Influencer marketing has recently become a main component in modern advertising. It has reshaped how brands connect with consumers via well-known and respected social media users with a large reach across the digital domain. Research in the International Journal of Technology Marketing has looked at the psychological and behavioural mechanisms that underlie the influencer phenomenon and what leads members of the public to follow the advice and recommendations of these people.
The study reveals new insights into the drivers and the resulting purchasing decisions individual make. The work has implications not only for marketers but also for how we understand the evolving dynamics of trust, validation, and commerce in the digital age.
Dominyka Venciute, Agne Kudzmanaite, and Marius Kuslys of the ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Ricardo Fontes Correia of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia in Bragança, Portugal, explain how consumer engagement is central to the work. The online actions of “liking”, “commenting”, and “sharing” influencer content can ultimately change an individual’s buying behaviour and even of their friends and contacts.
The research shows that consumers who actively engage with influencers are more likely to buy the products those influencers promote, a perhaps inevitable conclusion. However, this finding does align with well-known and broader advertising principles: meaningful engagement fosters a sense of connection and receptivity, for instance. There is a distinction though. One of the features of social media platforms is that perceived value, the consumer’s assessment of the quality, relevance, and usefulness of an influencer’s content, is the strongest driver of their intention to buy, rather than the nature of the brand or other factors.
Moreover, it seems that while the general propensity to trust is important, it does not significantly influence purchasing intent in this context. It seems that on social media, where influencer content is often performative and curated, trust is not sufficient to trigger someone to spend. Rather, it is the relatable aspects of the influencer’s content, such as their sharing of detailed product reviews, unboxing, and demonstrations of the product in use, that are the most persuasive aspects of the influencer to consumer relationship.
Venciute, D., Correia, R.F., Kudzmanaite, A. and Kuslys, M. (2025) ‘The effect of self-confidence in the relationship between influencer marketing and willingness to buy’, Int. J. Technology Marketing, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp.105–130.