The effect of different types of virtual influencers on consumers’ emotional attachment

Yan, Ji; Xia, Senmao; Jiang, Amanda; Lin, Zhibin

Abstract

A virtual influencer (VI) is a computer-generated, imagery-based digital character. It has become one of the hottest marketing trends, motivating researchers to investigate how consumers perceive VIs. However, consumers’ emotional attachment and benefit seeking behaviour to different types of VIs has remained under-investigated. Therefore, considering the level of perceived humanness and appearance realism, this research examines how consumers’ emotional attachment and benefit seeking differs across the three types of VI (i.e., mimic-human VI, animated-human VI, and non-human VI). We further propose that VIs may influence consumer emotional attachment and different benefit seeking behaviour through social presence because, specifically, when a VI shows a higher level of social presence, a higher level of emotional attachment and stronger benefit seeking behaviour will result. The experimental studies lend support to our theorization. This research provides insights into the different types of VIs in marketing literature and extends the context of social presence theory.

Citation

Yan, J., Xia, S., Jiang, A., & Lin, Z. (2024). The effect of different types of virtual influencers on consumers’ emotional attachment. Journal of Business Research, 177, Article 114646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114646

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 31, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Apr 10, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-04
• Deposit Date: May 15, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 15, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Business Research
• Print ISSN: 0148-2963
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 177
• Article Number: 114646
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114646
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2440945