The Impact of Influencer Attributes on Consumer Information Adoption and Purchase Intention of Cosmetic Products in Malaysia: The Mediating Effect of Information Credibility

• Main Author: Nurashikin, Nazer Mohamed
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 2023
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General); HF Commerce
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/43201/5/Thesis%20PhD_%20Nurashikin%20Binti%20Nazer%20Mohamed%20-%2024%20pages.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/43201/7/Thesis%20PhD_%20Nurashikin%20Binti%20Nazer%20Mohamed.ftext.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/43201/8/Thesis%20PhD_%20Nurashikin%20Binti%20Nazer%20Mohamed_dsva%20.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/43201/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Consumers tend to pay attention to the information shared by influencers due to the influencers’ first-hand knowledge of products or services. In Malaysia, women consumers prefer to seek information from beauty influencers on YouTube since they rely more on the recommendations made by those influencers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the effect of influencer attributes on information credibility, thus has a significant impact on women consumers’ information adoption and purchase intention towards cosmetic products in Malaysia. In this study, the data was collected by distributing an online questionnaire using purposive and snowball sampling that yielded a total of 393 responses for data analysis. Data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method via IBM-SPSS-AMOS version 24.0. All the influencer attributes were found to have significant effects on information credibility. In addition, information credibility had a significant direct effect on information adoption and purchase intention. Information adoption also had a significant effect on purchase intention. Apart from analysing the direct effects among the constructs, the mediating effects were also analysed. Information credibility acted as a partial mediator of the relationships between expertise and information adoption, expertise and purchase intention, information quality and information adoption, and information quality and purchase intention. Besides, information credibility fully mediated the relationships between other influencer attributes (attractiveness, trustworthiness, and homophily) and information adoption and purchase intention. This study has found evidence on the influence of information credibility on the relationships between the influencer attributes and consumers’ information adoption and purchase intention. Marketing practitioners could refer to this study’s findings in building relationships with social media influencers. For future studies, the conceptual model could be expanded through modification or the inclusion of new constructs. Furthermore, examining the influence of social media influencers on the adoption of information and purchase intention in both genders by looking at the influence on men and women could gauge the model’s effectiveness across diverse contexts.