THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS ON GENERATING ONLINE PURCHASING INTENTION OF BRANDED FASHION PRODUCTS THROUGH CONSUMER BRAND RELATIONSHIP; WITH THE MODERATING EFFECT OF CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Influencer marketing (IM) is a relatively new discipline in contemporary marketing communications to interact and engage with stakeholders on social media. The increasing importance of social media influencers (SMIs) has been acknowledged by marketers and gained attention from academics in recent times. The purpose of this research study is to provide empirical evidence for branded fashion organisations in Sri Lanka regarding the important source attributes of social media influencers (SMIs) that require them to contribute to forming consumer-brand relationships (CBR) and eventually influencing to generate online purchasing intention (OPI) moderated by consumer innovativeness (CI) for branded fashion products. This is a cross-sectional quantitative study executed via an online survey with 420 scrutinized respondents in the western province of Sri Lanka, analysed using the structural equation modelling (SEM) Smart PLS version 4 software to validate the hypothesized relationships. The findings of this study uncovered unconventional results: the role of SMIs positively impacted OPI, but only two source attributes, such as similarity and entertainment value, positively impacted OPI for branded fashion products in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, while CBR partially mediated the relationship between the role of SMI and OPI, CI reported a low moderate relationship. This study contributed to extending the investigated theories, Source-Credibility Theory (SCT), Human Brand Theory (HBT), and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), by cementing SMIs as a human brand and as a media channel into the theoretical premise. The ultimate objective of this study is to introduce an SMFI marketing model for the branded fashion industry that will help marketing practitioners improve the ROI of their SMI marketing investment. Opportunities for further research on SMI marketing are prevalent in light of the ever-changing interactive advertising landscape, such as dynamic SNS, consumer psychological factors and experiential advertising.