University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2018 THE DRIVERS AND IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS: THE ROLE OF MIMICRY Chung-Wha Ki University of Tennessee Recommended Citation Ki, Chung-Wha, "THE DRIVERS AND IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS: THE ROLE OF MIMICRY. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2018. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5070 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Chung-Wha Ki entitled "THE DRIVERS AND IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS: THE ROLE OF MIMICRY." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management. Youn-Kyung Kim, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Heejin Lim, John G. Orme, Jeremy E. Whaley Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) THE DRIVERS AND IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS: THE ROLE OF MIMICRY A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chung-Wha Ki August 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Chung-Wha Ki All rights reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I thank my advisor Dr. Youn-Kyung Kim for walking me through this long and challenging Ph.D. journey. You are not only my mentor, but also my role model. I am also grateful to have learned from and worked with our best RHTM faculty team – Dr. Lim, Dr. Whaley, Dr. Fairhurst, Dr. Ha, and other remarkable professors – and Dr. Orme. I am also grateful indeed to Dr. Erin Cho for teaching me how to write a quality research paper and giving your sincere advice. You all were true inspirations to me. I also thank Dr. Billy Kim and the Ki and Bishop families for their love, prayers, and support. My special appreciation also goes to my best friend, friends, and colleagues for encouraging me with good vibes. Dr. Bishop’s dog, Diego is definitely appreciated as well for his loyalty and escort days and nights. It was your love, trust, prayers, and support that gave me strength to eat this huge elephant one bite at a time and finally put closure on my Ph.D. journey. Thank God it is over! * This dissertation was funded by the Department of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management (RHTM) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. iii ABSTRACT Despite the growing trend of influencer marketing, little effort has been made to understanding the comprehensive mechanism as to how social media influencers (SMIs) influence their target audiences. Although previous SMI literature identified possible drivers and effects of SMIs, much of former research has focused on the peripheral traits of SMIs: identifying the effect of a SMI’s number of followers on a target’s influencer likability. Not much investigation has been undertaken to understand the principal traits of SMIs that allow them to amass audience in the first place and gain influence over their audiences. The dissertation filled this void in the literature. Drawing upon Influence Framework and Consumer’s Doppelganger Effect theory, the study developed an overarching, structural framework that explains the influence mechanism of a SMI over her target audience as a whole in which (i) a target’s perceptions toward a SMI’s influence attempts (attractiveness, prestige, expertise, information, and interaction) affect the target’s attitudes toward the SMI, believing that the SMI exercises taste leadership and opinion leadership (H1 to H6), (ii) the target’s positive attitudes toward the SMI trigger her conscious mimicry desire toward the SMI (H7 and H8), and (iii) the target’s mimicry desire directs her performance outcomes of social media WOM and purchase intention (H9 and H10). The study included both a qualitative method approach (focus group (n = 11)) and quantitative approaches (pre-test (n = 48), pilot test (n = 155), and main-test (n = 395) surveys via Mechanical Turk) to attest its conceptual model. The main-test results, using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis via AMOS 23, confirmed that the conceptual model and all the hypothesized relationships were statistically significant. Further, the bootstrap results demonstrated that a target’s mimicry desire indeed served as a significant mediator linking the target’s attitudinal beliefs to behavioral decisions. The study’s findings provide insightful contributions to the SMI literature and practical implications for brand marketers in developing successful influencer marketing strategies. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 1.1. PHENOMENON STATEMENT ............................................................................. 1 The Emergence of Social Media Influencers (SMIs) ......................................... 1 The Significance of Influencer Marketing (or Influence Marketing) ................. 3 1.2. PROBLEM STATEMENT ...................................................................................... 4 1.3. PURPOSE STATEMENT ....................................................................................... 5 Research Objectives ........................................................................................... 5 Research Questions ............................................................................................ 5 Expected Contributions ...................................................................................... 8 1.4. DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS ........................................................................... 8 1.5. DISSERTATION ORGANIZATION ................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................... 11 2.1. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................12 Definitions of and Use of Terms for SMIs ....................................................... 12 Extant Literature on SMIs: Key Drivers and Impacts ...................................... 14 Limitations of SMI Literature and Research Void ........................................... 23 2.2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................................................................... 23 Influence Framework ....................................................................................... 23 An influencer’s influence attempts .......................................................... 25 A target’s attitudes toward the influence exercised .................................. 26 The target’s desire for compliance with the influencer ............................ 26 The target’s performance outcomes resulting from compliance .............. 27 Consumer’s Doppelganger Effect .................................................................... 29 Conscious mimicry ................................................................................... 31 2.3. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ................................................................................ 34 A SMI’s Influence Attempts affecting a Target’s Attitudes ............................ 34 A Target’s Cognitive Attitudes: Taste Leadership and Opinion Leadership ... 34 Taste Leadership ............................................................................................... 36 Taste Leadership from a SMI’s Attractiveness, Prestige, and Expertise ..........37 A SMI’s taste leadership from attractiveness .......................................... 37 A SMI’s taste leadership from prestige ................................................... 39 A SMI’s taste leadership from expertise ................................................. 40 Opinion Leadership .......................................................................................... 41 Opinion Leadership from a SMI’s Expertise, Information, and Interaction .....42 A SMI’s opinion leadership from expertise ............................................ 43 A SMI’s opinion leadership from information ........................................ 44 A SMI’s opinion leadership from interaction ........................................... 45 v The Target’s Attitudes affecting Conscious Mimicry Desire .......................... 46 A target’s conscious mimicry desire from taste and opinion leaderships .. 47 The Target’s Mimicry Desire affecting Performance Outcomes ..................... 50 A target’s mimicry desire and social outcome ....................................... 50 A target’s mimicry desire and non-social outcome ................................. 51 2.4. SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER 3. QUALITATIVE METHOD AND RESULT ........................................ 55 3.1. FOCUS GROUP .................................................................................................... 55 Focus Group: Sample .....................................................................................