How Chinese Internet Celebrity Influences Consumer Attitude to Purchase on E-Commerce
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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).