Real but Fictional: A Research Agenda of Virtual Influencers for Brand Communications in Social Media Marketing

With the rise of virtual influencers (VIs) and their impacts on influencer marketing, this paper proposes a future research paradigm on how to develop brand communication strategies through a novel understanding of VIs from both the consumer and company perspectives. Built on the parasocial interaction theory and the human brand theory, six propositions aim to provide research guidelines for influencer and social media marketing by leveraging the use of VIs in a brand-consumer relationship. The theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.