• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.193-204
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• 2023

In recent years, the concept of influencer marketing has experienced rapid growth in both academia and industry, leading to its emergence as a crucial consideration in the marketing strategies of many businesses. Despite the significance and expansion of the influencer market, however, research on the topic has not kept pace with its growth. Thus, this study seeks to address this gap by empirically analyzing the impact of influencer characteristics on consumer behavior through the coexistence of buyers and providing an empirical contribution to expand the relevant literature. To accomplish this, a survey was conducted with a sample of 400 individuals who had purchased a product through an influencer, and 384 responses were ultimately utilized in the analysis. The results revealed that the attractiveness and empathy of influencers had a positive impact on satisfaction among coexisting buyers, while also having a negative impact on dissatisfaction. In contrast, expertise had no impact on satisfaction, but a positive impact on dissatisfaction. Moreover, satisfaction was found to have a positive impact on brand image and recommendation intention, whereas dissatisfaction had a negative impact on both. Overall, this study adds to the growing body of literature on influencer marketing by providing empirical evidence of the impact of influencer characteristics on consumer behavior, specifically through the lens of coexistence with buyers. These findings hold important implications for businesses looking to develop effective influencer marketing strategies that can enhance their brand image and recommendation intention among consumers.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.113-118
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• 2024

Recently, advancements in artificial intelligence and computer graphics technology have led to the emergence of various virtual humans across multiple media such as movies, advertisements, broadcasts, games, and social networking services (SNS). In particular, in the advertising marketing sector centered around virtual influencers, virtual humans have already proven to be an important promotional tool for businesses in terms of time and cost efficiency. In Korea, the virtual influencer market is in its nascent stage, and both large corporations and startups are preparing to launch new services related to virtual influencers without clear boundaries. However, due to the lack of public disclosure of the development process, they face the situation of having to incur significant expenses. To address these requirements and challenges faced by businesses, this paper implements a photogrammetry-based facial capture system for creating realistic virtual humans and explores the use of these models and their application cases. The paper also examines an optimal workflow in terms of cost and quality through MetaHuman modeling based on Unreal Engine, which simplifies the complex CG work steps from facial capture to the actual animation process. Additionally, the paper introduces cases where virtual humans have been utilized in SNS marketing, such as on Instagram, and demonstrates the performance of the proposed workflow by comparing it with traditional CG work through an Unreal Engine-based workflow.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.605-619
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• 2019

This study investigates the effects of fashion consumers' individualism collectivism propensity, social capital and Instagram usage propensity on evaluations for fashion influencer's attributes on Instagram. This study conducted a questionnaire survey of 20 to 30 year old male and female Instagram users. A total of 483 replies were submitted and 467 of the replies were used in the final analysis. The quantitative data collected through questionnaires were analyzed using reliability analysis using SPSS 18.0 while AMOS 18.0 was used to test the model fit and a structural equation modeling between the variables. The results indicated that vertical collectivism and vertical individualism were found to be related to relationship seeking propensity; only vertical individualism was found to be related to information seeking propensity. Furthermore, relationship seeking propensity and information seeking propensity were both related to the fashion influencer's attributes of professionalism, intimacy and attractiveness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.17-32
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• 2019

This study examines the effects of SNS fashion influencer's authenticity on the followers' relationship maintenance intention and product purchase intention through the mediating role of fanship. In addition, influencer's attractiveness is proposed as a moderator affecting the authenticity on fanship; in addition, authenticity is operationalized as honesty and expertise. A written survey is developed for 181 female Instagram users. The analyses of the data yields the following findings. First, honesty has a positive effect on fanship, relationship maintenance intention and purchase intention, while expertise affects fanship and relationship maintenance intention, but does not have a significant effect on purchase intention. Second, honesty and expertise have a positive effect on follower behavior intention through the partial mediation of fanship. Third, social attractiveness and physical attractiveness have a significant effect on fanship. However, all interaction effects between authenticity and attractiveness are not significant. Unlike authenticity, attractiveness has no direct effect on follower behavior intention. This study verifies the critical role of authenticity for an influencer in the context of SNS marketing and commerce, as this factor leads to followers behavioral intention as well as fanship in both direct and mediated paths.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.243-261
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to identify beauty influencer attributes on Instagram and their impact on product attitude and purchase intention and on influential difference between micro and mega influencers. The survey was conducted using a consumer survey method with a questionnaire, and the subjects of the survey were 506 women in their 20s and 30s using Instagram. The results of the study are as follows: First, a range of influencer attribute sub-factors were derived in relation to expertise, attractiveness, similarity, reliability, and intimacy. Second, the attributes highly impacted product attitude in the increasing order of attractiveness, similarity, reliability, and familiarity, with expertise having no statistically significant influence. Third, the consumer's attitude toward the product introduced by the beauty influencer had a significant impact on their purchase intention. Fourth, it was shown that there is no difference in attributes according to the influencer's number of followers. Fifth, the number of followers of the beauty influencer had a partial impact on attitude and purchase intention. A limitation of this study is that age and gender samples are narrow, but it is nevertheless meaningful to explore this topic in the absence of research on beauty influencers. It is believed that these findings will serve as a foundation for the development of beauty influencer marketing strategies on Instagram.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.201-213
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• 2022

This study attempted to identify the influencing factors of Taobao Online Live Commerce influencer's attributes on Taobao Live Platform users' post-purchase satisfaction, repurchase intention and flow, and addiction. Through previous studies, researchers set the live commerce influencer attributes into four categories: expertise, attractiveness, interactivity, and aesthetics, and examined the effects of these attributes on consumers' repurchase intentions, flow and addiction. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that among the attributes of Live Commerce influencer, professionalism, interactivity, and aesthetics had a significant effect on the utilitarian shopping value in consumer satisfaction, and four attributes, including attractiveness, had a positive effect on the hedonic shopping value. In consumer satisfaction, hedonic shopping value had a positive effect on utilitarian shopping value satisfaction. In addition, it was found that consumers' satisfaction after purchase affects repurchase intention and immersion. The effect of flow on repurchase intention and addiction was also confirmed. It is hoped that this study will help revitalize influencer marketing in the growing live commerce market and provide basic data to contribute to establishing marketing strategies.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.213-222
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• 2021

This study tried to identify the factors influencing the visual factors of fashion virtual influencers(FVI), on follower behavioral intention and addiction. As the number of fans of FVI is increasing these years, and the addiction phenomenon of social platforms is also increasing, researchers thought that a study to confirm the behavioral intention of fans and the path to addiction through the visual factors of FVI would be necessary. According to the research results, it was confirmed that among the visual factors of FVI, attractiveness affects authenticity through expertise. In addition, researchers confirmed that authenticity influences flow through relationship maintenance of behavioral intention, and authenticity influences addiction through flow. Thus, researchers verified the path leading to FVI's visual factors to behavioral intention and addiction, such as visual factors and authenticity, authenticity and behavioral intention, and behavioral intention and addiction. Researchers hope to conduct research with various content types of FVI, other social platforms.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2019

This study explores the effect of hashtag type on consumer response via evaluations of SNS fashion influencer and information in the context of fashion product communication. The moderating effect of perceived fit between hashtag content and fashion product image on information evaluation was also investigated. An online survey was conducted, and responses from 152 Instagram users were collected. The results indicated that hashtag type (informative vs storytelling) affects the evaluations of influencer and information. First, the informative hashtag has a positive effect on influencer's expertise and usefulness of information. Meanwhile, storytelling type has a positive effect on the familiarity of the influencer. This study also verified the mediated paths from hashtag type to consumer response through the evaluations of SNS fashion influencer and information. The influencer's expertise and familiarity mediated the effect of hashtag type on consumer response. In the information evaluation, only the mediating effect of usefulness was significant. Finally, the high condition of the perceived fit between hashtag content and fashion product image was found to highly evaluate the trust of information. This study extends the scope of fashion communication research from various angles by examining the role of the hashtag as a new type of information source.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.270-281
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• 2021

The emergence of social media and technical development of smart phone allows media users to produce, share and spread a variety of contents, which results in a big change in their media usage pattern. Among those changes, the most prominent one is Youtube's powerful growth. Creators' enthusiastic content productions and users' active sharing actions are caused of the growth. Recently, creators give a powerful effect on users as social media influencer, and the practice of influencer marketing has been focused. This current study is examined the effects of parasocial interaction and relationship on brand attitude and purchase intention. Specially, parasical interaction is divided into identification, interest, and experience parasocial interaction, and the divisions of relationship are trustworthy, friendship, understanding, and commitment. As a result, interest and trustworthy are significant predictors of brand attitude. Also, experience parasocial interaction is negative and friendship is positive predictors of purchase intention. Theoretical and practical implication are discussed.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.875-889
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• 2020

This study examined the effect of Instagram usage time (short, long) and spending on fashion products (light, heavy) on product attitude and purchase intention of products promoted by an influencer. The moderating effect of influencer type (mega, macro, micro) was also investigated. A total of 515 males and females in their 20s participated in an online survey. Descriptive statistics were analyzed and exploratory factor analysis and two-way ANOVA were conducted. Research findings were as follows. First, the usage time, both short and long, had a positive effect on product attitude. Also, the interactive effects of usage time and influencer type on product attitude were found. Consumers with short Instagram usage time displayed the highest attitude toward products promoted by a macro-influencer whereas consumers with long Instagram usage time displayed the highest attitude toward products promoted by a micro-influencer. Second, usage time and influencer type did not show interactive effects on purchase intention. Third, both categoriacl variables of users' spending on fashion products had a positive effect on product attitude. Fourth, the interaction effects of spending on fashion products and influencer types on purchase intention were found. The group of light buyers showed the highest purchase intention on products promoted by the macro-influencer while the group of heavy buyers showed the highest purchase intention of products promoted by the micro-influencer. Based on the results, implications were suggested.