The depth of influencer marketing : Unveiling the Impact of Sponsorship Disclosure on Influencer Trust, Expertise, Authenticity, and Purchase intention
Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The advent of social media has led to the emerge of influencer marketing as a strategy ofinterest to marketers in recent years. As companies increasingly utilise influencers foradvertising purposes, regulatory frameworks have been established to assist consumers indifferentiating between content and advertising. One of the social media platforms that hasimplemented these regulations is Instagram. Influencers are now required to either disclosetheir sponsorship through a tag or clearly state it in their content. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of disclosure of sponsorship onconsumer trust, expertise, authenticity, and purchase intention. This was analysed throughfour research questions, in order to analyse these questions four hypotheses weredeveloped, to determine whether there was a negative effect on each aspect from a disclosedsponsorship. The study employs a quantitative method, and the data was collected through two onlinesurveys. One of the surveys included a manipulation, and the other one was sent out to acontrol group. The four different aspects, expertise, authenticity, trust, and purchaseintention were measured by asking respondents to indicate their level of agreement withstatements based on the Instagram post they saw. The analysis found that there were nosignificant differences between the disclosed sponsorship and the non-disclosedsponsorship in all the four different aspects. Therefore, by combining the literature reviewand the empirical findings, it can be concluded that there was no statistical differencebetween disclosed and non-disclosed sponsorship.
Authors: Kivilompolo, Isa, Sollenbring, Isabella
Institution: Linköping University
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6999744225