• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.116-132
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• 2022

Fashion marketing activity performed by social media influencers (SMIs) has grown exponentially in the past years. Research regarding their marketing power is often discussed in the context of sponsorship disclosure, in order to overcome obstacles of impending regulations that may endanger the authenticity SMIs are perceived to have compared to traditional marketing agents. Upon recent heterogeneous findings, a netnographic approach was taken to examine the actual sponsored posts of SMIs on Instagram. Based on two representative cases that received media coverage, a qualitative analysis of 1,058 comments on Instagram showed customer inspiration and informational social influence regardless of sponsorship disclosures present. Regarding customer inspiration, high frequency of comments including choice imitation intentions was observed. Under certain conditions, customer responses were focused on the SMI's expertise irrespective from the brand being endorsed. Findings show future implications from both an academic and industry-focused perspective for future potential of SMIs in fashion marketing.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.777-792
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• 2018

As social media has become a part of daily life, new types of online opinion leaders are emerging, and in turn, changes in traditional fashion leaders and leadership are expected. Considering such changes, this study attempted to reexamine fashion leader types and influence characteristics from the perspective of college students as fashion followers. Students were asked to write an essay identifying their fashion leader and how and why they were influenced by him or her. Sixty essays entitled "My Fashion Leader" were collected and content-analyzed. A total of 78 fashion leaders were identified and categorized into four types including celebrities, social media influencers, friends/family/acquaintances, and people seen on the street in order of frequency. Influence characteristics of the identified fashion leaders included superiority, role model, similarity, and familiarity. Similarity was observed across all types of fashion leaders, while superiority and familiarity were identified for celebrities and friends/family/acquaintances, respectively. The results imply that celebrities, mostly those from the TV, movie, and music industries, are still important as fashion leaders in society regardless of their communication style, while friends/family/acquaintances as opinion leaders within a consumer group are important to provide information, advice, and help. However, social media influencers between the two groups are expanding the influence.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1-16
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• 2019

This work tries to empirically validate the effect of influencers' product-usage videos upon brand attitude and purchase intention of consumers. More specifically, we choose 3 attributes of product-usage videos of influencers such as expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness from our literature review. We collect 200 survey questionnaires in 2019 using Google survey forms from subjects who have watched influencers' usage videos of fashion items. Our results suggest that expertise and trustworthiness of influencers' videos positively affect brand attitude of consumers, which in turn positively influence their purchase intention. However, we have not found significant effect of attractiveness of the videos upon brand attitude. We also confirm that brand attitude positively affect purchase intention as proposed in the literature. The practical implications of this work is that firms should focus and strengthen expertise and trustworthiness of videos rather than attractiveness in order to enhance purchase intention of consumers and eventually lead to their purchase behavior.

• 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.

• 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 Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.323-333
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• 2021

Lil Miquela, who appeared on social media in 2016, is one of the most popular virtual influencers. In particular, Miquela is having a great impact on society by continuing to collaborate with many fashion brands through Instagram. As the activity of virtual influencers is emerging today, this study aims to derive the meanings of contemporary fashion through analyzing Miquela's social media case. This study analyzed Miquela's Instagram posts as research subjects. As a result of the above analysis, it was possible to classify the methods and devices for expressing fashion in Miquela's social media into three categories: storytelling, reality, and tags & hyperlinks. In addition, the meanings of fashion could be derived from three aspects: the object of experience, the direction of technology, and the realization of the spirit of the times. After appearing on social media, Miquela, who has gradually expanded her domain, is a virtual fashion influencer who has built her identity through fashion, and is expected to give new meaning to fashion in the future.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.88-98
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• 2024

With the growing preference among Chinese consumers for purchasing beauty products through social media networks (SNS), influencer marketing has recently emerged as a crucial strategy for maximizing word-of-mouth effects. This study aims to ascertain the impact of SNS beauty influencers' characteristics on trustworthiness and consumers' intentions to engage in word-of-mouth promotion. Furthermore, the study seeks to explore the moderating role of consumer involvement in the relationship between SNS beauty influencer characteristics and the trust consumers place in them. As part of an empirical analysis, an online survey was administered to 259 Chinese female consumers who had previously purchased beauty products through influencers on SNS. The data gathered were scrutinized by conducting multiple and hierarchical regression analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings indicated that the attributes of "expertise,"' "intimacy," and "homogeneity" in SNS beauty influencers significantly affect influencer trust, whereas "charm" does not have a significant impact. Moreover, consumer involvement was found to moderate the relationship between SNS beauty influencer characteristics (expertise, intimacy, charm, and homogeneity) and influencer trust. Additionally, influencer trust positively influenced the intention to engage in word-of-mouth activities. These findings signify that leveraging influencers possessing qualities such as expertise, intimacy, and homogeneity can help enhance product exposure, popularity, and sales of the beauty industry. This study contributes valuable insights into the strategic utilization of influencer characteristics in the beauty industry and digital marketing, highlighting their pivotalrole in consumer engagement and the success of marketing strategies.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.104-112
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• 2023

This study attempted to investigate the characteristics of beauty influencers' social media contents and examine their influence on color cosmetics purchase intention. For this, female millennials who have shown an interest or subscribed beauty contents on social media platforms as followers were selected by convenience sampling. In terms of a research method, a self-administered questionnaire was performed from September 19 to 30, 2022. Among a total of 220 questionnaires distributed, 200 copies excluding poorly answered ones were used for final analysis. The collected data were analyzed by frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, using SPSS 24.0, and the results found the followings: First, concerning characteristics of beauty influencers' beauty contents, five factors were derived: reliability, professionalism, social attractiveness, attractive appearance, sympathy In purchase intention, on the contrary, two factors were obtained: base makeup, point makeup. Second, regarding the effects of characteristics of beauty contents on color cosmetics purchase intention, 'professionalism (β = -.170 p = .015)' and 'physical attractiveness (β = -.148, p = .037)' revealed a negative influence with statistical significance. Through the result, by demonstrating the effect on the intention to purchase color cosmetics based on the beauty contents feature of the beauty influencer, it is considered that the purchasing power of the color cosmetics industry will continue to increase and help to suggest more effective color cosmetics promotion ways and indicators which companies can utilize.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.101-111
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• 2021

This study investigates the impact of heuristic factors on customers' perception of information credibility of influencers on YouTube channels, and the association between customers' perception of information credibility and brand attitude, brand credibility, and purchase intention of cosmetic products in Vietnam. A quantitative approach is employed, with a survey of 270 females who are frequent viewers of beauty content on YouTube channels. The data reliability and validity go through various statistical tests including exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Also, structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to test the hypotheses. The results reveal that there is a positive association between heuristic factors and the perception of information credibility. This perception of information credibility also influences positively on customers' attitudes toward the brand and brand credibility. Purchase intention is also found to be positively associated with the two latter variables. The study's main findings not only offer advice to practitioners on how to choose the right product endorsers and advertising platforms, but they also offer novel insight from the Vietnamese context that could help to extend the heuristic-systematic model and customers' buy intention behavior.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.488-504
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• 2021

This article examined the historical evolution of changes in the democratization of fashion, identified its characteristics, and defined 'fashionocracy - fashion democracy'- by analyzing various phenomena in the global fashion industry. This research will expand the field of fashion research and spark academic debates about fashion democracy. The democratization of fashion can be summarized in five periods; birth, introduction, early growth, growth, and maturity. The characteristics of the democratization of fashion include individual autonomy, accessibility that many people can access and enjoy, and diversity. According to the principles of democracy- "of the people, for the people, by the people" - which are based on freedom and equality, we have achieved fashion of the people and for the people so far. Furthermore, social media has shifted the balance of power to influencers and bloggers; as such, the masses who have consumed and enjoyed fashion democratization are becoming producers and promoters by actively participating in the process of making fashion, creating a new era of fashion democracy (fashionocracy): - by the people. Ultimately, fashionocracy consists of the '6P's' ; people (active and productive consumers), planet (society and environmental sustainability), products (genderless, ageless, inclusive), price (reasonable), place (multi-channel distribution, virtual spaces), and promotion (horizontal).