Managing Authenticity in Fitness Influencer–Brand Collaborations: A Grounded Theory Study of Community Management and Social Selling Practices
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Fitness influencers increasingly convert follower trust into purchasing behavior through seeding, group-buying, and social selling arrangements within South Korea’s hyperconnected, appearance-oriented digital ecosystem. Yet how they assess brand fit, manage authenticity, and navigate follower expectations remains underexamined. This study uses grounded theory to examine how fitness influencers with 500,000 or more followers navigate brand collaborations across these commercial formats. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 fitness influencers, and open, axial, and selective coding were applied to identify a paradigm model of collaborative decision-making. The findings suggest, from the influencers’ side, that brand-fit assessment is not an influencer–brand dyadic negotiation but a triadic process in which the follower community functions as an active third party, simulated in advance and verified through comments, direct messages, and purchase-verification behavior. Influencers who experienced authenticity crises subsequently institutionalized stricter, measurable disclosure and verification rules, while the deliberate disclosure of product flaws was reported by one participant to coincide with restored trust and better sales. These findings propose a reconceptualization of influencer–brand fit in social commerce as a dynamic, community-mediated negotiation rather than a static dyadic attribute, with implications for how brands and social commerce platforms may design influencer partnerships and disclosure strategies.
Authors: Kyunghan Yoon, Sangback Nam, Jaeyoon Kwon
Institution: Hanyang University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,207
OpenAlex ID: W7225199070