• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1073-1080
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• 2023

This study aims to explore the psychological factors influencing the persuasive effect of virtual influencers, with a specific focus on the impact of social exclusion. Additionally, it examines the mediating effect of parasocial relationships on advertising effectiveness. To achieve these goals, the study conducted an experiment using a 2 (influencer type: human vs. virtual human) × 2 (social exclusion: social exclusion vs. social acceptance) between-group factorial design. The results revealed that consumers who experienced social exclusion exhibited more positive attitudes toward the influencer and the product, higher intentions to purchase the product, and a greater willingness to share or recommend it, especially when the influencer was a real human (vs. a virtual influencer). These moderating effects were found to be mediated by parasocial relationships.

• Journal of Advanced Technology Convergence
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.27-35
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• 2022

We investigated the role of product-influencer congruence between social distance, perceived authenticity and attitude toward ads. In particular, we focused on the mediating effect of perceived authenticity on the relationship between social distance and attitude toward ads. Also, we interested in the conditional indirect effect of product-influencer congruence on the mediation process. For our purposes, data were collected from a convenience sample of 340 undergraduate students at a large university in South Korea. Our results indicated that social distance is directly related to the perceived authenticity and, consequently, affects attitude toward ads. Also, an indirect effect of the perceived authenticity was significant on the low level of product-influencer congruence and not in the high level. Our findings suggest that marketing managers should consider the social media influencer's authenticity and congruence between the product and the influencer.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among SNS users' interpersonal trust, brand image and purchase intention. A total of 335 questionnaires were collected during 6 days by Embrain online research company. Collected data were analyzed by SPSSWIN and AMOS program and frequency analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, validity test, correlation analysis and structural equation model analysis were performed. The results of verifying the relationship among variables are as follows. First, SNS users' interpersonal trust in influencers had positively influenced by brand image. Second, brand image sold by influencers had positively influenced by purchase intention. Third, SNS users' interpersonal trust in influencers had a significant effect on purchase intention.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.238-249
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• 2021

This research aims to present effective influencer marketing strategies against a heavy blow in Korean influencer marketing industry because of the paid advertisement controversy and the reinforcement of regulations for online advertisement. By investigating the effects of influencer reputation, which is composed of communication skills, influence, authenticity and professionalism on marketing effect, as well as the mediating effect of parasocial relationship, the study provides some implications for influencer selecting. The effect of economic interests is examined under 4 experimental conditions of paid advertisements, brand collaboration, brand gifts and organic review to figure out how to arrange an appropriate sponsorship plan. According to results of PLS structural equation analysis, it shows that the influence and authenticity of an influencer have a significant positive effect on marketing effect and the mediating effect of parasocial relationship is partially proved. It seems that the effect of influencer reputation on marketing effect is significantly differentiated in different contexts, which confirms the moderating effect of economic interest. Distinguish from previous studies, this study focuses on types of economic interest rather than a simple comparison between sponsorship disclosure versus no disclosure and makes contributions to expanding reputation research. Meanwhile, findings of this study could give some practical implications for marketing practitioners in planning influencer marketing.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.137-159
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• 2023

This study focuses on consumers' perceptions of virtual influencers, which many companies recently used for marketing. This study uses the Q methodology to derive what kind of perception consumers have about virtual influencers who work with various appearances, background stories, and worldviews as components. In addition, we want to see how the expected value of virtual influencers differs by age group. To this end, 34 statements were produced through preliminary interviews and literature reviews. This study showed that some consumers preferred appearances similar to humans, despite recognizing that virtual influencers are fictional characters. Some other consumers preferred to feel like a fictional character by maintaining virtuality, confirming that there are both opposite consumers. In addition, consumers expect virtual influencers to have consistency and expertise in the content field covered, and some consumers do not prefer to show an overly commercial appearance. This study will likely provide implications for companies that want to utilize virtual influencers in considering which ones to use for target customers in marketing activities.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.557-567
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• 2023

The rapidly evolving social platform marketing landscape has led businesses to increasingly rely on social platform influencers for brand and service promotion. Despite growing interest in these influencers, there remains a dearth of empirical research examining the impact of their characteristics on consumer attachment and brand loyalty. This study, therefore, investigates the relationships between social platform influencer characteristics, consumer attachment, and brand loyalty. An online survey targeting Chinese consumers was conducted, and a total of 360 responses were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. The findings reveal that among the various social platform influencer characteristics, reliability, professionalism, and intimacy significantly influence consumer attachment. Furthermore, it was confirmed that higher attachment to a social platform influencer leads to increased brand loyalty.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between attitude, purchase intention, and intention to share content and brand intention according to Influencer contents and branded content types. The results of this study are as follows: First, beauty products have a positive effect on the content intention and purchase intention as well as the sharing intention as compared to the branded contents. Second, V-commerce of innovative products showed that the branded content was more positive than the influencer content, but the purchase intention was lower. In addition, the content of sharing is higher than that of branded content. Third, the sharing intention was more positive than the beauty product, and the influencer content was higher than the branded content. The purpose of this study is to examine the attitude, purchasing intention, and sharing intention of beauty products and innovative products, which are most frequently used and most interested in users, to examine the content strategy of V-Commerce.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.163-170
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the research trend on social media influencers in Korea. To this end, a total of 178 papers on social media influencers were analyzed from 2009 to 2021 among the academic papers registered in the Korean Academic Citation Index. As a result, the early social media influencer research, which was limited to only a few fields such as fashion, beauty, and communication, has expanded to various ones as time passed and achieved quantitative growth. The proportion of empirical studies has been on the rise in recent years, and studies that applied qualitative research methodologies have shown a tendency to decrease. The proportion of research focusing on specific media platforms and influencer types gets lower, although both the characteristics of social media platforms and the attitudes of each influencer are very diverse. This study has academic significance in that it is the first empirical study to investigate the current status of the social media influencer research in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.169-181
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• 2022

Currently, due to the activation of SNS live broadcasting, online services based on influencer live broadcasting are becoming a major consumption trend around the world. This study aims to verify the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction, product characteristics, and acceptance intention for influencer broadcasting based on nfluencer broadcasting experiences in an Internet environment. This study conducted a survey of users who experienced live broadcasting on social media in Taiwan from June 29 to August 30, 2020, and a total of 253 copies were used for empirical analysis. The collected data were analyzed through SPSS 25.0. The results of the empirical analysis are summarized as follows. First, it was found that the service quality factors (reliability, tangibility, responsiveness, certainty, and empathy) of Taiwan's influencer live broadcast had a significant effect on live broadcast satisfaction. Second, it was found that the product characteristics of Taiwan's influencer live broadcasting had a significant effect on product satisfaction. Third, it was found that live broadcasting satisfaction and product satisfaction had a significant effect on the acceptance intention of new brands in Taiwan's influencer live broadcasting. This study will provide useful data for establishing efficient marketing strategies to improve live and product satisfaction and increase acceptance of new brands by identifying service quality factors and product characteristics of Taiwan's influencer Live Broadcasting.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.147-159
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• 2022

Nowadays, various social media platforms are widely spread and people closely use such platforms in daily life. By doing so, social influencers with a large number of subscribers, views, and comments have huge impact in our society. Following this trend, many companies are actively using influencers for marketing purpose to promote their products and services. In this study, we extract the speeches of influencers from videos for game marketing and analyze them using various text mining techniques. In the analysis, we distinguish game videos leading to successful marketing and failed marketing, and we explore and compare the linguistic features of the influencers for successful and failed marketings.