Digital influencers, social power and consumer engagement in social commerce

Purpose Social commerce platforms are prevalent in the explosion of social media and e-commerce, and they enable conversations across a broad range of topics. However, their success depends on consumers' willingness to invest their time, attention and money. Digital influencers have shown prominent effects on consumers in those social commerce platforms. This study, thus, aims to attempt to unravel the role of digital influencers in affecting consumer engagement and purchase behaviour in online social commerce communities. Design/methodology/approach A mixed approach with a field interview, an online survey and secondary archive data are presented to confirm all the hypotheses. Findings Several forms of social power from digital influencers (including expert power, informational power, referent power and legitimate reciprocity power) could influence consumer engagement behaviours (including content participation and content creation). Moreover, the two types of consumer engagement behaviours could further influence consumer purchase likelihood in the social commerce community. Research limitations/implications Several forms of social power from digital influencers (including expert power, informational power, referent power and legitimate reciprocity power) could affect consumer engagement behaviours (including content participation and content creation). Moreover, the two types of consumer engagement behaviours could further affect consumer's purchase expenditure in the social commerce community. Originality/value This study draws on the theories of social power and social influence and integrates the literature on consumer engagement to explain how digital influencers affect consumer engagement and their purchase behaviour in an online social commerce community. Firstly, this work extends existing studies on the antecedents of consumer engagement in the social commerce communities by considering the role of digital influencers. Secondly, this research advances the theoretical understanding of the influence of digital influencers through a new lens of social power. The findings also contribute to community managers, users who pursue popularity and companies who target business goals.