• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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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.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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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.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.75-100
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• 2022

Purpose Recently, hyper-realistic virtual influencers have received much attention in the field of corporate marketing. However, there is a lack of research that suggests specific processes affecting behavioral intentions through trust and attachment between virtual influencers and consumers. In addition, previous studies have failed to consider the characteristics of hyper-realistic virtual influencers. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of trust and attachment to hyper-realistic virtual influencers on consumers' behavioral intentions based on the trust-building model. Design/methodology/approach Based on the previous research, seven antecedent factors for trust-building were derived: Reality, Attractiveness, Awareness, Interactivity, Professionalism, Social Presence, and Predictability. Next, the survey was conducted on Chinese people who had experienced interacting with hyper-realistic virtual influencers on social network services within the last 3 months at the time of data collection. A total of 326 respondents were used for the final analysis and hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model technique. Findings The results of this study are as follows. First, this study confirmed that reality, attractiveness, awareness, social presence, and predictability as antecedent factors for trust-building of hyper-realistic virtual influencers have a positive effect on trust. Second, this study confirmed that trust in hyper-realistic virtual influencers has a significant positive effect on attachment. Lastly, this study confirmed that trust and attachment to the hyper-realistic virtual influencer significantly and positively affect relationship retention and purchase intentions.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.55-61
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• 2023

This study confirmed how emotional responses toward virtual influencers affect advertising effectiveness. While prior studies have focused on the attributes of influencers, we examined how consumers' psychological reactions while experiencing virtual influencers affect decision-making. As a result of the study, consumers showed specific emotional responses while experiencing virtual influencers, and confident, neat, subtle, trendy, glamorous, simple, and down-to-earth were extracted as representative emotions. Additionally, it was confirmed that these emotional responses influenced brand attitude, purchase intention, and recommend intention. These research results provide practical implications for marketing communications using virtual influencers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.295-310
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• 2023

The current virtual fashion influencers are a hyper-real prototype in that it has a higher presence than the virtual humans in the past. Also, they are leading fashion trend with more than tens of thousands of followers on social media. This study investigated the physical and social presence of virtual fashion influencer perceived by consumer and verified effects on evaluation attributes of influencers and the relationship maintenance behavior. A total of 321 Korean women in their 20s and 30s who have Instagram account participated in the online survey. The data was analyzed using AMOS 23.0. The results revealed that the physical presence had a significant impact on attractiveness of virtual fashion influencers. In case of social presence had a positive effect on friendliness and reliability of virtual fashion influencers. In addition, evaluation attributes of virtual fashion influencers' friendliness, attractiveness and reliability in the order of influence on relationship maintenance behavior. This study suggested that the development of social presence of virtual fashion influencers with friendliness and attractiveness is more important than the physical presence that has already reached a high level.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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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.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.130-139
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• 2023

With the increasing popularity of computer-generated virtual influencers, the trend is rising especially on social media. Famous virtual influencer characters Lil Miquela and Imma were all created by CGI graphics workflows. The process is typically a linear affair. Iteration is challenging and costly. Development efforts are frequently siloed off from one another. Moreover, it does not provide a real-time interactive experience. In the previous study, a real-time graphic workflow was proposed for the Digital Actor Hologram project while the output graphic quality is less than the results obtained from the CGI graphic workflow. Therefore, a real-time engine graphic workflow for Virtual Influencers is proposed in this paper to facilitate the creation of real-time interactive functions and realistic graphic quality. The real-time graphic workflow is obtained from four processes: Facial Modeling, Facial Texture, Material Shader, and Look-Development. The analysis of performance with real-time graphical workflow for Digital Actor Hologram demonstrates the usefulness of this research result. Our research will be efficient in producing virtual influencers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.282-299
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• 2024

This study aimed to examine the impact of virtual influencers' characteristics on purchase intentions through attitudes toward the influencer and the brand, and to identify which factors are important depending on involvement. We used a scenario-based online survey of 320 female consumers in their twenties and thirties, and analyzed their responses through structural equation modeling using AMOS 21.0. Virtual influencers' attractiveness, reliability, familiarity, and virtuality had significant effects on consumers' attitudes toward those influencers, while their attractiveness, familiarity, and virtuality had significant effects on consumers' brand attitudes. Notably, in contrast to the other variables, virtuality had a negative effect. In addition, consumers' attitudes toward the virtual influencer significantly affected their brand attitudes and purchase intentions. We also analyzed which characteristics had significant impacts on high- and low-involvement groups. We found that reliability had the greatest influence on purchase intentions in the high-involvement group and that familiarity had the greatest influence on purchase intentions in the low-involvement group, which confirmed that the variables affecting purchase intentions differ depending on the level of involvement.

• 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.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.26-47
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• 2023

In the age of digital media transformation, the rapid rise of social media has changed the paradigm of traditional marketing techniques by leveraging the influence of influencers. However, the influence of influencers cannot be freed from ethical issues that arise as individuals, so virtual influencers are emerging as a countermeasure. This study is a study on how to increase the influencer effect of virtual models with a focus on the MZ generation in medical service. This study investigated whether respondents in their 40s or younger were aware of 'Rosy', a virtual influencer, and then conducted a survey on those who recognized 'Rosy'. As a result of this study, first, both cognitive and emotional motivation had a positive influence on fanship and attractiveness for virtual influencer. In addition, it was found that there was a difference in follow motive according to gender. Second, in order to lead to the intention of visiting hospitals, which is the medical service industry, only the cognitive motives with useful and reliable information and useful information for the virtual influencer were found to be significant in intention to visit.