The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Purchase Intention and the Mediation Effect of Customer Attitude

Social media influencers are first explored in the advertising field, particularly to create buzz in the younger markets and further expand social media coverage in businesses. This study is designed to investigate the effectiveness of social media influencers, focusing on source credibility, source attractiveness, product match-up, and meaning transfer. Consumer attitude is proposed to mediate between both the exogenous and endogenous relationships. Data collection was designed using the purposive sampling method and the dataset of 200 respondents was then analysed using PLS-SEM technique. All hypotheses are found to be supported except for source credibility. Mediating effects of consumer attitude are also determined. Implications, limitations, and suggestion for recommended research are further discussed.