How Chinese Internet Celebrity Influences consumer attitude to purchase on E-commerce

In the case of internet fashion celebrity Dayi Zhang

Master’s Thesis 15 credits Department of Business Studies Uppsala University Spring Semester of 2019

Date of Submission: 2019-06-05

Ying Li Qian Cai

Supervisor: Pao Kao Abstract

Problem/Purpose: Internet celebrities have shown huge commercial value by operating their E-commerce in the Chinese market. This article aims to research How Chinese internet celebrity influences consumers’ attitude to purchase on E-commerce.

Method: The Primary data is collected by semi-structured interviews with consumers who followed the internet celebrity and bought products from her online stores. Meanwhile, word frequency analysis of posted context and comments on the internet is proceeded to conduct secondary data to support findings.

Findings: Our findings show that the traditional source attractiveness, expertise, and involvement of celebrity are important to impact on the consumers’ attitude and drive to purchase behavior. However, source trustworthiness is not essential, and the perceived trustworthiness is limited in specialized fields (e.g. fashion) and is hard extend to other areas (e.g. cosmetics). Furthermore, perceived authenticity will reinforce trustworthiness and intimacy, and perceived interconnectedness will result in frequent and regular buying habit.

Implementation: This research can serve to internet celebrities who are running or intend to start their E-commerce in China. Moreover, it is hoped this study of internet celebrity E- commerce in China can serve for future comparative studies of internet celebrity globally.

Keywords: Internet celebrity, Source credibility, Consumer attitude, Purchase intention

Table of contents

1. Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Research gap...... 2 1.2 Research purpose ...... 3 1.3 Research question ...... 3

2. Literature Review ...... 4 2.1 Internet celebrity definition ...... 4 2.2 Celebrity endorsement...... 5 2.3 Source credibility model ...... 6 2.3.1 Source trustworthiness ...... 7 2.3.2 Source expertise ...... 8 2.3.3 Source attractiveness ...... 8

2.4 Celebrity entrepreneurship - Source involvement ...... 10 2.5 Uniqueness of internet celebrity ...... 11 2.5.1 Interconnectedness ...... 11 2.5.2 Authenticity ...... 12

3. Methodology ...... 13 3.1 Research design ...... 13 3.1.1 Qualitative study ...... 13 3.1.2 Semi-structured interview (Primary data) ...... 14

3.2 Case study ...... 15 3.2.1 Case study application ...... 15 3.2.2 Case selection ...... 15

3.3 Operalization ...... 16 3.4 Reliability and validity ...... 16 3.4.1 Reliability ...... 16 3.4.2 Validity ...... 17

3.5 Data collection and analysis ...... 18 3.5.1 Data collection ...... 18 3.5.2 Data Analysis ...... 19

3.6 Word frequency analysis (Secondary data) ...... 21 3.7 Ethical considerations ...... 23

4. Findings ...... 24

4.1 The dimension of trustworthiness ...... 24 4.2 The dimension of expertise ...... 25 4.3 The dimension of attractiveness ...... 26 4.4 The dimension of involvement ...... 27 4.5 The dimension of interconnectedness...... 28 4.6 The dimension of authenticity ...... 30

5. Discussion...... 31 5.1 Source dimensions ...... 31 5.2 Uniqueness of internet celebrity ...... 32

6.Conclusion ...... 34 6.1 Summary of the study ...... 34 6.2 Implications for management ...... 34 6.3 Limitations ...... 35 6.4 Future Research ...... 35

Reference ...... 36

Appendix 1 - Interview Questions in English ...... 51

Appendix 2 - Interview Questions in Chinese ...... 53

1. Introduction The rise of social media and e-commerce creates opportunities for internet celebrities to attract the attention of internet users and advance internet traffic to make money from online retail. In China, internet celebrities are also called “Wanghong ”(网红), a term that refers to highly productive internet users who are effective channels for online retailer or social media advertising (Abidin, 2018, p.2).

Internet celebrities have been shown to have their huge commercial value and social impact, and are able to make money out of their fans (Business insider, 2017). In the western countries such as the United States of America, the majority of internet celebrities are becoming influencers by creating talent contents and earning large sums of money from brand sponsorship or sharing advertising revenue with social platforms like Youtube (Business insider, 2017). Chinese internet celebrities, on the other hand, tend to be fashionistas using the platform Weibo (equivalent to Twitter) and Taobao (equivalent to Amazon) (Technode, 2017). They work as models by posting pictures, videos, and live streams of themselves, wearing the clothes or accessories they sell (China daily, 2016), and answering questions about the design, fabric, and price of the products (Technode, 2017).

There are three main business models of Chinese internet celebrity economy - fan rewards, social media advertising, and online retailing (Wang & Chen, 2016, p. 25). Fan rewards, less often for business, and are mainly for online anchors and web writers, who use their talents to create online performance or contexts to drive fans to reward them. Social media advertising is a major channel to earn revenue for celebrities who work as influencers and spokespersons for brands. In the online retailing business model, E-commerce based internet celebrities like fashionistas sell self-branded products to potential buyers among followers via Chinese C2C or B2C platform, such as Taobao and Tmall, etc. (Wang & Chen, 2016, p. 30)

Internet celebrities in China are believed to have generated at least US$8.68 billion in revenue in 2016 (Scmp, 2016). Twenty percent of the sales were generated by E-commerce run by internet celebrities (Iresearch, 2018). According to 2018 China Online Economic Development Insight report (Iresearch, 2018), from the year 2016 to 2018, there was an average 55% annual increase in the number of celebrities that have more than 100k followers on Weibo (Medium,

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2017; Iresearch, 2018), where the number of fans of these online celebrities rose from 390 million to 588 million as of April, 2018 (Iresearch, 2018).

One of the most influential Chinese internet celebrities is fashionista Dayi Zhang, who has 10.6 million Weibo followers (Weibo, 2019) and her own online shop on the Taobao platform. In 2016, her online store reported a turnover of 300 million yuan (approx US$46 million) (Technode, 2017), slightly surpassing Kardashian's annual earnings of US$45.5 million (Forbes, 2017). In 2017, her E-commerce reported 1.05 billion yuan (approx US$162 million) of the gross merchandise volume (GMV). In 2018, this had risen to 1.87 billion yuan (approx US$183 million) (Sohu, 2019a, 2019b). While in 2019, her company had been listed in Nasdaq (Nasdaq, 2019), and was regarded as “first stock of Chinese internet celebrity” (Wallstreetcn, 2019).

Based on our observation of our friends and the internet, the consumers who follow Chinese internet celebrities and buy their products online are usually very young, which is consistent Weibo (2018), who showed that 85% of the followers are millennials and gen-zs. This group is the driving force behind online consumption, and they are also the most easily influenced by internet celebrities (Weibo, 2018).

1.1 Research gap Earlier research regarding traditional celebrities has mostly focused on celebrity endorsement （Kahle & Homer, 1985; Bergkvist & Zhou, 2016; Keel & Natarajan, 2012). Ohanian (1990) has found that source trustworthiness, source expertise, and source attractiveness are relevant dimensions when selecting celebrity endorsement (Ohanian, 1990). In Hunter and Davidsson’s (2007) later research regarding celebrity entrepreneurship, the new dimension of “perceived involvement" is identified. In recent years, internet celebrities have been gathering even more attention. Business scholars have studied them as influencers in brand communication (Bhargava, 2008; Schaefer, 2012; Uzunoğlu & Misci Kip, 2014 ), how they impact purchasing intention (Gräve, 2017), marketing strategies they have applied (Li et al., 2000; Dent et al., 2006); and their impact on business models (Solis, 2012). However, there are few deep explorations into how Chinese internet celebrities influence consumer attitudes and thus purchasing in E-commerce from internet entrepreneurship, which is popular in the Chinese market. Bergkvist and Zhou (2016) suggest interpretive qualitative research be conducted to probe deeper into the role of celebrities in different contexts.

2 1.2 Research purpose The purpose of this qualitative study is to exam the case of Dayi Zhang to discover how Chinese internet celebrities influence consumer attitude to purchase on E-commerce. The former researchers have mainly focused on source credibility model (source trustworthiness, source expertise, and source attractiveness) of celebrity endorsement before internet age (Erdogan, 1999; Ohanian, 1990). With the increase in social media and the rise in online business, Internet celebrity E-commerce is becoming popular in China; our research could enhance our understanding of this interesting phenomenon. This research aims to identify how the theories of source credibility and source involvement of traditional celebrity related to the internet celebrity. Furthermore, the two uniqueness elements interconnectedness and authenticity of internet celebrities are also applied in order to understand how they influence consumers attitude and purchase intention.

1.3 Research question How Chinese internet celebrity influences consumers’ attitude to purchase on E-commerce.

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2. Literature Review In this chapter, the definition of internet celebrities is discussed. We apply the source credibility model (source trustworthiness, source expertise, and source attractiveness) of traditional celebrity endorsement (Ohanian, 1990) and source involvement of celebrity entrepreneurship (Hunter & Davidsson, 2008) to exam how Chinese internet celebrities influence consumer attitude to purchase on E-commerce. Moreover, we discussed the two key elements of internet celebrities - interconnectedness (Abidin, 2015) and authenticity (Warwick, 2013) to understand our research question. (Theoretical model is shown as figure 1)

Figure 1

2.1 Internet celebrity definition In the early research, a celebrity has been defined as someone who is "known to the public for his accomplishment in areas unrelated to the product class endorsed" (Friedman et al., 1976, p. 22). In another updated research, Celebrity is described as "The brutal reality of the modern age is that all famous people are treated like celebrities by the mass media, whether they be a great political figure, a worthy campaigner, an artist ‘touched by genius’, a serial killer, or Maureen of Driving School.” (Giles, 2000, p. 5). Their fame is usually dependent on exposure through various conventional media channels such as newspapers, movies, etc.

With the popular application of internet and social media, we witnessed a new set of celebrities who became well known by posting lifestyle, blogging, live stream, etc., Various forms of internet celebrity have emerged, their fame is primarily derived from the Internet.

4 One of their common strategies is to cultivate a public image of themselves as a brand and interact with viewers to establish communication with fans (Senft, 2008).

Abidin (2018, p. 2) argued internet celebrity emerges and varies in different forms within different cultures, the internet celebrity in China are highly effective to lead traffic to their online shops, and ultimately convert to transactions. In this article, we defined Chinese internet celebrity as Individual whose fame is primarily originated from their Internet presence. They usually are effective channels for an online retailer or social media advertising.

2.2 Celebrity endorsement McCracken’s (1989, p. 310) defined a celebrity endorser as “any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement." This definition seems somewhat outdated in today's world of advertising. Celebrity endorsements appear in many other forms of communication than advertising. It also seems to limit only to include consumer goods: celebrities endorse business-to-business products and services. It is also important to note that celebrity endorsements are based on an agreement in which the celebrity gives the brand (or other entity) permission to use her/his name and physical appearance in certain ways. Therefore, Bergkvist & Zhou (2016) proposed an updated definition of celebrity endorsement as "an agreement between an individual who enjoys public recognition (a celebrity) and an entity (e.g., a brand) to use the celebrity for the purpose of promoting the entity." From this perspective, internet celebrities in China, who run online retail are endorsing for their own products.

Celebrity endorsements are effective in positively changing consumers' attitude toward brands, influencing the believability and credibility of advertisements, impacting consumers' purchase intentions (Amos at al., 2008; Atkin & Block, 1983; Erdogan, 1999). Extant research has found that perceived celebrity endorser credibility impacts endorsement effectiveness, and generally, celebrity endorsements are effective when there is a transfer of images from the celebrities to the product. Mehta (1994) also found that in the non-celebrity conditions, receivers focused more on the brand and its features, whereas in the celebrity condition receivers concentrated on the celebrity in advertising.

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2.3 Source credibility model The source credibility model in the celebrity endorsement stream of research draws on source effect theory. This theory contends that various traits of a perceived communication source generate beneficial effects on message receptivity (Erdogan, 1999). This relates to the consumer's beliefs that a communicator is competent, and she or he is willing to provide the necessary information to evaluate competing for products adequately. Endorser credibility is categorized by the trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness of the endorser (Ohanian, 1991).

The source credibility model indicates that the effectiveness of persuasive communication depends on the perceived credibility of an endorser. Endorser credibility leads to a positive influence on attitude toward the endorsed brand/product and also affects behavior in a favorable manner (Erdogan, 1999). There are significant number of studies that have investigated the effect of various dimensions of source credibility such as trustworthiness (Chao, Wührer & Werani, 2005; Deshpandé & Stayman, 1994; Pornpitakpan, 2002; Spry, Pappu, & Cornwell, 2011), expertise (Eisend & Langner, 2010; Pornpitakpan & Francis, 2001);attractiveness (Chao et al., 2005; Tingchi et al., 2007; Reingen & Kernan, 1993) on consumers’ belief and attitudes. The source credibility studies in the celebrity endorsement literature have been equivocal about the positive impact of trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertise on various advertising effectiveness.

According to the source models, endorsers are effective when they are perceived as experts by consumers (Crano, 1970; Crisi & Kassinove, 1973; Woodside & Davenport, 1974), trustworthy (Miller & Basehart, 1969; Friedman & Friedman, 1976), and attractive (Joseph, 1982; McGuire, 1985). In general, the more trustworthiness, expertise, or attractiveness the endorser delivers, the more effective they are at changing consumer attitude and opinion (Brinol et al., 2004; Gotlieb & Sarel, 1991; Harmon & Coney, 1982; Hovland & Weiss, 1951; Sternthal et al., 1978). Research has shown that more behavioral compliance could be induced by highly credible sources rather than less credible sources (Ohanian, 1990, p.42); In short, source trustworthiness, source expertise, and source attractiveness (see Figure 1) represent the three most important dimensions heretofore in our understanding of endorser effectiveness (Ohanian, 1990).

However, the three dimensions of celebrity endorsement model could not fully explain the celebrity entrepreneurship whereas celebrities are involved in running business or brand,

6 Hunter and Davidsson (2008) found a new dimension perceived involvement, which could be an important source in celebrity entrepreneurship.

2.3.1 Source trustworthiness Trustworthiness is usually regarded as "the honesty, integrity, and believability of an endorser" (Erdogan et al. 2001, p. 40). It depends on the target audience perceptions. Advertisers capitalize on the value of trustworthiness through the endorser's selection, who is widely regarded as honest, believable, and dependable (Shimp，1997). Multiple authors include trustworthiness in their source credibility scale (Applbaum & Anatol, 1973; Bowers & Phillips, 1967; Whitehead, 1968).

Regarding source credibility, trustworthiness is the most important factor which could influence consumers' perception (Hoekman & Bosmans, 2013). Moreover, it is argued that likeability is the most important attribute of trust (Friedman & Friedman, 1978). Advertisers can create the highest effect by taking these two factors, liking and trustworthiness, into account. Because it is stated when consumers like a celebrity, they will automatically trust a celebrity (Friedman et al., 1978).

Hoekman and Bosmans (2013) argue that when consumers trust the endorser and believe what they are telling, the credibility of the ads will be increase and the attitude of the consumers will increase as well. Once the negative news of an endorser being reported, the believability and the trustworthiness of the endorser will be damaged. Moreover, the brand image and sales of the related product will be negatively influenced (Hoekman & Bosmans, 2013). Smith (1973) argues that consumers usually regard untrustworthy celebrity endorsers as questionable message sources, regardless of their other qualities.

However, Ohanian (1991) found that the trustworthiness of a celebrity was not significantly related to customers' intentions to buy an endorsed brand. Regarding the persuasiveness of a message, not only does the character of a communicator play an important role (Ohanian, 1990), McGinnies and Ward (1980) found that an expert source that is regarded as trustworthy can induce opinion change.

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2.3.2 Source expertise Expertise is the extent to which the endorser is perceived as a valid source of information, which usually refers to the knowledge, experience, or skills owned by an endorser (Erdogan, 1999). With regard to expertise, It does not matter whether an endorser is an expert; What matters is how the target audience perceives the expertise of the endorser (Hovland et al. 1953; Ohanian 1991). Expert sources influence perceptions of the product's quality. A source/celebrity that is more expert is more persuasive (Batra et al., 1995) and more able to generate purchase intentions (Ohanian 1991). Moreover, expert celebrities produced higher recall of product information than non-expert celebrities (Speck et al., 1988).

Not only are attractiveness and trustworthiness important constructs regarding source credibility, but expertise, or a source's perceived expertise, has a positive effect on attitudes and source credibility (Biswas et al., 2006). Furthermore, this effect is included in the match-up hypothesis (Kahle & Homer, 1985; Kamins, 1990; Till & Busler, 1998, 2000) and identified as important in the meta-analysis of Amos et al. (2008), the literature review of Erdogan (1999) and highly relevant in the scale development of Ohanian (1990).To illustrate, in a selling context, an expert salesperson caused a significantly higher number of customers to purchase a product than the non-expert salesperson did (Woodside & Davenport, 1974).

Expert sources also influence perceptions of the product's quality. The source or celebrity that is a specialist is more persuasive (Aaker, 1997) and generates more purchase intentions (Ohanian, 1991). Furthermore, Speck et al. (1988) stated that celebrities, who are seen as an expert in a specific area, engender a higher brand recognition than celebrities who are seen as non-experts. The level of celebrity expertise will determine its effectiveness (Amos et al., 2008). The more expertise a celebrity has, the more effective it will be. The expertise of a celebrity will not be changed by negative publicity, but the believability and credibility will be negatively influenced.

2.3.3 Source attractiveness McGuire (1985) added attractiveness to the source credibility literature based on social influence theory. Source attractiveness relates to perceived social value. This quality does not simply mean the person's physical appearance but also includes social status personality or his or her similarity to the receiver (abid). For example, intellectual skills, personality properties,

8 lifestyles, or athletic prowess. Celebrity attractiveness was usually applied in advertising to benefit from the influences of both celebrity status and physical appeal (Singer, 1983).

Many types of research have shown that a physically attractive source tends to facilitate attitude and beliefs change (Baker & Churchill, 1977; Chaiken, 1979; Debevec & Keman, 1984) and generate purchase intentions (Friedman et al., 1976; Petroshius & Crocker, 1989; Petty & Cacioppo, 1980) than unattractive counterparts. Kahle and Homer (1985) founded that consumers exposed to an attractive celebrity liked the product more than consumers exposed to an unattractive celebrity. Physical attractiveness of a communicator determines the effectiveness of persuasive message through a process called identification. This process is assumed to occur when information from an attractive source is accepted as a result of the desire to identify with such endorsers (Cohen & Golden, 1972).

However, not all research has found that physical attractiveness increases purchase intention. |It should be noted that there are studies that have failed to support this argument (e.g., Kamins 1990; Ohanian 1991). Maddux and Rogers (1980) studied the presence of arguments and expertise influenced attitude ratings, but physical attractiveness did not. Lord and Putrevu (2009) found an effect of celebrity attractiveness for a transformational communication strategy but other studies have failed to find support for moderating effects. For example, Till and Busler (2000) did not support a moderating impact of fit on the relationship between celebrity attractiveness and brand evaluations. Till and Busler's (1998) studies present evidence that positive feelings towards advertising and products do not necessarily translate into actual behavior or purchase intentions.

In sum. There is no doubt that the attractiveness of celebrity endorsers enhances attitudes towards advertising and brands (Baker & Churchill, 1977; Chaiken, 1979; Debevec & Keman, 1984). But whether they can create purchase intentions is ambiguous, since the majority of studies found that attractive celebrity endorsers are not able to initiate behavioral intention (Kamins, 1990; Ohanian, 1991; Till & Busler, 2000) , while other studies found that celebrities can create purchase intentions (Friedman et al. 1976; Petroshius & Crocker, 1989; Petty & Cacioppo, 1980). However, a study specialized in Chinese market indicates that the purchase intention would be generated by the high attractive endorser in China (Tingchi et al., 2007). Thus, we will still apply this dimension into our research.

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2.4 Celebrity entrepreneurship - Source involvement Perceived involvement is a measure that refers to a celebrity’s liking, passion, commitment, and enthusiasm for a product (Hunter & Davidsson, 2008). Researchers show celebrities can increase their perceived involvement by becoming an entrepreneur (Hunter & Davidsson, 2007; Hunter et al., 2007). Hunter and Davidsson (2008) believe that as a celebrity’s perceived involvement increases, which manipulate by portraying the celebrity as an entrepreneur rather than a traditional endorser, consumers will make a correspondence bias in their favor.

A celebrity endorses a product by asking a consumer to make a purchase or saying it is a great product. Kelley and Michela (1980) found that both internal and external factors are taken into consideration when audience members view a communications message. If the consumer believes the celebrity truly likes the product, there is a good chance that they will attribute the pleasure to purchase. However, if the consumer feels the celebrity was not thrilled about, did not like or use the product, then they may attribute the purchase request to an external factor - such as the celebrity was paid to say what they did (Cronley et al., 1999). In the former, attitudes towards the brand and ad should improve, while in the latter, their attitudes will improve less or may even decrease.

Some researchers have specifically studied the consequences of consumers perceiving of whether the celebrities like the products they are endorsing. It is found that perceived liking of celebrity will leads to improved attitudes toward brands and advertising. (Silvera & Austad, 2004). Silvera and Austad (2004) used correspondence bias to examine whether consumers infer celebrity endorsers like the products they endorse. The consequence of consumers inferring celebrities liked the products they endorsed was a more positive attitude towards the product. Similarly, Cronley et al. (1999) found that as inferences about a celebrity's brand attitude became more favorable, the consequence was that consumers' attitude to ad and brand, and endorser favorably increased.

The nature of being a celebrity entrepreneur increases the celebrity’s perceived involvement (compared to mere celebrity endorser). In Hunter and Davidsson’s (2008) empirical research, perceived Involvement leads to higher communication effectiveness and is manifested in more positive attitudes to ad and brand. Consumer attitude is consumers' predisposition to respond in a particular manner to an object (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Hill et al., 1977). Attitudes toward advertisements facilitate the change of cognitive and behavioral, which would impact purchase

10 intention (Hill et al., 1977). Park et al. (2010) found attitudes can range from positive to negative. The previous study found that positive attitudes do lead to higher purchase intention and satisfaction (Park et al., 2010). Consumers will be inclined not to purchase if they hold negative attitudes; therefore, if the attitude formation is influenced by perceived involvement, consumer behavior would be impacted.

2.5 Uniqueness of internet celebrity Internet celebrities are argued to be different from traditional entertainment celebrities on several major dimensions. (Senft, 2008, p. 26; Marwick, 2013; Abidin, 2018).

1) Traditional celebrities presented a sense of separation and distance from their audiences and viewers, they are usually perceived as “distance, a temporality of scarcity, and performances of the extraordinary” (Jerslev, 2016, p. 5238). While internet celebrities develop their popularity dependent on feelings of connection and interactive responsiveness with their audiences (Senft, 2008, p. 26);

2) Traditional celebrities may be usually known for their performance, craft, and skills and expected to protect their privacy (Marwick, 2013). While internet celebrities display themselves as “real” people with “real issue” (Senft, 2008; Abidin, 2018).

3) Internet celebrity engaged more with their audience, as their fame is facilitated through a community of interested viewers on the internet. (Senft, 2008; Abidin,2018)

It is argued that Interconnectedness (intimacy) and authenticity are key elements of internet celebrities (Raun, 2018; Abidin, 2013; Marwick, 2013). Internet celebrities are expected to be transparent, open and authentic by their audience, and they are more obligated to interact or connect with audiences directly (Marwick, 2013, p. 158, p. 118, p. 119; Senft, 2008, p. 116).

2.5.1 Interconnectedness Perceived interconnectedness was put forward by Abidin (2013) to describe a model of communication between internet influencer and followers, in which internet influencer

11 interact with followers to create the intimacy impression (Abidin, 2015). It is found that internet celebrities tend to retain a feeling of “Intimacy” and bridge the distance between themselves and followers (Senft, 2008, p. 116).

Perceived interconnectedness is mediated via social media platform, which stimulates a flat organization of actors (non-hierarchical) where internet celebrities and followers co- produce and shape the conversation. Therefore, the conversation is interactive and reciprocal (Abidin, 2015). Abidin and Thompson (2012) found Singapore fashion blog celebrities employ strategies to develop persona intimacy, which allows them to remain accessible to their viewers. Close friendships between blog celebrities and readers were framed via interaction, which is opposed to distant and hierarchical celebrity–fan relationships (ibid). Abidin and Thompson (2012) argue that the process of value (co-)creation through persona intimacy (between internet celebrity and consumers) is appropriate to explain the effect of online environment, rather than product intimacy (between consumers and products), which was illustrated by Robert (2005) and Foster (2007).

Moreover, Intimacy has been studied by many scholars as a marketing strategy. In online marketing, intimacy usually refers to how close individuals feel toward similar users in online communication (Kumar & Benbasat 2002; Wang et al. 2007). It is found that perceived intimacy is positively associated with consumers attitude toward recommendation made by personalization agents (Li, 2009). Barcelos et al. (2016) reveal that the intimacy level of brands will influence customer attitude and purchase intention. They also argued that a high brand intimacy level contributes a more pleasurable consumer experience. The intimacy connection may influence the attitudes of online shoppers by increasing interest and trust (Choi et al. 2011; Gefen et.al., 2003). Considering the internet celebrities usually shaped strong intimacy with their reviewers, we believe that consumer attitude and purchase intention are affected.

2.5.2 Authenticity The other key element of internet celebrity is authenticity (Marwick,2013; Raun, 2018). People usually perceived big stars or celebrities as distance, scarcity, and performances of the extraordinary (Jerslev, 2016, p. 5238). Even they are on social media; they usually have

12 only very few tweets or uploads to keep consistent with their image of public (Raun, 2018), they also rarely have their photographs outside of official events (Jerslev, 2016).

Authenticity usually refers to what is genuine, true, and real (Beverland & Farrelly, 2010; Thomson et al., 2005). It is often considered to be co-created by authentic person/object and consumers of authenticity (Leigh et al., 2006) because they interact with each other (Rose & Wood, 2005). Some consumers may perceive genuine or real toward an object, brand, or consumption experience, while others may perceive as fake or fabricated (Beverland et al., 2010; Rose & Wood, 2005).

The previous study has examined perceptions of authenticity of celebrities (Moulard et al., 2015). Loroz and Braig (2015) elaborated that consumers are more likely to engage in purchasing and making a public comment to reciprocate perceptions of authenticity. Another research has shown that perceived authenticity leads to positive attitude formation (Moulard et al., 2015). Ilicic and Webster (2014) found that relational authenticity strongly predicts attitudes and purchase intentions. Furthermore, an empirical study identifies that the constructs of authenticity positively influence purchase likelihood. (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016). Therefore, the strong authenticity of internet celebrities is supposed to result in positive consumer attitude and purchase intention.

3. Methodology

3.1 Research design

3.1.1 Qualitative study Since the internet celebrity retail economy is a relatively new phenomenon, there are few literatures with exploratory and explanatory research about this topic. Qualitative method is appropriate to answer the research question as it enables us to focus on exploring Chinese consumer behavior (Somekh & Lewin, 2005). Qualitative research is focused on the detailed words rather than the specific numbers; it implies that "social properties are outcomes of the interactions between individuals, rather than phenomena ‘out there' and separate from those involved in its construction" (Bryman, 2015, p. 386). Since we are interested in understanding how Chinese internet celebrity influence consumer attitude to purchase on E-commerce, qualitative is appropriate.

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3.1.2 Semi-structured interview (Primary data) Interview was characterized as a “purposeful conversation” (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982, p. 153). The purpose of interviews is to "gather descriptions of the life-world of the interviewee concerning interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena" (Kvale, 1983, p. 174). The goal is, therefore, to figure out the research topic from the perspective of interviewees and the reason why they own this particular perspective.

The research topic of internet celebrity retail emerged in recent years; few scholars discussed this novelty topic. It was not even clear initially what would be the most important questions to ask and what is the most important protagonists. (Horton, J et al., 2004, p. 340). Therefore, in the case study of Dayi Zhang, the flexibility of semi-structured interviews greatly outweighed the limitations on statistical analysis that would result. The semi-structured interview is meant to weigh up the credibility of the responses and explore some of the underlying motives more directly.

In order not to limit the interviewees’ answers, and to allow adequate leeway for interviewees to respond (Bryman & Bell 2015). Semi-structured interviews were chosen to allow the interviewees a degree of freedom to explain their perceiving toward the source of internet celebrity which drives them to purchase, as well as to enable certain responses to be questioned in greater depth, and in particular to bring out and resolve apparent contradictions（Cottle, 1977). This form of interviewing also revealed certain issues that we had not previously identified and which could be followed up in further questioning as well as in later interviews and could be investigated empirically（Jones, 1985). To minimize the subjectiveness of this process, the necessary explanations were offered from the authors to enhance the credibility of the information obtained and its interpretation.

The semi-structured interview did not strictly follow a formalized list of questions. It was conducted by asking several open-ended questions, allowing for a discussion with the interviewee rather than a straightforward question and answer format. A list of questions was prepared but did not necessarily limit within the framework, further questions were asked based on the particular response of each participant.

14 3.2 Case study

3.2.1 Case study application Case study is a research methodology, which typically applied in social and life sciences (Heale & Twycross, 2018). Creswell et al. (2007) defined case study as "a methodology, a type of design in qualitative research, an object of study, and a product of the inquiry" (p.245). While Gustafsson (2017) describes it as "an intensive study about a person, a group of people or a unit, which is aimed to generalize over several units." Case study is most suitable for a comprehensive and in-depth investigation of a complex or emerging phenomena or problem in context (Hamel et al, 1993; Merriam, 2009; Stake,2006; Yin,2014), where there's either no theory or a problematic one (Gehman et al., 2018), or where in-depth data relating to several variables including political, economic, social, cultural, historical, and/or organizational factors ( Heale & Twycross, 2018) .

Case study is usually applied to gain an understanding of the phenomena or problem in real life settings or natural environment and suggested to answer how and why research questions (Flyvbjerg, 2011; Simons, 2009; Stewart, 2014; Yin, 2014). The use of multiple methods to collect and analyze data are encouraged to be mutually supportive in case study research, where provide a more synergistic and comprehensive view of the phenomena or problem being studied (Stake,2006; Merriam, 2009; Flyvbjerg, 2011; Yin,2014). Qualitative research methods are most commonly employed to collect and generate data, but this is not exclusive (Mills et al., 2017).

Since internet celebrity E-commerce is a newly emerging phenomenon, there is no evidence showing existing theory can fully explain the research question. Meanwhile, the context posted on the internet is significant to understand the case. Therefore, a case study is applied in this article. To provide a more comprehensive understanding, both interviews and word frequency analysis are proceeded to collect and analyze data.

3.2.2 Case selection Selection of cases is an important aspect of case studies (Eisenhardt,1989). It makes sense to choose cases such as extreme situations. For example, one case of clearly successful or failed firm performance, which was designed to build theories of success and failure (Eisenhardt,1989).

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The case selection criteria of internet celebrity Ecommerce will be based on the reported turnover of their online business, the number of followers, popularity, and impact. Dayi Zhang was reported highest E-commerce turnover among all internet celebrities since 2016 (Technode, 2017). She has 10.6million of followers in Weibo (Weibo, 2019), which lead to huge social influence. Her company was listed in Nasdaq in May-2019 (Sohu, 2019; Nasdaq, 2019), and appeals attention from several business journalists from both China and overseas (BBC, 2016; Wallstreetcn, 2019). She was regarded as the most successful internet celebrity in China. Therefore, Dayi Zhang was selected for the case study in this research.

3.3 Operalization Our interview questions are designed into four sections based on literature review, which include basic information, attitude and purchase behavior, source dimensions of traditional celebrity, and uniqueness of internet celebrity. The basic information collected the interviews' age, occupation, purchase experience. The part of attitude and purchase behavior also focuses on purchase motivation of Dayi Zhang's products and perception of Dayi Zhang. For the ethical consideration, the questions were not set for the leading function. However, for acquiring specific answers, yes or no questions were avoided during the interview. The following questions of source dimensions are based on the literature review, which could be split from 4 dimensions, including their attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, involvement. The questions of internet celebrity uniqueness are based on two key characters, including interconnectedness and authenticity. At last, an open question was asked in case any extra findings. Interview questions are listed as appendix 1 and appendix 2.

3.4 Reliability and validity Mason (1996) stated that reliability and validity are vital in qualitative study. Therefore, there is necessary to discuss the definition and evaluation of these fundamental professional terms. In this research, semi-structured interview is applied for the study. For obtaining reliability and validity, there is a need to conduct correctly to collect useful information.

3.4.1 Reliability Denscombe (2000) stated that reliability is always related to a measurement which is stable and replicable. It requires that researchers could obtain the same results if they followed the research

16 instrument. (Denscombe, 2000; LeCompt & Goetz, 1982) In the word, the consistency of the whole qualitative study could be a standard to evaluate the reliability.

Internal reliability: According to Mason (1996), consistency plays a crucial role in the research. For the whole research process, researchers could complete the research with the help of the interviews. Besides the semi-structured interviews are conducted by the authors, as well as the secondary data, which includes the context and comments on the platform. We could also observe the communication contents between internet celebrities and their followers to enhance the reliability of the research.

External reliability: The external reliability could symbolize the degree of the reliability, one of the threats of reliability is the interviewee bias could lead to incorrect data through their descriptions and perceptions (Leung, 2015; LeCompt & Goetz,1982). It requires both the precise descriptions and the interviewee's selection during the research process.

3.4.2 Validity The term validity is often referred to as the relevance of the data about the research phenomena. The research instrument used as a measurement of phenomena should measure exactly what it is meant to measure. In a sense, a high validity means that the data and methods are right and relevant. In a qualitative study, validity is regarded as the evaluation for appropriate in the tools, processes, and data. To assess the validity of the qualitative study, the data collection, selected sample, outcomes, the choice of methodology will be analyzed for the value creation.

Internal Validity: Internal validity refers to the extent to which an evidence supports a claim for causation in the context of a particular study (Brewer, 2000). It is one of the most important attributes in scientific research. LeCompt and Goetz (1982) believed that internal validity is significant for qualitative research. To keep the consistency between the theory and our interview questions, all the questions are designed based on the dimensions of the theoretical model.

External Validity: Even though internal and external validity are related to each other, they are usually separated in the analysis. (Leung, 2015). As LeCompte and Goetz（1982）mentioned in the article, the external validity always in qualitative research rather than quantitative

17 research. Since qualitative research is concentrated on the small scale of researchers and samples, researchers could select the interviews who are largely engaged in purchasing from internet celerity E-commerce. Therefore, the process of data collection and analysis could be more precise during the research.

3.5 Data collection and analysis

3.5.1 Data collection The primary data for this study was collected by authors in the middle of April. The target interview groups are the consumers who followed Dayi Zhang and ever bought her products. To attain unrestricted answers and avoid bias, participants were told that the study focused on their perceiving toward the source of internet celebrity and their experiences of consumption toward internet celebrity E-commerce.

Guest et al. (2006) concluded that the sample size around 12 is sufficient to research emergent themes. In addition, the relevant study approved when the analysis proceeded in sets of six, it was hard to identify whether the level of saturation was reached; the saturation level should be between 7 and 12 interviews (Francis et al,2010). Thus, in this research, we believe that 12 interviewees are adequate. (profiles of participants refer to table 1).

Profile of participants Years to follow Pseudonym Age Occupation Education Interview mode Dayi Zhang Anna 25 Consultant Master 1 Internet, audio record Cathy 25 Student Master 4 Internet, audio record Ella 26 Clerk Bachelor 8 Internet, audio record Gina 28 Accountant Bachelor 3 Internet, audio record Hebe 24 Teacher Bachelor 3 Internet, context reply Jane 28 Auditor Master 6 Internet, audio record Molly 22 Teacher Bachelor 4 Internet, audio record Ruby 27 Teacher Bachelor 3 Internet, audio record Tina 20 Student Bachelor 4 Internet, context reply Vivian 23 Clerk Bachelor 4 Internet, context reply Yoyo 25 Student Master 3 Internet, context reply Wendy 24 Student Master 2 Internet, audio record Table 1

18 Interviewees were selected on the social platform which followed Dayi Zhang, who commented that they ever bought products from online stores run by the internet celebrity. We contacted interviewees candidates via social media to query the approval to take academic interviews. When we get reply and approval, the interview process was conducted online, lasting 30 minutes separately. The data is captured either in audio recordings or written in context, which was later transcribed by the team.

3.5.2 Data Analysis After collecting the interview data of Dayi Zhang' case, the transcript of interviews document needs a coding process to be analyzed. ‘Coding' is regarded as an accepted term for categorizing data (Dey, 1993).

For coding process, Gioia and Chittipddi (1991) developed a method for the interpretation of the data. Especially for the nascent concepts which do not have adequate theoretical references in the former study (Gioia & Corley 2013). To demonstrate rigor in qualitative research, the first step is to acquire the original information from the interviews. And then distill categories which based on the interviewees’ terms. The second order categories were developed based on the interviews from consumers toward internet celebrities and their products. Aggregate dimensions were based on the 1st and 2nd order, to conclude a more crucial and coral concept for the whole topic. After the three stages coding process, the basis for building a data structure has been built. (Coding result refer to figure 2)

1st order concepts 2nd order themes Aggregate Dimensions

. I focus more on physical looking of clothes on her . She is a model, the cloth looks pretty on her Physical . She looks pretty, you will think her product is pretty attractiveness without any reason.

. Her good image and the positiveness energetic post

will keep me following her. Personality Attractiveness . Her personality attracts me, she is a sunny and attractiveness energetic girl, and love smiling. . She is always lovely and confident, brave

. She keeps learning English, dancing, yoga, that is what I admired. Life style . She reviews content of the day before sleeping every attractiveness day in order to become better. 19

. Sensitive to fashion tendency . Know how to match clothes Knowledge . Professional at fabric and sizes Expertise . She is busy working with factories for process . Participate in the fashion show and design exhibition Experience . She is a quite experienced model and familiar with the fashion field.

. She refused to cooperate with irresponsible and dishonest suppliers Honesty . She posts a quality test report and advises materials

. I trust her and buy clothes from her online shop

. After-sale service is reliable . She is reliable, at least from the image she set. Reliability Trustworthiness . She has huge fans; I don’t think she would do anything badly; everyone is watching.

. My trust in her is limited to specific areas. . I don’t buy cosmetics from her, unless established brand endorsed by her, but not her products. Trust limitation . Cosmetics are different from garments, they are related to my health. I do not entirely trust her in all areas.

. I feel she is running products by heart. . I feel she is passionate for her products Passion . She always works very late to check products . She focuses on products, not just sales. Involvement

. Even on the traveling, she shares fashion tendency . She wears her own products when traveling Enthusiasm . The attitude she showed on products will impact me

. She is close to us and approachable . She is glad to share her life, no distance Closeness . She followed me back; I was so excited Interconnecte . She can modify or design product based on our dness comments & feedback . She interacts with us via V-log and live stream, not Interaction just texts and pictures, which will irritate me to purchase.

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. She is straightforward, real, and authentic. . She tells everything she thinks in live stream Real . She adopted an elephant in Kenya; she is amazing and real, which impact me a lot. Authenticity

. She doesn’t photoshop her pics too much . She doesn’t over-package herself Genuine

Figure 2

3.6 Word frequency analysis (Secondary data) Word frequency research could be regarded as the frequency research in specific words or word forms which existed in a given text; it is the most traditional and popular issues in measuring language methods history (Popescu, 2009). It is a traditional and representative content analysis method in bibliometrics. The basic principle is to determine the hotspots and their changing trends by how many times the words appear frequently. This article applied word frequency analysis for internet celebrity’s post and fans comments, to grab frequent keyword, which would enable us to focus on the individual, group, institutional, or social attention by discovering and describing (Weber, 1990).

The secondary data is from word frequency analysis of blog contexts, which was conducted and analyzed by python programming; the purpose of this data is to support our findings and discussion. Our contexts consist of two parts: contexts posted by internet celebrity and comments from fans.

For contexts posted by the internet celebrity, 494 pieces of contexts were grabbed by python, which was posted by Dayi Zhang in Weibo blog during recent one year (from May-2018 to May-2019), and word frequency analysis was proceeded to figure out what kind of behavior does the internet celebrity have may influence consumer’s perceiving and motivate purchasing.

For contexts of Fans' comments, we selected one recent post sent by Dayi, which is a Vlog (short video) to present her real lifestyle. Then we grabbed around 700 comments from fans under this post to run the word frequency analysis. We observed the communication from comments and found that the fans who comment and interact with Dayi Zhang usually bought her products at least once. Thus, we could regard fans comments as consumers comments. This

21 analysis aims to analyze the consumers’ comments to internet celebrity, which may reflect their perceiving. The word frequency analysis results are listed in table 2.

Top 20 frequency keywords from Top 20 frequency keywords from fan’s Dayi’’s original Weibo comments to one of Dayi’s posts (494 posts during May-2018 to May-2019) (700 comments from fans)

Keywords Keywords word Keywords Keywords word (Chinese) (English) frequency (Chinese) (English) frequency

张大奕 Dayi Zhang 308 姨妈 aunty 169 (nick name of Dayi)

直播 live stream 59 vlog Vlog 43 (short video)

新款 new arrival 56 张大奕 Dayi Zhang 29

优惠券 coupon 40 加油 come on 32

微博 weibo 54 自由 freedom 28

面料 fabric 42 爱姨妈 love aunty 22

转发 repost 38 优秀 excellent 22

粉丝 fans 24 能量 energetic 16

裙子 skirt 23 可爱 lovely 17

连衣裙 dress 20 衣服 cloth 17

私服 private cloth 22 网红 internet celebrity 14

定制 customize 27 好看 good looking 13

版型 fit 25 开心 happy 14

套装 suit 22 幸运 lucky 10

品牌 brand 28 中奖 lottery 8

搭配 match 24 精神 spiritual 9

外套 coat 20 快乐 exciting 8

颜色 colour 24 老大 boss 8

卫衣 sweater 21 心动 heartbeat 6

羊毛 wool 17 仙女 fairy girls 5 (nick name of fans)

22 Table 2

3.7 Ethical considerations Diener and Crandall (1978) categorized the ethical concerns into four areas: harm to participants, lack of informed consent, invasion of privacy, deception involved. Academy of management states (2005) that it is the responsibility of the researcher to access carefully to the possibility of harm to research participants. Firstly, the authors asked participants' willingness to take an audio interview or written interview. The interview was conducted patiently and respectfully to avoid or minimize harm to participants, including physical harm, mental harm, and harm to participants' self-esteem, development, and future employment. Secondly, Informed consent was applied through the whole interview process; the authors informed participants about the purpose of this interview and apply approval to record interview audio. Thirdly, participants privacy was also taken into consideration when doing interviews, the questions were designed without sensitive privacy questions and able to make the answer public, and also the authors promise participants that their name and private information will not be reported in the final article specifically. Last but not least, deception usually occurs when researchers want to limit participants to respond to experiment treatment (Bryman & Bell, 2015, P144), the authors fully respect interviewees' diversified answers and will not try to lead them to personal preference.

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4. Findings

4.1 The dimension of trustworthiness Our findings show that consumers who purchased the products from Dayi Zhang very frequently. For example, the person who buys her products every monthly or weekly think Dayi Zhang is trustworthy and reliable. While general consumers do not perceive too much trustworthiness of Dayi Zhang, but they also reflected this will not impact consumption.

“I purchased a lot of products from her online shop, but I cannot really figure out whether I trust her or not, but this will not impact my purchasing " (Jane, 2019)

People in favor of Dayi Zhang will be more likely to perceive more trustworthiness. They identify themselves as Dayi's fans and willing to contribute to the turnover. They are immersed in the uniqueness and practicality of her products.

“The products are in good quality, the package and were designed by her workshop. It could be easily to find she made a lot of efforts on the products. I trust both her products and her.” (Ella,2019)

"Considering Dayi owned massive fans on the internet; she would be responsible for her behavior and reputation. I don’t think she could do anything badly, everyone is watching, so I believed she is reliable. The products from her online shop reach my expectation, and the after-sale service is reliable "(Hebe, 2019)

However, the findings indicate that consumers’ trust in the internet celebrity is limited to specific areas she specialized. It is hard to extend to other areas.

Fashion changes quickly, I don’t really care how long my cloth would last, I focus more on pics and live stream to see how it looks like. But for cosmetics, it is different from garments. I don’t trust her completely, because cosmetic and skincare products will impact my health. I do not intend to buy cosmetics from her, unless established brand she endorsed, but not her products. (Jane, 2019). I could accept her cloth, but not cosmetics; the big brand usually has lots of patents. (Anna,2019)

24 4.2 The dimension of expertise Our findings show that consumers are more likely to think this internet celebrity as experts. They argued that Dayi Zhang is good at matching different clothes and make it easier for customers to dress in different styles.

" She was a model, and is sensitive to fashion tendency, knows many famous or unknown brands, she is professional in clothing designing. From the clothes matching skills and to fabric selection." (Molly, 2019)

“When consumers ask materials, safety, and comfort, she can always answer and explain fabric and design inspiration. And also, the figure of everyone is different, she would give suggest, she will show how different sizes look on the same figure in the live steam” (Jane, 2019).

From the feedback of the interviewees, some of them perceived expertise by the posts and pictures exposed by this internet celebrity, such as the factories she has visited, fashion shows she attend. Most of the interviewees believed that these experiences could illustrate her expertise in clothes design and knowledge.

“She will share the detailed information about the fabrics and workmanship, which is worthy of trust. We can see from her blog and weibo, she always busy with the fashion shows and factories. We could not imagine how diligent she was. The magazine and online interview were also published in her story. As a fan, I admire her expertise in her own business. She will elaborate products during the live stream, such as what material it is, how long it will take for the production process. In my mind, she is quite an expertise in her field." (Molly, 2019)

"For the winter product, she not only produced these products but also applied for the patent. She is diligent in work and eager to learn more knowledge in her field, from her recently Weibo post, she participated in massive design exhibitions and fashion shows to learn cloth matching skills. She conveyed the trendy elements to consumers. So, the products from her online store becoming more and more popular.” (Ruby,2019)

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This is also in line with word frequency analysis of her posts in recent one year (table 2), the word frequency of "fabric" was mentioned 84 times. "fit" appeared 56 times, "wool" was written 32 times ", "match " shows 56 times. These words show that Dayi Zhang concentrated on the products, acquired enough professional knowledge in fashion, and would like to convey the professional information to consumers. As a result, consumers perceived Dayi Zhang as experts in the fashion area.

4.3 The dimension of attractiveness Our findings show that attractiveness of internet celebrity is the major driven for the purchase behavior. The attractiveness includes physical appearance, personality traits, and lifestyle. Most interviewees believe that physical appearance is a very significant element which motivates consumers to follow Dayi Zhang and buy her products.

“Dayi Zhang looks very beautiful, and she was a fashion model in the good figure, the products look pretty on her, which will make me willing to buy her fashion products.” (Molly, 2019)

"Even I focus more on products, but the prettiness of Dayi would still impact my purchase intention to some extent." (Jane, 2019)

“The clothes on beautiful people usually look more attractive than on normal people, when I saw her beauty on the clothes, I would think I may look similar or closer to that beauty when the clothes were on me” (Wendy, 2019)

It seems that the personality traits and lifestyle of internet celebrities would also be taken into consideration for consumers. The interviewees indicate that the personality or lifestyle attractiveness of internet celebrity could directly or indirectly impact consumers attitude and purchasing behavior.

“Sometimes, I bought products because of Dayi herself, she is an entrepreneur and makes her company public in Nasdaq recently, she is successful, lovely, brave, diligent and built a good example for me. Thus, I will support her business continuously” (Ruby, 2019).

26 “The personality of Dayi would not impact my purchase directly, I focus more on products, but her good image and the positive, energetic post will keep me following her, in this way, I am updated whenever she launches new products, if it looks fit on me, then I will buy it.” (Jane, 2019)

I am attracted not only by the physical appearance of Dayi, but also her lifestyle, she keeps learning and attending classes, such as English, dancing, and yoga, this is one point that I admire her. Also, she will review the contents of the day before sleeping, to become better day by day (Yoyo, 2019)

The interview findings were further supported by word frequency analysis of comments context of fans (table 2), the attractiveness of celebrity is well perceived by fans, the words "good looking," "Energetic," "lovely," "Happy" appears frequently from fans comments to Dayi’s post.

4.4 The dimension of involvement The findings deem that consumers perceived deep involvement from Dayi Zhang, which will generate more purchase intention. Participants reflected they could feel that internet celebrity Dayi is passionate about her products and likes them from the heart.

The clothes in her shop are more attractive because she is making clothes with her heart. She involved a lot in designing the products. Unlike Zara or H&M, she focuses on her products, not just sales, I feel her product has a stronger sense of design. (Ella, 2019)

She is passionate to enthusiastic to recommend her products no matter in love stream or Vlog; She wears her own products in travelling or business trip. Therefore, I could feel her passion and love involved in her products.

Furthermore, the more passion, liking, commitment, and enthusiasm they perceived from an internet celebrity, the more purchase intention was generated. Perceived involvement of internet celebrity would also strengthen consumers perceiving of expertise and reliability.

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“Internet celebrity involvement will directly impact my purchase decision. It could be easily recognized that Dayi Zhang is very passionate about her product; she understands the product very deeply when taking live steam. (Ella, 2019)

“She absolutely loves her job and products, from design to packing, even the delivery packing bag, every detail is perfect. Dayi Zhang works very hard; she always works very late to check product status. As a consumer, the internet celebrity's attitude toward her product will definitely impact my purchase desire. (Ruby, 2019)

“I Feel Dayi Zhang loves her products, including repeat sampling and trials for new design and colour, If she didn’t put so much energy and involvement on products, I think I would not buy so frequently.” (Molly, 2019)

However, our findings also show the degree of perceived involvement varies among interviewees. Our investigation shows that the longer the fans have followed the internet celebrity, the more involvement was perceived.

“Dayi Zhang is nice and looks pretty, but I have followed just for one year, I neither know much about her nor pay attention to her post." (Anna, 2019)

4.5 The dimension of interconnectedness Our findings reveal that Internet celebrity built a strong intimacy and close relationship with their fans and consumers via frequent interaction through social media.

“I feel she is kind, nice and approachable; she is close to us. She is a normal person not a superstar, there is no distance, she is like everyone” (Ruby, 2019)

“Dayi Zhang interacts with us frequently, especially with old fans who followed her for years, she will share her thinking, her life, her experiences, product work processes. For example, she shared a story that she adopted a poor elephant in South Africa. I think she is an amazing person and an example to me. Thus, every time she launches new products, I would like to support her and purchase" (Vivian, 2019)

28 “She is the first internet celebrity, who wore their products and displayed in live stream and explain her products, such as design, and materials. Sometimes I cannot judge if the cloth fit me via posted pictures, but the video and live stream will bring more temptation for me to purchase. " (Ella, 2019)

“Sometimes, I have no plan to buy a product, but the live stream provides more explanation and visual attractiveness, which irritate me to buy it. For example, last time I plan to buy a coat from Uniqlo, but finally bought from Dayi Zhang’s store, I purchase from her almost every week” (Ella, 2019)

The intimacy relationship between internet celebrity and consumers are further supported by words frequency analysis of fan’s comments (table 2), where shows “Aunty” “Fairy girls” are frequent keywords. Through scanning posts and comments in Weibo, we understand that “Aunty” is nickname of Dayi Zhang, while “Fairy girl” is nickname of fans. The frequency nickname indicates a close relationship between internet celebrity and fans. The words frequency analysis of the internet celebrity’s posts shows “Live stream" is the 2nd frequency words among Dayi’s posted contexts (table 2). This direct interaction will generate more intimacy and cause strong purchase intention.

The findings show that not only persona intimacy was built by internet celebrities, but also product intimacy between consumers and products. Internet celebrities would design or modify product based on comments and feedback from consumers through reciprocal interaction.

“Sometimes, she will post her private clothes and ask which elements we like most, she can apply the inspiration and elements into her new design. She also would post samples in advance to collect the feedback of consumes and continue to modify before final production.” (Jane, 2019)

“They offered a PU legging last season and sold out soon, and many fans commented that we wanted a smaller size, therefore, for the second drop, Dayi Zhang provided smaller size, which was turned out to be a best seller among all sizes." (Ella, 2019)

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Many big brand and fast fashion clothes are not fit for us, because they have to consider the global market, but Dayi Zhang would know our request and demand through reciprocal interaction. (Molly, 2019)

This is also consistent with our word frequency analysis (table 2), which show "fit," "customize" are one of the top 20 frequent keywords.

4.6 The dimension of authenticity It is found that consumers also perceived authenticity from internet celebrity, which would impact them attitude and purchasing to some extent.

She will share her daily life, which is very authentic; she still works even getting sick; she does not overpackage herself, and always reply to us. The pictures she posted are usually genuine and not photoshopped too much, this will influence my purchasing. (Ella, 2019)

“She is real, straightforward and authentic; she tells everything she is thinking in live stream; she does not only promote and show products in live stream, but also share her traveling experience and complain errands. As her fans, I feel we could build a real relationship with her through the internet” (Molly, 2019)

“She adopted an elephant in Kenya, she is authentic, so I feel she is reliable” (Ruby, 2019)

The responses from interviewees also show that perceived authenticity could enhance intimacy through building a real relationship and reinforce trustworthiness through perceiving the feeling of reliability.

30 5. Discussion

5.1 Source dimensions The findings indicate that source attractiveness of Chinese internet celebrity is a key driver to shape consumer attitude toward fashion garment and lead to online consumption. As mentioned in the literature review (chapter 2.33), most research has shown that an attractiveness source will generate purchase intention (Baker & Churchill, 1977; Debevec & Keman, 1984);however, there is also some research that does not support this argument(Kamins, 1990; Ohanian, 1991, Maddox & Rogers, 1980). In our case of Chinese internet celebrity E-commerce, it is commonly agreed that attractiveness of internet celebrity is the key force behind sales. Perceived attractiveness was majorly formulated in terms of physical appearance, personality traits, and lifestyle.

Source Expertise of internet celebrity is well perceived by consumers and plays a crucial role to impact consumer attitudes and purchase intentions toward their products. This is consistent with previous research, where it emphasizes that the expertise perceived by a target audience matters more than real expertise (Hovland, et al. 1953; Ohanian 1991). It does not matter whether an internet celebrity is an expert. Consumers’ perceptions of celebrities largely effect on purchasing intention. The majority of interviewees in this study believe Dayi is an expert in the fashion area. In their opinion, Dayi illustrates her products with professional knowledge even though it is hard to evaluate whether Dayi is an expert, the perception of the consumers is positive.

Source trustworthiness of internet celebrities is perceived conditionally in the specific area. Different from previous literature, where regarded trustworthiness as the most significant part of the whole source credibility model (Hoekman & Bosmans, 2013). Our findings show that trustworthiness is not that essential for consumer to buy a garment from internet celebrities, some consumers do not trust Dayi but still buy her products out of physical attractiveness. Also, we found the perceived trustworthiness is conditional in a specific area like fashion garment, cannot extend to the other areas. Many of our interviewees indicated that they would not or do not tend to buy cosmetics sold by internet fashion celebrities even if they like the internet celebrity. But they will consider the established brands if they are endorsed by this internet

31 celebrity. The interviewees maintain the idea that cosmetics are different from garments, because cosmetics are directly related to health, strict trust in products or brands is required.

Source involvement of internet celebrity is well perceived and play an important role to impact consumers preference and purchasing, this is due to the nature of internet celebrity entrepreneurship is high involvement. This finding is consistent with previous research, which indicates that the more passion, liking, commitment, and enthusiasm they perceived from an internet celebrity, the more positive attitude will be formed (Hunter & Davidsson, 2008). Therefore, purchase intention was generated by positive attitude (Park et al., 2010).

5.2 Uniqueness of internet celebrity In China, social media has gradually affected consumer behavior and formed the trend of internet celebrity economy (Youssef, 2017) since the internet makes it easier for communication, interaction and information spreading. Compared with traditional celebrity endorsement or celebrity entrepreneur who has a hierarchy with fans, internet celebrities, especially those running their own E-commerce, are perceived much closer and authentic to fans. It is easier for fans or reviewers to know internet celebrities’ life, personality, and reciprocally interact to build intimacy and authentic relationship.

Perceived authenticity from internet celebrity would impact consumer attitude and purchase to some extent, this is consistent with the previous study, which shows perceived authenticity leads to positive attitude formation (Moulard et al., 2015) and positively influence purchase likelihood. Moreover, our study shows that perceived authenticity is more likely to reinforce consumers perceiving of trustworthiness and intimacy.

For perceived interconnectedness, which is described as a model of communication between internet influencer and followers, to create the intimacy impression (Abidin, 2015), In line with Abidin and Tompson’s (2012) research, where argued the Singapore fashion blog celebrities employ strategies to develop persona intimacy, the Chinese internet celebrity also framed persona intimacy with their fans. Fans feel close to the life and work of the internet celebrity through online interaction. Dayi Zhang interacts with fans frequently and replies to most questions raised by her fans regarding products as well as casual comments in social media.

32 She uses live stream to show her products and post the link into social media ahead of time, so that her fans can access her live stream easily. She also tells the audience how to match clothes, answer any questions raised in live streams, talk about non-business topics such as traveling, favorite books, etc. All these activities make fans feel that the internet celebrity is real, unfeigned, and close to them, and ultimately leads them to purchase in her online store.

Differences are found from Singapore internet celebrities, who tend to build persona intimacy instead of product intimacy (Abidin & Tompson’s,2012). Chinese internet celebrities try to build both. Internet celebrities such as Dayi Zhang can launch or modify products based on common comments, suggestions and feedback from consumers, to meet the demand of most consumers. Dayi Zhang posts some pictures of her private clothes and asks fans which elements they like most. Then, based on feedbacks, she can catch some inspiration and apply it into a design for the next season. For new style design, the picture of a sample may be posted to social media, and she can ask consumers how they like it or what their comments are; ultimately, the feedback which comes from consumers will impact the final product. Through the reciprocal interaction, fans and consumers are involved in product creation, product intimacy (between consumer and product) was created.

In our case, the fans who perceived strong interconnectedness including persona intimacy, product intimacy usually has strong buying habit, such as weekly purchasing toward internet celebrity E-commerce, or every time the new product launched. This is probably due to their deep relationship with the internet celebrity. Generally, the finding of perceived interconnectedness is consistent with previous research, which identified that perceived intimacy is positively associated with consumers attitude toward recommendation made by personalization agents (Li, 2009). And intimacy level of products will also influence customer attitude and purchase intention. (Barcelos at.al, 2016).

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6.Conclusion

6.1 Summary of the study The purpose of this study is to investigate how Chinese internet celebrity influence consumers’ attitude to purchase on E-commerce. To answer this question, we demonstrate traditional sources of internet celebrities or celebrity entrepreneurship to exam how internet celebrity influence. Furthermore, we illustrate the uniqueness and characters of internet celebrity to research our question.

To conclude, the traditional source of celebrity still works for Chinese internet celebrities, but attractiveness source plays much crucial role than trustworthiness. Source attractiveness is the most important force to motivate purchasing of fashion products toward internet celebrities E- commerce. Source expertise and involvement of celebrity also play a crucial role to impact on the consumers’ attitude and drive to purchase behavior. However, source trustworthiness is found less essential, and the perceived trustworthiness is limited in a specialized field such as fashion products, but it is hard to extend to other areas like cosmetics, where request higher level of trustworthiness to products and brands.

Furthermore, due to the using of social media and the internet nature of internet celebrities, interconnectedness and authenticity become two key elements of internet celebrities. Perceived strong interconnectedness, including persona intimacy, product intimacy usually has strong buying habit such as weekly purchasing toward internet celebrity E-commerce. Perceived authenticity from internet celebrity would impact consumer attitude and purchase to some extent, it is more likely to reinforce consumers perceiving of trustworthiness and intimacy.

6.2 Implications for management The framework of this study meant to solve the problem of how Chinese internet celebrity influence consumers’ attitude to purchase on E-commerce. The inspirations of this theoretical framework are original from the theory of source credibility model. Therefore, this framework and research results can be applied for the study of social science which is associated with the internet celebrity or wanghong. This research can serve to internet celebrities who are running or intend to start their E-commerce in China. Moreover, it is hoped this study of internet

34 celebrity E-commerce in China can serve for future comparative studies of internet celebrity globally.

6.3 Limitations There are two major limitations in this study that could be addressed in future research. First, the study merely focused on the case of Dayi Zhang, it could not ensure other internet celebrities would perfect suitable for this theoretical framework. The second limitation concerns the sample size. Due to the time limitation, only 12 interviewees were interviewed in this research. 12 interviewees could not represent 11 million Weibo followers of Dayi Zhang. The research results may only represent the attitude and purchasing behavior of limited consumers.

6.4 Future Research Internet celebrity E-commerce is a fairly new and unexplored phenomenon which few scholars researched. While writing this thesis, several interesting findings emerge. However, it has been beyond the scope of this thesis to investigate them all. In this case, we take the fashionista celebrity Dayi Zhang as a case study, but consumers reveal that source trustworthiness may influence differently in the fashion area and cosmetic field. Therefore, it may be interesting to investigate the role of an internet celebrity in the different business field.

Moreover, In future research, the sample size should be enlarged for better empirical research. Quantitative research could be applied to exam and supplement source credibility model of internet celebrities. By this, the authors can improve the current research and make it more objective and comprehensive.

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50 Appendix 1 - Interview Questions in English

Designed Questions for Interviews

Basic information How old are you?

What is your job?

How long have you followed Dayi Zhang?

What is your highest education degree？

How many times have you bought her products?

Attitude & Why would you like to buy the products from Dayi Zhang’s online shop purchase behavior Generally, how do you think of the experience in purchasing her products from online store?

Compared with regular or traditional brands, what is the advantage of Dayi Zhang’s online shop？

Compared with regular or traditional brands, what is the disadvantage of Dayi Zhang’s online shop？

Trustworthiness How do you think about trustworthiness of Dayi Zhang? Why ? Does this affect your purchase decision?

How do you think the trustworthiness of her product from Dayi Zhang’s online store?

What kind of behaviors does she have may influence your perceived trustworthiness. Could you please give examples？

Attractiveness How do you think about the attractiveness of Dayi Zhang? Why ? Does this affect your purchase decision?

How do you think the attractiveness of the products from Zhang Dayi online store?

What kind of behaviors does she have may influence your perceived attractiveness. Could you please give examples？

Expertise How do you think about the expertise of Dayi Zhang? Why ? Does this affect your purchase decision?

51

What kind of behaviors does she have may influence your perceived expertise. Could you please take examples？

Involvement How do you feel the passion and liking involved with products from Dayi Zhang? Why? Does this affect your purchase decision?

What kind of behaviors does she have may influence your perceived involvement. Could you please give examples？

Interconnectedness How do you think the distance and relationship with Dayi Zhang? Why ? Does this affect your purchase decision?

Authenticity How do you feel the reality and authenticity of Dayi Zhang? Why? Does this affect your purchase decision?

Others Is there any other uniqueness of Dayi Zhang impacting your perception and purchase intention?

52 Appendix 2 - Interview Questions in Chinese

访谈问题设计

基本信息 您年龄多大?

您从事什么工作?

您关注张大奕多长时间了?

您最高学历是什么？

您购买过她的产品多少次？

态度 & 您为什么会买张大奕网店的产品？ 购买行为 总体而言，您觉得从她网店购物体验如何？

相对于传统品牌，张大奕的网店有什么优势？

相对于传统品牌，张大奕的网店有什么劣势？

信任 你认为张大奕的信任度如何？为什么？这会影响您的购买决定吗？

您认为张大奕网店产品的信任度如何？

您认为张大奕的哪些行为影响您对她信任度的认可？能否举例？

吸引力 您认为张大奕的吸引力如何？为什么？这会影响您的购买决定吗?

您认为张大奕网店产品的吸引力如何？

您认为张大奕的哪些行为影响您对她吸引力的认可？能否举例？

专业 您认为张大奕的专业度如何？为什么？这会影响您的购买决定吗?

您认为张大奕的哪些行为影响您对她专业度的认可？能否举例？

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投入 您认为张大奕对产品的投入度如何？为什么？这会影响您的购买决定吗

您认为张大奕的哪些行为影响您对她投入度的认可？能否举例？

互联 您认为您和张大奕关系如何？为什么？这会影响您的购买决定吗?

真实 您认为张大奕真实度如何？为什么？这会影响您的购买决定吗?

其他 还有其他张大奕的特点影响您的态度和购买意愿吗？

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