Abstract

Recently, influencer marketing and sponsorship activities have been crucial in marketing communication. This paper explores the relationship between influencers’ characteristics (i.e., centrality and trustworthiness), the efficacy of social media posting (i.e., empathy and immersion), and consumers’ product attitude. The study further reveals a critical role of sponsorship disclosure in this mechanism. Based on the data from social media users, our findings demonstrated that influencers’ centrality and trustworthiness were positively related to consumers’ empathic response and immersion toward the social media posting. Consumers’ empathy and immersion strongly mediate the link between influencers’ characteristics and consumers’ attitudes toward the product. Notably, the current study also indicated the moderating role of sponsorship activities and found different effects of centrality and trustworthiness with an apparent sponsorship disclosure. Theoretical and practical implications are further elaborated.

摘要

最近，有影响力的营销和赞助活动在营销传播中至关重要。本文探讨了影响者的特征（即中心性和可信度）、社交媒体发布的功效（即同理心和沉浸感）以及消费者的产品态度之间的关系。该研究进一步揭示了赞助披露在该机制中的关键作用。基于来自社交媒体用户的数据，我们的研究结果表明，影响者的中心性和可信度与消费者对社交媒体发布的移情反应和沉浸感呈正相关。消费者的同理心和沉浸感强烈地调节了影响者的特征和消费者对产品的态度之间的联系。尤其，目前的研究还表明了赞助活动的调节作用，并发现了明显的赞助披露对中心性和可信度的不同影响。进一步阐述了理论和实践意义。