• 융합경영연구
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• 제12권5호
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• pp.41-51
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• 2024

Purpose: This study explores the distinctive characteristics of virtual influencers compared to human influencers and examines how parasocial relationships with human consumers affect brand attitude. The hypothesis suggests that virtual influencers can overcome social distance barriers, emphasizing their role in fostering engagement. Research design, data and methodology: A structural model based on the source credibility model and unique traits of virtual influencers analyzes these dynamics. An online survey conducted in April 2024 garnered responses from 286 participants. Results: Findings reveal that virtual influencers positively impact parasocial interactions, which in turn enhance parasocial relationships and brand attitudes. However, the proposed effect of novelty on brand attitude through parasocial interaction was not statistically supported. Conclusions: This study highlights the unique attributes of virtual influencers, such as anthropomorphism, empathy, and novelty, which enhance consumer engagement through parasocial interactions and influence brand attitude. It provides a comprehensive framework for leveraging virtual influencers in marketing, offering significant advantages in maintaining consistent brand messaging and reducing risks associated with human influencers.

• 아태비즈니스연구
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.141-152
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• 2022

Purpose - This study attempts to explore the factors that affect the consumer's response to the influencer's "backdoor advertisement" which has been a social media controversy recently. Accordingly, this study focuses on the importance of the information source's characteristics in influencer marketing, and demonstrates the impact of influencer credibility, attractiveness, and expertise on consumer responses after the influencer's sponsorship controversy. Design/methodology/approach - To this end, a study was conducted on adults who subscribed to one or more channels of influencers, and a virtual newspaper article was used in the survey. 196 sample data were collected and SPSS PROCESS Macro was used for data analysis. Findings - As a result, there was a negative impact on the credibility of the influencer which carried over to a negative reception of their shared content, while the attractiveness of the influencer had a positive impact on the reception of their shared content, even after the controversy over the influencer's backdoor advertisement. Research implications or Originality - This study contributes to the expansion of research on influencer marketing. Also, it provides insight into understanding and interpreting the phenomenon of influencers' backdoor advertisements and consumer reactions.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.59-70
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• 2022

Recently, in platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, virtual characters resembling human life become the main characters, produce various contents, breathe with the public, and create the era of virtual humans. For example, existing game characters appear as virtual characters with unique AUs, or AI characters created by reflecting the public's preferences are actively communicating with the public through advertisements and SNS activities. As the consumption of video content through smart devices increases significantly in the post-corona era, virtual influencers are being used as all-round entertainers because there is little risk of personality controversy or production cost. there is a trend In this study, we investigated the characteristics of the case of being active as an influencer among the activities of a virtual character, and how the interactive aspect of the influencer appears by identifying the current situation through major cases. Combining this, based on the analysis of the influence of virtual influencers, the parts that producers should recognize are derived, and the differentiated characteristics of interactive virtual influencers are summarized. In addition, the difficulties of virtual influencers were investigated and problems were identified, and for the development of the content industry, a more favorable method for interaction was presented and suggestions were made to secure inner sincerity.

• 한국의류산업학회지
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.1-14
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• 2024

Virtual influencers, who are emerging as new players in digital marketing, impact consumers' purchase intentions. They promote positive perceptions and mimetic consumption of specific brands or products through interactions with followers. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of the characteristics of virtual influencers on the purchase intention for fashion products through the consumers' mimetic desire. As characteristics of virtual influencers, five factors were set: reality, attractiveness, professionalism, trustworthiness, and curiosity. Data for analysis were collected through an online questionnaire from the 8th to the 15th of August 2023, and 268 data points in total were analyzed using SPSS and Process Macro 4.3. The results of the study showed that the characteristics of virtual influencers all positively affected mimetic desire and purchase intention for fashion products. Moreover, it was found that mimetic desire has a mediating effect between the five characteristics of virtual influencers and the purchase intention for fashion products. Mimetic desire fully mediates the relationship between reality and the intention to purchase fashion products, and partially mediates the relationship between attractiveness, professionalism, trustworthiness, and curiosity and the purchase intention for fashion products. These findings further enhance the understanding of the relationship between virtual influencers and consumer behavior and identify the relationship between virtual influencers, mimetic desire, and fashion product purchase intentions. Consequently, leveraging virtual influencers strategically in digital marketing, the fashion industry can amplify positive brand perceptions, drive consumer engagement, and ultimately foster increased purchase intent.

• 한국정보시스템학회지:정보시스템연구
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.23-51
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• 2023

Purpose: Live commerce is a new type of electronic commerce in combination with live streaming services. It is expected to increase virtual presence in the context of online shopping by overcoming a lack of social interactions between sellers and buyers which have been raised as a limitation in electronic commerce. Drawing on the studies of communication media, this study examines how live commerce contributes to the increase of virtual presence which consists of telepresence and social presence. Telepresence refers to a buyer's perception that he or she is present at the physical shopping mall during live shopping streaming whereas social presence refers to a buyer's perception of social interaction with a seller which is human warm, social, sensitive, and personal. In this study, we verify key determinants of virtual presence and its consequences. More specifically, this study proposes virtual presence contributes to the increase of buyers' trust in products and further purchase intentions. Furthermore, we verify influential factors of virtual presence from the technical and influencer perspectives of live commerce. Design/methodology/approach: To test the proposed hypotheses, the partial least squares (PLS) analysis is conducted with a total of 250 data collected on users with experience in the TaoBao live streaming shopping platform. Findings: The results show that first, telepresence and social presence are increased by visibility, media richness and attractiveness in the context of live shopping streaming. Second, buyers' trust in product trust and purchase intentions are positively influenced by telepresence and social presence. Finally, buyers' trust in product has a direct, positve effect on their purchase intentions. Overall, the findings offer new insights into the studies of electronic commerce by introducting the concepts of virtual presence and media richness from the literature of communication media in the field of live commerce.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.152-161
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• 2023

Modern people live a life connected with the real world and the virtual world by relying on the new media of enterprises and social consumption led by innovative technologies. In this environment, virtual influencers actively communicate with consumers and build relationships through social media, which is a new marketing tool that has attracted widespread attention. From a business perspective, it is necessary to have a solid understanding of this phenomenon, and then explore communication strategies to effectively develop virtual influencers. To investigate followers' preference for virtual influencers, this study employs the Q-method, which studies human subjective attributes, an empirical research effort to uncover complex issues in human subjectivity. To determine the factors that trigger people's voluntary and active practice and the preference degree of virtual influencers, the Q method is implemented to examine human subjectivity, thoughts and attitudes. According to the results of this study, virtual influencers are a new group of idols full of vitality. The interviews found that there are still many virtual influencers who do not know about followers, but each type can be clearly understood through the intuitive understanding of the interviewees. Divided out, type 1 one egoideal virtual influencers aim to represent an idealized version of the creator or target audience. Embodies ideal physical characteristics, personality or lifestyle desired by the audience. Type 2 is charismatic and attractive, and has the characteristics of most virtual influencers. It is suggested that it can be developed into a potential type, doing brand cooperation, and content production on social media platforms. Type 3: Game animation, derived from the image of characters in games or comics, with stylized features and energetic personalities, which can be integrated into games or entertainment experiences. Type 4 development potential type is the most successful type among virtual imagers, and it is also the purpose of marketing virtual influencers. It is essential that brand endorsement on social media platforms, integrated marketing, and driving advertising traffic. It is recommended to improve production technology to reduce investment costs.

• 한국의류학회지
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• 제47권5호
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• pp.873-890
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• 2023

This study analyzed users' emotional responses to VI character design through YouTube comments. The researchers applied text-mining to analyze 116,375 comments, focusing on terms related to character design and characteristics of VI. Using the BERT model in sentiment analysis, we classified comments into extremely negative, negative, neutral, positive, or extremely positive sentiments. Next, we conducted a co-occurrence frequency analysis on comments with extremely negative and extremely positive responses to examine the semantic relationships between character design and emotional characteristic terms. We also performed a content analysis of comments about Miquela and Shudu to analyze the perception differences regarding the two character designs. The results indicate that form elements (e.g., voice, face, and skin) and behavioral elements (e.g., speaking, interviewing, and reacting) are vital in eliciting users' emotional responses. Notably, in the negative responses, users focused on the humanization aspect of voice and the authenticity aspect of behavior in speaking, interviewing, and reacting. Furthermore, we found differences in the character design elements and characteristics that users expect based on the VI's field of activity. As a result, this study suggests applications to character design to accommodate these variations.