Social media influencers drive healthy food intentions through perceived value and electronic word-of-mouth

This study aims to investigate the mechanisms through which social media influencers shape consumers’ intention to consume healthy food in Iran. The research specifically focuses on the roles of perceived consumption values (epistemic and social), electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), and influencer–follower congruence. Data were collected via an online questionnaire from 452 followers of health and nutrition influencers on Instagram in Iran. A hybrid analytical approach combining partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural networks (ANN) was employed to test the research hypotheses. PLS-SEM results indicated that eWOM, perceived social value, and perceived epistemic value all exert significant positive effects on consumers’ intention to consume healthy food. Furthermore, both perceived social and epistemic values significantly influenced followers’ willingness to share eWOM. However, the moderating role of influencer-follower congruence was not supported. Sensitivity analysis through ANN revealed that eWOM holds the highest relative importance in predicting healthy food consumption intention, followed by perceived social value, perceived epistemic value, and congruence, respectively. The findings suggest that perceived epistemic value enhances both healthy food consumption intention and eWOM sharing behavior. Although congruence did not function as a moderator, it emerged as a significant independent predictor. The integrated SEM-ANN analysis confirmed the model’s high predictive power and identified eWOM as the most critical driver of healthy food consumption intention.