as loneliness and self-esteem (Belanche et al., 2021; Hwang
encers, has become a popular approach for businesses to reach potential and Zhang, 2018), also play a role in their responses to influencer
customers and promote products and brands (Kapadia, 2020). Social marketing.
media influencers are social media users who have gained a significant These studies provide valuable insights into influencer effectiveness,
network of followers by posting social media content (De Veirman et al., but they do not account for the salient social community (or social
2017). These influencers have often built a trusting relationship with group) setting of influencer marketing and its impact on followers’
and are instrumental in engaging their followers, thus serving as an ideal perceptions, experiences, and decision-making. Influencer marketing is
group for product endorsement and placement. Industry surveys have not an isolated interpersonal communication process but is embedded
reported that a large portion of marketers have worked with influencers within a social environment in which followers interact with multiple
to endorse their brands and products (Mediakix, 2019) and influencer influencer communities. An influencer community consists of the
marketing expenditure is expected to reach 4.6 billion dollars in US by influencer and a group of followers who together build interactions with
2023 (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2022). each other and mutual support and create a group norm and micro
As a unique and growing phenomenon, influencer marketing has culture, such as language preference, communication custom, and a
attracted increasing research attention. Extant studies have focused on sense of community. Over the course of following multiple influencers
followers’ perceptions of influencers and messages, as well as their own on social media, a follower may be a member of a unique combination of
characteristics, in analyzing influencer marketing outcomes. For influencer communities. As followers identify with influencer commu­
example, research suggests that followers’ perceptions of an influencer nities to various degrees, the perceived membership in an influencer
in terms of physical attractiveness, opinion leadership, and credibility community (i.e., the social identification with an influencer community)
(Farivar et al., 2021; Lee and Watkins, 2016; Lin et al., 2018; Sokolova may affect their experiences and intention toward influencer marketing.
and Kefi, 2020; Taillon et al., 2020; Wiedmann and von Mettenheim, This effect, however, has not been studied in extant influencer market­
2020) and of messages, such as originality and quality (Evans et al., ing literature.

* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Farivar), [email protected] (F. Wang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103026
Received 24 March 2022; Received in revised form 6 May 2022; Accepted 23 May 2022
Available online 27 May 2022
0969-6989/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Farivar and F. Wang Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 67 (2022) 103026

To fill this void, this research takes the social identity perspective to specific domains such as fashion, beauty, and travel (Audrezet et al.,
examine influencer marketing effectiveness. In particular, it assesses the 2018; De Veirman et al., 2019). Followers play a significant role in this
effect of followers’ social identity, i.e., the part of their self-concept process; they follow, interact with, recommend, and support influencers
derived from perceived membership in an influencer community (Taj­ (Farivar and Wang, 2021; Jun and Yi, 2020; Ki et al., 2020; Sokolova and
fel, 1981), on their intention to adopt the purchase recommendation of Kefi, 2020). Together, influencers and followers create the social envi­
the influencer. Social identity is an important concept in group settings ronments and group norms of influencers’ accounts.
but has not been studied in influencer marketing. It refers to the in­ What drives influencer popularity on social media continues to in­
dividual’s perception of belonging to certain social groups and the terest researchers and practitioners alike. Research has explored influ­
associated emotional and value significance of this group membership encer popularity through followers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations
(Hogg et al., 1995; Tajfel, 1972). In addition, this research examines the of following and influencers’ characteristics and activities. Social media
moderating role of storytelling (Stubb, 2018) in promotional posts. users report that their primary reasons for following other users are to
Storytelling, or the use of stories and narratives to convey a message to gain knowledge about others’ lives, for enjoyment and pleasure (Shel­
an audience, is a prevalent means for influencers to deliver information don and Bryant, 2016), and to fulfill needs such as social interaction (Ki
and engage followers (Van Laer et al., 2019); however, its investigation et al., 2020). From influencers’ perspectives, factors such as quality of
in influencer marketing literature is limited. In summary, the research the posts, use of aesthetic elements, and active participation contribute
objectives are: to their popularity (Arora et al., 2019; Djafarova and Trofimenko, 2018).
An increasing body of literature has examined influencer marketing
(1) to examine the effect of followers’ social identity on their pur­ by identifying factors that affect followers’ purchase intention toward
chase intention towards influencers’ recommendation; and recommended products/brands by the influencer. Collectively, extant
(2) to understand the moderating role of storytelling on the social studies have examined an expanding list of factors on influencers, fol­
identity-purchase intention relationship. lowers, and posts and shown their effects on followers’ purchase
intention. Influencer characteristics that can positively affect followers’
The empirical results from 467 Instagram users in an online survey purchase decisions include opinion leadership (Belanche et al., 2021),
show that social identity positively influences followers’ purchase physical attractiveness (Lou and Yuan, 2019; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020),
intention, and its effect is more salient than that of followers’ interest fit credibility (Breves et al., 2019; Reinikainen et al., 2020), and trust­
or the influencer’s opinion leadership, two pivotal factors affecting worthiness (Schouten et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2018). Follower attri­
followers’ responses to interpersonal communication. Storytelling posts butes that are associated with their purchase intention include interest
can enhance these effects. fit with influencer posts (Belanche et al., 2021; Martínez-López et al.,
This research adds several insights to the literature on influencer 2020), perceived parasocial relationships (Sokolova and Kefi, 2020),
marketing. First, it adds to the current understanding on influen­ and loneliness (Hwang and Zhang, 2018). Post/content features that
cer–follower communication by emphasizing the community and group improve influencer marketing effectiveness include content uniqueness,
settings and exploring the role of followers’ social identification with the originality (Casaló et al., 2020), interactivity, informativeness, and
community. This addition broadens the scope of influencer marketing aesthetic (Ki et al., 2020).
research from focusing on influencer and message factors to exploring By focusing on the characteristics of influencers, followers, and
members’ perceptions relating to their membership in social commu­ posts, extant literature leaves out an important element in influencer
nity, thus offering a new lens and opportunities for rich and useful in­ marketing—namely, the influencer community. The influencer com­
sights. Specifically, to the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to munity is an important part of followers’ experience in following an
introduce social identity theory to influencer marketing research and to influencer. Followers’ perceptions relating to the influencer community
shed light on how followers’ social identification with the influencer can significantly affect their attitudes and intention toward the influ­
community may affect their purchase intention. Moreover, it in­ encer’s message and purchase recommendations. That is, followers do
vestigates the role of storytelling in influencer marketing and provides not make decisions based solely on influencers and their posts; the
evidence of its positive moderator effect on social identity, interest fit, influencer community can also play an important role. Nonetheless, the
and influencer’s opinion leadership. Through storytelling, social influ­ community perspective has not been studied in the influencer marketing
encers can build their personas and engage followers. From a managerial literature.
perspective, this research presents useful, actionable guidance for both
influencers and firms using influencer marketing on how to improve the 2.2. Social identity theory
effectiveness of social media influencing.
This paper is structured as follows: the next section discusses the Social identity theory is a social psychological theory describing the
background on influencer marketing, followed by our proposed research self-conception of group/community members regarding their social
model and hypotheses. Then, we present the methodology and discuss self, community processes, and intergroup relationships (Ellemers et al.,
the empirical results. Finally, we provide research contributions and 2002; Hogg, 2020; Stets and Burke, 2000; Tajfel and Turner, 1979).
practical implications, discuss limitations, and offer suggestions for Social identity refers to the individual’s perception of belonging to
further research. certain social groups and the associated emotional and value signifi­
cance of this group membership (Hogg et al., 1995; Tajfel, 1972). As
2. Background individuals often participate in many groups in their social activities,
they may form multiple and hierarchically ordered social identifications
2.1. Influencer marketing (Markus and Wurf, 1987). Because of people’s tendency to favor their
in-groups over relevant out-groups, social identity can affect their be­
Influencer marketing is a novel marketing approach that has flour­ liefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors (Hogg, 2020).
ished in recent years given the increase in influencer–follower in­ Social identity consists of three main facets: cognitive social identity,
teractions on social networking sites. Influencers are social media evaluative social identity, and affective social identity (Ellemers et al.,
contributors who have gained notable recognition from others and have 2002; Tajfel and Turner, 1979). Cognitive social identity refers to a
cultivated a dedicated audience (De Veirman et al., 2017). On social categorization process in which individuals form their conceptions of
media, influencers communicate with their audiences through photos, community and membership. They become aware of the similarities to
videos, and other social activities to create their online personas (Kha­ others in their community and dissimilarity to outsiders (Dholakia et al.,
mis et al., 2017; Tafesse and Wien, 2018) and showcase their expertise in 2004). Evaluative social identity reflects members’ interpretation of

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S. Farivar and F. Wang Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 67 (2022) 103026

their importance and self-worth as being part of their community. Af­ the marketing action (Hogg, 2020). Previous marketing research has
fective social identity captures members’ emotional feelings about and found such effects in advertising and branding contexts (Bee and Dala­
engagement with the community, such as feeling of belongingness, kas, 2015; Lam et al., 2010). Studies on brand communities have shown
attachment, and sense of community (Dholakia et al., 2004). that members of a brand community tend to support products and
Social and business research has investigated social identity in many brands related to that community (Lam et al., 2010). Advertising
contexts, such as communication, product evaluation, and performance research reports that group identification is an important factor influ­
assessment, showing its importance as a primary factor in individual encing individuals’ advertisement processing (Bee and Dalakas, 2015).
choice and decision-making (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Farivar et al., Thus, we propose the following:
2018; Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2018; Winterich and Barone, 2011).
H1. Social identity positively affects followers’ intention to adopt
For example, using social identity theory, management research has
influencers’ purchasing suggestions.
conceptualized and examined organizational identification, or the
extent to which members of an organization characterize themselves in
3.2. Interest fit
terms of unity with the organization (e.g., companies, an alma mater)
(Ashforth and Mael, 1989). Similarly, the marketing literature has
Interest, by definition, is “a feeling of wanting to learn more about
conceptualized and explored customer-company and customer-brand
something or to be involved in something” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). It is
identification, reporting a significant association between belonging to
conceptualized in research as a trait-like preference for activities, situ­
a social group (e.g., fan groups, brand communities) and members’ at­
ations, or contexts (Su et al., 2009) and is associated with attention,
titudes and buying decisions (He et al., 2012; Kauppinen-Räisänen et al.,
positive emotion, and direction toward an object or activity (Hofer,
2018; Khobzi et al., 2019; Lam et al., 2010).
2010). In terms of self-concept, interest is an idiosyncratic characteristic
Social media communication is associated with online social groups
of individuals, helping them construct their self-identity (vs. social
and virtual communities (Oh et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2021); thus, social
identity) (Kadir et al., 2017). Research has extensively discussed per­
identity theory could provide a useful lens to examine social media
sonal interest as a major contingency factor in a broad range of fields,
users’ attitude and behavior (Ngai et al., 2015; Shareef et al., 2020).
such as education, communication, marketing, and politics (Kim et al.,
However, the influencer marketing literature has largely focused on
2017; Su et al., 2009). For example, in career choice, personal interest
factors such as followers’ perceptions of influencers and their posts
lends intrinsic value to a career option, influencing decision-making
without considering followers’ self-perception in relation to the com­
(Tey et al., 2020).
munity involved. The current study connects social identity theory and
In influencer marketing, interest fit refers to the extent to which
influencer marketing research by considering followers’ level of iden­
followers are interested in influencers’ content. Followers’ interest is an
tification with the influencer community as a factor affecting their
indicator of their attention to and consideration of influencers’ message.
purchase intention toward influencer recommendations.
The persuasion literature, particularly that related to the elaboration
likelihood model (ELM), suggests that personal interest motivates re­
3. Research model and hypotheses
ceivers to carefully elaborate on persuasive messages with significant
cognitive effort (Petty and Briñol, 2011). Personal interest can also
This research examines the effect of social identity on followers’
facilitate cognitive functioning, increasing message memory and leading
purchase intention. We assess social identity along with followers’ in­
to favorable intentions (Shah et al., 2019). Such effects are evident in
terest fit with influencers’ content and their perceptions of influencers’
several marketing contexts. For example, advertising studies have found
opinion leadership. The three constructs are studied to clearly identify
that interest fit affects the purchase behavior of the audience (Choi and
followers’ responses as a result of their social relationships and group
Rifon, 2012). Research on social media usage has also found that the fit
behavior (i.e., in studying social identity) as well as the interpersonal
between message content and user preference can increase rebroad­
process (i.e., in studying interest fit and opinion leadership).
casting (Zhang et al., 2017). Followers’ interest fit is particularly
important in influencer marketing. Because of the multiple information
3.1. Social identity
sources and the large inflow of communication, followers are often
exposed to multiple promotional messages under limited attention (Qiu
In the context of social media influencing, followers’ social identity
et al., 2017). Thus:
captures an important self-perception pertaining to their influencer
communities. Influencer communities that consist of a focal influencer H2. Interest fit with the influencer’s posts positively affects followers’
and many followers are a salient communication setting in influencer intention to adopt influencers’ purchasing suggestions.
marketing. Instead of interacting with and responding to individual
influencers, followers are exposed to and engaged with an influencer 3.3. Opinion leadership
community, which exerts an impact on their experiences and decision-
making. For example, when making decisions on whether or not to Opinion leadership is the extent to which an influencer is perceived
follow an influencer, social media users often consider the interactions as an active and influential media user who provides information and
and features of the follower group, such as their comments and activ­ opinions to others (Hwang, 2015; Rogers and Cartano, 1962). The
ities, in addition to those of the influencer (De Veirman et al., 2017). The marketing literature has long investigated the role of opinion leadership
interactions within the community lead to a shared group experience in business communication and persuasion (Tsang and Zhou, 2005).
and a sense of belonging for members of the community (Coelho et al., Opinion leaders tend to have considerable knowledge of a specific topic,
2018). so the information they impart is perceived as useful and valuable and is
Followers identify with influencer communities to various degrees, easily adopted (Chan and Misra, 1990). They play a key role in infor­
which may influence their intention toward and decisions about influ­ mation diffusion, new brand/product adoption, and many other sce­
encers’ messages. As noted previously, social identity theory posits that narios, influencing consumer attitude and behavior (Chan and Misra,
people tend to favor their in-groups over relevant out-groups (Hogg, 1990; Iyengar et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2013). In the social media
2020; Oyserman, 2009); thus, social identity may affect how followers context, the formation of opinion leadership is strongly associated with
evaluate and react to influencers’ messages on social media. Social network size and users’ digital activities; in turn, opinion leadership can
identification with an influencer’s group might act as a heuristic that contribute to the popularity of social media users and enhance the
predisposes a follower to have a favorable attitude and intention toward effective dissemination and persuasion of their messages (Hwang, 2015;
messages and recommendations, regardless of his or her evaluation of Karlsen, 2015).

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We treat opinion leadership herein as a key source cue that affects evoking narrative transportation, storytelling can reduce the negative
followers’ decision-making in interpersonal communication. The ELM effects of weak arguments (Escalas, 2007) and amplify the positive ones.
posits that in addition to message elaboration with cognitive efforts, Third, storytelling may leverage the positive effect of influencers’
audiences use source cues to make simplified inferences (Petty and opinion leadership. Most storytelling posts are based on the influencers’
Briñol, 2011). Prior research emphasizes opinion leadership as a key experiences and thus present the influencers in the post content, which
feature of influencers that affects followers’ behavioral intention (Casaló then activates the salience of the influencer. At the same time, audiences
et al., 2020; De Veirman et al., 2017; Ki and Kim, 2019). Followers value in narrative transportation engage in more narrative thoughts and
influencers’ opinion leadership; thus, when they perceive influencers as respond to heuristics (McGregor and Holmes, 1999), which increase the
opinion leaders, they are likely to follow their recommendation (Casaló importance of source cues (i.e., opinion leadership) in their
et al., 2020; Ki and Kim, 2019). We hypothesize the following: decision-making. Thus, we propose the following:
H3. Opinion leadership positively affects followers’ intention to adopt H4a. Storytelling posts intensify the positive impact of social identity
influencers’ purchasing suggestions. on followers’ intention to adopt influencers’ purchasing suggestions.
H4b. Storytelling posts intensify the positive impact of interest fit on
followers’ intention to adopt influencers’ purchasing suggestions.
3.4. Storytelling posts
H4c. Storytelling posts intensify the positive impact of influencers’
A story is “a discourse dealing with interrelated actions and conse­ opinion leadership on followers’ intention to adopt influencers’ pur­
quences in chronological order” (Gilliam and Flaherty, 2015, p. 133). chasing suggestions.
Story, or narration, is a rhetoric mode with a compelling power to Summarizing the above hypotheses, Fig. 1 provides our research
persuade (McGregor and Holmes, 1999). Narrative transportation the­ model.
ory postulates that a story invites audience into the action it portrays
and that audience can become absorbed in the story (Nell, 1988). Such 4. Methodology
immersion can result in increased story-consistent affective responses
and narrative thoughts, reduced critical thoughts, and increased mem­ To test the research model and hypotheses, we used an online survey.
ory of heuristics (Green and Brock, 2002; Van Laer et al., 2014). We adapted all measurement items from well-established scales in the
Marketing studies have previously examined storytelling in adver­ literature and tested their validity in a pilot study. Following the liter­
tising (Escalas and Stern, 2003), branding (Woodside et al., 2008), and ature, we deemed social identity a second-order reflective construct with
personal selling (Gilliam and Flaherty, 2015). Storytelling is commonly three sub-constructs. Their measurement items (two for each sub-
studied in contrast with informational content (Edell and Staelin, 1983; construct) were adapted from Tsai and Bagozzi (2014). The cognitive
Fu et al., 2012). Informational content focuses on the attributes and social identity questions reflected the similarity between a follower and
features of the advertised product, whereas storytelling narratives others in the influencer account. To assess evaluative social identity,
describe personal events and consumer experience with a product participants rated their agreement with statements about their value to
(Bennett and Royle, 2004; Fu et al., 2012). Storytelling is a prevalent the influencer’s account. The affective social identity scale measured the
approach for social media influencers to deliver information and spark extent to which followers are attached to the influencer account.
follower engagement (Van Laer et al., 2019), but its study in influencer We adapted five items measuring opinion leadership from Casaló
marketing is limited. et al. (2020) and Gentina et al. (2014). Three items on interest fit came
We posit that storytelling moderates the effects of social identity, from Casaló et al. (2020) and Lee et al. (2012). We adapted two items
interest fit, and opinion leadership on followers’ purchase intention. measuring storytelling posts from Ki et al. (2020) and Stubb (2018).
First, storytelling may leverage the positive effect of social identity Four items on followers’ purchase intention came from Hwang and
because it often features influencers’ experiences with a product. Zhang (2018). We used a 7-point Likert scale to measure all the items.
Featuring a key community member with a product activates the social To test the reliability and validity of the scales, as well as the clarity
identity of followers and increases its influence on followers’ decision- of our questions, we conducted a pilot test with 50 university students
making (Stets and Burke, 2000). Second, storytelling may leverage the (aged between 19 and 21) who were users of Instagram and were
positive effect of followers’ interest fit. When followers are interested in following at least one Instagram influencer. All measurement scales
influencers’ content, they pay attention to and elaborate more on the showed strong reliability (Cronbach’s alpha values greater than 0.7) and
content. Inevitably, however, followers may identify weak arguments the respondents reported that all questions were clear.
and therefore develop counter-arguments. Research has shown that, by

Fig. 1. Research model.

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S. Farivar and F. Wang Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 67 (2022) 103026

Next, we collected data to test our hypotheses. Respondents of the 5. Results

survey were followers of fashion-focused Instagram influencers. Insta­
gram is a primary social media platform for influencer marketing We used the partial least squares (SmartPLS 3.0) technique to test the
(Omnicore, 2021); it provides various functions to assist influencers in research hypotheses (Ringle et al., 2015). Social identity was treated as a
creating innovative, aesthetic, and persuasive content (Lee, 2019). second order reflective-reflective construct. Following the suggestion by
Fashion influencers tend to be quite active on Instagram and regularly Sarstedt et al. (2019), the repeated indicator approach in which the
collaborate with firms for marketing purposes (SocialBook, 2019). second-order construct is measured using all items of the underlying
Therefore, they are often the main focus of extant influencer marketing lower-order constructs, was used.
research (Belanche et al., 2021; Djafarova and Bowes, 2020; Jin and First, we assessed the measurement model’s reliability and conver­
Ryu, 2020; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). gent and discriminant validity. Following previous studies (e.g., Chen
We disseminated the online survey through a research firm (Qual­ et al., 2022), Table 1 shows all the measurement items with their relative
trics). The firm collected data from a panel of North American partici­ factor loadings. As Table 2 shows, all composite reliability (CR) values
pants. All respondents, upon finishing the survey, were provided a are higher than 0.7, and all average variance extracted (AVE) values are
nominal payment by Qualtrics. To ensure an understanding on social higher than 0.5; the square roots of the AVE values are higher than the
media influencers, we explained at the beginning of the survey that corresponding correlations. These results indicate reasonable conver­
social media influencers are social media users who actively post content gent and discriminant validity of the measurement model. We further
and have a significant network of followers. The respondents were tested the discriminant validity by checking the values of the hetero­
screened to ensure that they were over 18 years of age, were Instagram trait–monotrait ratio of correlations; all are below 0.9, the suggested
users, and followed fashion influencers on Instagram. We asked the re­ threshold (Henseler et al., 2015).
spondents to consider a fashion influencer they were following who was Second, we assessed common method variance (CMV) by conducting
located in North America, actively endorsed fashion-focused products/ various techniques. First, a full collinearity test (Kock, 2015) was con­
brands, and had between 10k and 100k followers (i.e., micro celebrities) ducted. Results showed that all variance inflation factors at the factor
and to answer the survey questions accordingly. In order to identify level are less than the threshold of 3.3. Second, using Harman’s
inattentive respondents, we included two attention check questions in single-factor test, we further tested the existence of common method
which we asked respondents to choose a specific response option (e.g., if variance. The results indicated that one factor explains less than 50% of
you are reading this question, please choose “agree”.) In total, 500 re­ the variance. Finally, we conducted the unmeasured latent method
spondents answered the survey. After we screened the responses and factor technique (Podsakoff et al., 2012). Similar to Turel et al. (2011)
removed incomplete and inattentive responses (incorrect answers to the and Saraf et al. (2007), we included a latent method factor which is
attention check questions), 467 valid responses remained for analysis. measured by items of all constructs in our model (20 indicators) and
Of the sample, 67% respondents were female; 49% had followed the converted each indicator into a single-indicator construct. According to
influencer for more than six months, indicating a reasonable experience Saraf et al. (2007), the squared values of the method factor loadings can
level of the followers in our sample; and 38% were between the ages of be considered as the percentage of variance caused by the method factor,
18 and 29 years, 31% between 30 and 39 years, 18% between 40 and 49 whereas the squared values of substantive constructs loadings are
years, 8% between 50 and 59 years, and 5% 60 or older. The de­ interpreted as the percentage of variance caused by substantive con­
mographic composition of the followers in our sample matches that of structs. We can consider common method bias to be an unlikely issue if
typical Instagram followers (Omnicore, 2021). The survey with general the following criteria are met: (1) the method factor loadings are not
Instagram users, instead of typical ones of 18–35 years old, can enhance significant, and (2) the average variance explained by substantive con­
result generalizability and enable additional robustness tests across age structs are substantially greater than the average variance explained by
groups. the method factor. The results of our model with the added latent

Table 1
Dimension validity analysis results.
Constructs Measurement Items Factor
Loadings

Purchase intention 1. I will buy the product that this influencer advertised on Instagram 0.86
2. I have the intention to buy the product that this influencer advertised on Instagram. 0.9
3 I am interested in buying the product that this influencer advertised on Instagram. 0.89
4 It is likely that I will buy the product that this influencer advertised on Instagram. 0.88
Social Cognitive social 1. How would you express the degree of similarity between your personal identity and the identity of members in this 0.91 (0.85+)
identity* identity influencer’s account?
2. Please indicate to what degree your self-image is similar to that of members of this influencer’s account as you 0.93 (0.78+)
perceive it.
Evaluative social 1. I think I am a valuable member of this influencer’s account. 0.94 (0.83+)
identity 2.I think I am an important member of this influencer’s account. 0.95 (0.84+)
Affective social 1. How attached are you to this influencer’s account 0.95 (0.86+)
identity 2. How strong would you say your feelings of belongingness are toward this influencer’s account? 0.95 (0.89+)
Interest fit 1. This influencer’s account is relevant to my value. 0.86
2. The content of this influencer’s account is congruent with my interests. 0.81
3. The content of this influencer’s account matches my personality. 0.87
Opinion leadership 1. This influencer offers interesting new ideas. 0.79
2. This influencer is one step ahead of others. 0.79
3. This influencer offers interesting pictures that suggest new ideas. 0.75
4. This influencer influences people’s opinions. 0.71
5. I follow this influencer as a source of information. 0.73
Storytelling 1. This influencer’s promotional posts mainly describe the influencer’s personal stories on the use of the products/ 0.85
brands.
2. This influencer talks about his/her experience in using the products/services in his/her promotional posts. 0.83
*
Second order construct (reflective-reflective).
+
Second order construct loadings.

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S. Farivar and F. Wang Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 67 (2022) 103026

Table 2
Descriptive statistics and discriminant validity.
Constructs M SD CR α AVE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

1. Purchase intention 4.58 1.37 0.93 0.9 0.78 0.88

2. Social identity * 4.27 1.46 0.94 0.92 0.72 0.76 0.85
3. Cognitive social identity 4.21 1.52 0.92 0.82 0.85 0.67 – 0.92
4. Evaluative social identity 4.42 1.69 0.95 0.89 0.90 0.70 – 0.66 0.95
5. Affective social identity 4.18 1.72 0.95 0.89 0.90 0.68 – 0.71 0.70 0.95
6. Interest fit 5.05 1.04 0.88 0.81 0.79 0.66 0.71 0.61 0.60 0.60 0.89
7. Opinion leadership 5.17 0.91 0.87 0.81 0.56 0.66 0.65 0.54 0.57 0.57 0.65 0.75
8. Storytelling 5.16 0.99 0.83 0.71 0.70 0.39 0.43 0.58 0.41 0.38 0.39 0.51 0.84
*
Second order construct (reflective-reflective).

method factor showed that the average variance explained by indicators purchase intention were 0.06 and 0.11 (small), respectively. The highest
is 0.76 while the average method-based variance is 0.012. In addition, effect size of social identity among the three factors indicates its more
all loadings of the method construct were not significant. Therefore, we significant role in influencing followers’ purchase intention and suggests
conclude that common method bias is not a major problem in our the importance of a sense of community in influencers’ success.
research model.
After ensuring the adequacy of the measurement model, we tested 6. Post hoc analyses
the structural model by conducting a bootstrapping technique with 2000
resamples (Gil-Garcia, 2008). Fig. 2 illustrates the results. We carried out post hoc analyses to test the robustness of the effects
As Fig. 2 shows, the path coefficient of the relationship between in the main analysis. For example, we conducted several multi-group
social identity and followers’ purchase intention is positive (0.468) and analyses based on followers’ experiences, gender, and age to detect
significant (p<0.01), indicating that social identity positively affects any difference among the follower groups. The results showed no sig­
followers’ intention to adopt influencers’ purchasing suggestions. H1 is nificant difference among the groups. In addition, to better explore the
supported. The path coefficient of the relationship between interest fit role of social identity, we tested the direct effects of social identity sub-
and purchase intention is positive (0.195) and significant (p<0.01), constructs on purchase intention. The results showed that all three sub-
indicating that interest fit with the influencer’s posts positively affects constructs positively influence purchase intention, which is in line with
followers’ intention to adopt influencers’ purchasing suggestions. H2 is the results of the main study on the positive effect of social identity on
supported. The path coefficient of the relationship between opinion purchase intention. Among the three sub-constructs, the size of the effect
leadership and purchase intention is positive (0.286) and significant of evaluative social identity on purchase intention was stronger than
(p<0.01), indicating that the opinion leadership of the influencers that of the other two, indicating that the evaluative dimension (i.e.,
positively affects followers’ intention to purchase. H3 is supported. A followers’ perception of their importance in an influencer community) is
test of the moderating role of storytelling posts reveals positive and more salient in affecting purchase intention.
significant patch coefficients. This indicates that storytelling intensifies
the relationships between the three main predictors and followers’ 7. Discussion
purchase intention. Therefore, H4a, H4b, and H4c are supported.
To compare the impact of social identity, interest fit, and opinion This research aims to enhance the understanding of influencer
leadership on followers’ purchase intention, we investigated the effect marketing by capturing the role of social identity in this phenomenon.
sizes (f-squared) of these three relationships (Cohen, 1988; Rosenthal, Influencer marketing is fundamentally social, and it takes place on social
1991). The effect size of the relationship between social identity and media platforms and through established influencer–follower connec­
purchase intention was 0.28 (medium), whereas the effect sizes between tions, which are characterized by community connections. Followers
interest fit and purchase intention and between opinion leadership and develop ranges of social identities by interacting and social networking

Fig. 2. Structural model estimation.

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S. Farivar and F. Wang Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 67 (2022) 103026

on these platforms (Pan et al., 2017), forming a sense of community and are a result of interpersonal communication and group relationships,
building an identity-based attachment to the community (Turel and businesses should assess the influencers as well as their communities
Gefen, 2013). Following social identity theory (Oyserman, 2009), we when deciding with whom to collaborate. Influencer communities that
propose and test a model to examine the effects of followers’ social provide a strong sense of belonging to members may be suitable for
identity, along with their interest fit and the influencer’s opinion lead­ businesses to consider.
ership, on their intention to adopt purchase recommendations. The Influencers should work on building and enhancing the sense of
empirical results from 467 Instagram followers show the positive effects community and closeness among their followers. Attracting a large
of the three factors and reveal that followers’ social identity is more number of followers is a good start, but a cohesive community may have
salient than the other two in determining their purchase intention. a long-lasting effect on their influencing power. To build a cohesive
Storytelling posts positively moderate these effects. community, influencers can engage in various activities, such as
responding to followers’ comments, encouraging followers’ peer in­
7.1. Theoretical contributions teractions, posting live streams on Instagram, sharing followers’ direct
messages with others in their stories, and other methods for peer
This research contributes to the influencer marketing literature in engagement.
several ways. First, this study expands the social identity approach Moreover, as our findings show, influencers should continue using
(Ellemers et al., 2002; Hogg, 2020) to influencer marketing research storytelling to engage followers. Storytelling not only helps attract fol­
and, to our knowledge, is the first to introduce the social identity lowers (Van Laer et al., 2019) but also adds to the influencer’s persua­
construct to the influencer marketing literature. It sheds light on how sive power by leveraging the positive effects of social identity, followers’
followers’ social identification with the influencer community can affect interest fit, and influencers’ opinion leadership. Influencers could
their purchase intention and shows the importance of social identity, intentionally incorporate elements in their storytelling to activate the
compared with traditionally studied factors such as followers’ interest fit effects of these factors. For example, they could discuss their personal
and an influencer’s opinion leadership, in affecting influencer marketing stories and encourage followers to share their own stories to build a
success. Different from previous studies that focus on the interpersonal sense of community and connection. To be effective, stories need to
process of influencer marketing (Farivar et al., 2021; Sokolova and Kefi, deliver a clear message and be aligned with and address various stages of
2020; Wiedmann and von Mettenheim, 2020), this study and its findings the customer journey. Sponsored posts that convey a narrative around
indicate that followers’ responses and decision-making in social media influencers’ personal use of products/services could result in more
influencing are a result of both group identification and an interpersonal success. Moreover, companies that are collaborating with influencers
process. The group identification could be more important than the should allow influencers the freedom to develop and craft the promo­
interpersonal process and need to be stressed in influencer marketing tional post content themselves, to incorporate their personal stories into
research and practice. the content.
Second, our study of followers’ social identity highlights the social
and group environments of influencer marketing. Social media 7.3. Limitations and further research
communication is embedded within social networking contexts, in
which users belong to various online social groups and virtual commu­ Several limitations of this study open avenues for further research.
nities (De Veirman et al., 2017). These group contexts and their social First, this study captured followers’ purchase intention as the outcome
features can strongly affect followers’ experiences and decision-making of influencer marketing because such intention is a direct indicator of
in influencer marketing. However, prior research on influencer mar­ influencer marketing effectiveness (Casaló et al., 2020; Lee and Watkins,
keting (e.g., Casaló et al., 2020; Ki et al., 2020) has not addressed the 2016; Lin et al., 2018; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). However, other
group setting or assessed its influence on followers, missing significant outcome variables such as attitude toward endorsed products/brands
opportunities in understanding and guiding influencer marketing. Our and word-of-mouth intention are also worthy of study. Examining other
study takes the social identity perspective (i.e., followers’ perception of outcome variables and comparing the effects of social identity may
the self in relation to the influencer community) to show the influence of provide further insights.
a group setting in influencer marketing. Additional perspectives, besides Second, this research tested the moderating role of storytelling. In
social identity, to study influencer communities are also feasible. general, social media users are attracted to influencers who engage in
Highlighting the community and group setting broadens influencer more storytelling, and the overall perception of influencers’ storytelling
marketing research and opens a new avenue to advance understanding. in our sample is relatively high (M = 5.16, SD = .99). Thus, the sample
Third, this research stresses the importance of storytelling in influ­ may not have captured other influencers who are not using the story­
encer marketing by revealing its positive impact on social identity, in­ telling method to the same extent. In addition, followers may not
terest fit, and opinion leadership. In doing so, it responds to recent calls accurately remember the degree to which an influencer uses storytell­
(Vrontis et al., 2021) to examine post features in influencer marketing. ing. An experimental design that manipulates storytelling conditions
Storytelling is a prevalent approach of social media influencers (Van could help further test the effect of storytelling. Moreover, when
Laer et al., 2019), but surprisingly its study in the influencer marketing assessing the effect of storytelling, followers’ beliefs about post
literature is limited. Previous studies indicate that storytelling posts that authenticity and sponsorship disclosure can be relevant. Future research
narrate influencers’ personal story of using the advertised product are could examine the role of authenticity and sponsorship disclosure in
appealing to followers (Van Laer et al., 2019; Woodside et al., 2008). In storytelling.
our study, we follow narrative transportation theory to explain the Third, in line with the influencer marketing literature (Casaló et al.,
power of storytelling (McGregor and Holmes, 1999). As audiences 2020; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020), we focused on followers of
become absorbed in a narration, they have more story-consistent af­ fashion-focused influencers on Instagram. As noted, Instagram is one of
fective responses, an increased focus on heuristics, and reduced critical the most used platforms by social media influencers, and the fashion
thoughts. industry frequently collaborates with influencers. Consequently, study­
ing fashion influencers on Instagram is common in influencer marketing
7.2. Practical implications research (Casaló et al., 2020; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020), but it also
introduce a limitation of this research. To unpack the generalizability of
Our findings provide insights for both firms and social media influ­ our results, research on other platforms, such as YouTube and Facebook,
encers. Businesses that are considering using influencer marketing can and other product categories, such as beauty, travel, and food, is
benefit from our results. As followers’ responses to influencer marketing required. Cross-platform and cross-product category studies might also

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