網路紅人對追隨者影響之研究：以泰國使用者為例

全文

(1)國立臺灣師範大學管理學院全球經營與策略研究所. 碩士論文. Graduate Institute of Global Business and Strategy College of Management National Taiwan Normal University. Master’s Thesis 網路紅人對追隨者影響之研究：以泰國使用者為例 The Effects of Micro-influencer on Followers: An Investigation of Thai People on Instagram. 蘇偉立 Veerit Su 指導教授: 周世玉博士 Advisor: Steve Shih-Yu Chou, Ph.D. 中華民國 109 年 8 月 August 2020.

(2) Abstract. The objective of this research is to understand the effect of micro-influencer on follower on Instagram in Thailand by investigating the effect of different level number of followers of a microinfluencer and product involvement with the relationship between perceived expertise of microinfluencer on brand trust and purchase intention. This study used a quantitative method and was implemented though online questionnaire, 300 valid response were collected within 2 months. The measurement were adapted measurement scale from (Ohanian, 1990) and (Zaichkowsky, 1985) in order to measure variables. The result of this study shows that perceived expertise of micro-influencer can enhance the purchase intention and brand trust. In terms of follower base of a micro-influencer, it is verified that high number of followers have more impact on purchase intention than micro-influencer that has low and medium level of followers. However, higher follower base of a micro-influencer does not have positive effect on the relationship between expertise and brand trust. product involvement has the positive direct both intention and brand trust but there is no significant effect on the relationship between perceived expertise and purchase intention as well as on brand trust.. Keywords: Social media, influencer marketing, expertise, product involvement, purchase intention, brand trust, number of followers. i.

(3) Table of contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... i Table of contents ...................................................................................................................... ii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ..........................................................................................................................iv Chapter 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................1 1.1 Research background ............................................................................................................1 1.2 Research motivation ..............................................................................................................4 1.3 Research purpose .................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2 Literature Review ....................................................................................................7 2.1 Introduction of Influencer Marketing..................................................................................... 7 2.2 Purchase intention ............................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Brand trust .......................................................................................................................... 12 2.4 Perceived expertise.............................................................................................................. 13 2.5 Definition of micro- influencer ............................................................................................ 14 2.6 Product involvement ........................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 3 Research Methods ................................................................................................. 18 3.1 Research framework ............................................................................................................ 19 3.2 Questionnaire design ........................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Measure development.......................................................................................................... 20 3.4 Data collection .................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 4 Results .................................................................................................................... 23 4.1 Sample profile analysis........................................................................................................ 23 4.2 Reliability and validity ........................................................................................................ 25 5.3 Hypothesis testing ............................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 32 5.1 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 32 5.2 Managerial implication........................................................................................................ 34 5.3 Limitations and future research ........................................................................................... 36 Appendix: Questionnaires ...................................................................................................... 42. ii.

(4) List of Tables Table 1 World internet usage and Population Statistics, MAY 2019 ............................................3 Table 2 Summary of research variables and their measurement items ........................................ 21 Table 3 Sample profile analysis ................................................................................................. 24 Table 4 Summary measures of the PLS analysis ........................................................................ 26 Table 5 Correlations between constructs and square roots of AVEs ........................................... 28 Table 6 Summary of Mediating Effect....................................................................................... 29 Table 7 Summary of Moderating effect ..................................................................................... 30 Table 8 Summary of the result................................................................................................... 32. iii.

(5) List of Figures Figure 1 An example of Celebrity in Instagram ......................................................................... 10 Figure 2 Instagram users in Thailand ......................................................................................... 11 Figure 3 Examples of micro-celebrities in Thailand. .................................................................. 16 Figure 4 Research framework.................................................................................................... 19. iv.

(6) Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Research background Celebrity endorsements have always been a popular tool among marketers in promoting their brands, products and services as it can transfer celebrity’s characteristics and image onto the brand. Also it can improve consumer purchase intention and use the product or service that endorsed by celebrity (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017). There have been confirms by many studies that celebrity endorsement can significantly increase effectiveness of the advertisements (Atkin & Block, 1983). However, in the present many companies are switching from using traditional celebrities to micro-influencer such as Instagram influencer, vloggers, Youtuber to endorse their brands. The traditional celebrity that have professional talent such as athlete, actor, actress, singer and so forth is able to gain their public recognition in contrast with micro-influencer that gains fame by promoting themselves as expert in some way though social platform such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and so forth. According from the previous study influencer endorsement would also result in a higher advertising effectiveness rather than celebrity endorsement (Schouten, Janssen, & Verspaget, 2020) . The studies (Schouten et al., 2020) (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017) suggest that influencer have a stronger impact on purchase behavior and attitude of the brand of young consumers than traditional celebrities as Consumers also feel more familiar to social media influencer and trust influencers more than traditional celebrities. (Warner, 2018) Research shows that consumers are tend to listen to the suggestion or recommendation from the person they are relate to. Instagram celebrities had high relationship in engagement and purchase intentions if we compare with other celebrities or influencer such blogger and traditional celebrities.. 1.

(7) Before the internet era, marketers promote their good or service in different way such as TV, radio newspaper, magazine as it could reach large scale of audience. Nowadays social media is evolving such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and so forth. The way the brands marketing their product or service have been changed. In the past, the product or service was mainly introduced in offline channel such as television advertising, billboard, magazine and so forth. According to the Internetworldstats (table 1) , there are roughly 4.3 million internet user or accounting 56 percent of world population and it tend to increase in the future. From Techjury data, at present internet user an average of 2 hours 22 minutes surfing online and most popular online platform are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and so forth. Instagram is one of the most interesting social media platforms. In 2018 Instagram users worldwide reached 1 billion and more than 63% of people that can access to internet have owned the Instagram user account with more than 400 million active daily users where they spend 53 minutes using in average per day on this platform. The biggest social media platform – Facebook, 2.23 billion people are active monthly users on Facebook and spend 43 minutes per day on Facebook and it increased by 7 minutes when compared to the rates in 2014. Therefore, social media has become a powerful influence on our daily activities and would also affect our decision making on what we buy, what we like. Where to go, what to eat. Marketers see the benefits associated with social media marketing and the research from KOL marketing showed that overall percent of marketers determine to focus more on the advertising activity on social media in 2019 and by the survey – 74% of marketers claim that they will increase the investment in Instagram and 60% cited in Facebook. Zenith had also published the forecasts for advertising expenditure marketers’ report and it shows that total spending of social media is anticipated to escalate from. 2.

(8) $48 billion to $76 billion in 2020. With the growth in social media platform that certainly influence agencies to allocate more resources to social media platform. One of the widely use strategies in recent years is using Micro-Influencers or influencer marketing. This ascertainment is to essay the impact of perceived expertise, number of followers of micro-influencer and level of product involvement purchase intention and brand trust.. Table 1 World internet usage and Population Statistics, MAY 2019. 3.

(9) 1.2 Research motivation. Existing scientific research data, there is previous study on influencer marketing where it studied the ascendant of different type of influencer, brand intimacy and sponsorship disclosure on purchase intention on social media platform. As a result, the impact of micro-influencer is more effective if comparing to traditional. It also reveals that micro influencer can positively convince on brand trust and purchase intention of the purchaser compare to traditional celebrities (Maria Kolarova, 2018). To enhance brand trust by using micro-influencer, the trustworthiness and expertise are the important factor. The previous research revealed that the physical figure or attractiveness of micro-influencer have no improving effect on brand trust and purchase intention, the attractiveness of an influencer only draws an attention of the audience but expertise and trust of the influencer would play an important role. When advertising celebrities have expertise knowledge or experience, the influencer or impact on purchase intention will greater than having credibility and attractiveness. The expert’s recommendation can enhance the trust on the brand and purchase intention, also it helps to enhance the value and recognition of the brand or product .(Maddux & Rogers, 1980) which is corresponding with the study from (Ohanian, 1990) that characteristic source model which include expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness and expertise was the only characteristic among other that had a positive influence on purchase intentions. The endorser can be highly credible electronic Word Of Mouth comparing to paid advertising (Abidin 2016). It can be more effective than traditional advertising due to the higher in credibility and authenticity which could leads to lower resistance to the message (de Vries, Gensler, and Leeflang 2012) .However, there are still some factor that could be mediate and have not been investigated. 4.

(10) which are different tier of followers of an influencers and level of product involvement of the consumer. The previous study mentioned that familiar brand will be more influential comparing to unfamiliar brand in social setting. Therefore, combining both micro influencer and traditional celebrities is the most effective way for the marketers to increase purchase intention. There are still some limitation as there is no investigate on how consumer perceive the number of followers on certain account and also people have different level of product involvement on specific products or services that somehow could influence purchase intention. Therefore, for marketer to use the highest number of influencer is might not be the most effective marketing strategy in different product or service The another limitation of previous study is when a familiar is presented one is tend be draw by their knowledge and experience of the brand, it simply mean that one are more likely to stick and has certain perception or attitude but unfamiliar brand affects the attitude towards the brands. Therefore, in this study aim to examine whether consumer perceive micro-celebrity with different follower base and product involvement on brand trust and purchase intention differently or not.. 5.

(11) 1.3 Research purpose. The purpose of this research is to comprehend the relationships between perceived expertise, number of followers of an influencer and product involvement on brand trust and purchase intention. Also exploring the effect of the moderating role of the follower base of a microinfluencer and level of product involvement in the relationship between perceived expertise of an influencer and purchase intention. There are total of 6 research questions as follow:. R1. Does perceived expertise directly influence purchase intention? R2. Does perceived expertise indirectly influence purchase intention though mediation of brand trust? R3. Does follower base of micro influencer moderate the relationship between perceived expertise and brand trust? R4. Does follower base of micro influencer moderate the relationship between perceived expertise and purchase intention? R5. Does product involvement moderate the relationship between perceived expertise and brand trust? R6. Does product involvement moderate the relationship between perceived expertise and purchase intention?. 6.

(12) Chapter 2 Literature Review. 2.1 Introduction of Influencer Marketing. Marketers spend a large number of budgets on advertisement campaigns while does not acknowledge that the most persuading source to the consumers are the suggestions from the source, they are trust (Bughin, Doogan, Vetvik, 2010). Consumer tend to trust their peers. According to World-of-Mouth marketing association (2014) showed that up to 13% of sales are coming from word-of-mouth. defined word-of-mouth was defined by Westbrook in 1987 as an informal communication behavior about their involvement and experience about specific products or services and it is the characteristics of the brand that consumers share their experiences with each other (Westbrook, 1987). Influencer is considered as the person that has a large number of followers on their account. According to the research (Maria Kolarova, 2018), the micro-influencer is more effective than traditional celebrities as they positively affect on brant trust and purchase intention. Moreover, Micro influencer are perceived as more relatable. According to Nielsen report, 92% of consumers tend to believe suggestion from their family and friend so these day marketers try to utilize or capitalize by communicating their massage through micro influencer on social media platform. Most of the brand will contact with the influencer agencies where the agencies will try assisting the suitable influencer for each task. Using influencers marketing become commonly use. Also, consumer tend to embraces the behavior, action or opinion from the group that he or she wanted to be as the social identity of a consumer is determined by the certain group or community that consumers wanted to be part of (Nejad, M. G., Sherrell, D. L., & Babakus, E. ,2014).. 7.

(13) An opinion leader is a person whore has the opinion about things such as product or services and would have big influence to other’s opinion. The definition of opinion leader was further defined by (Teramoto, Inoue, & Saito, 2005) that it is a person that can influencer people around the influencer using their personal communication, as opinion leader’s world-of-mouth will also motivate the audience to purchase certain products, services or brand. Therefore, marketers have been trying to utilize the use of opinion leader. The result from studies shows that opinion leaders can influence person’s purchase behavior by sending messages of their own using experience about the product or services and communicating to many kinds of people as network hub. According from (Leal, Hor-Meyll, & de Paula Pessôa, 2014), opinion leader are person who has at least one of this characteristic which includes person who are a highly active member in the community, often participating and giving relevant contributions and people that have good taste. (De Veirman, Cauberghe, & Hudders, 2017) expressed that follower base of an individual on social platform (e.g. Instagram) may have an impact on their popularity that may make people consider them as an opinion leader, therefore an influencer on Instagram may also be referred as opinion leader as well. The most social platform that widely used by opinion leader is Instagram because it has a great immediacy and higher engagement rate if we compare with other social media platform (Casaló, Flavián and Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2018). Instagram Instagram is aa media sharing platform, it was created Kevin Systrom and Mike Kriegerby on 6 October 2010, it was initially introduced as an mobile pictures and photo sharing platform application with the purpose of taking photos and sharing to others users in the application where the users is able to apply different options such as filters and other effect on their photos and also 8.

(14) can share photos on other social media platform for example Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and so forth. In this present, Instagram is one of the most famous and well-known social media applications all over the world with having more than 1 billion monthly active users around the globe and rank the 3rd place after Facebook and YouTube among social media platform. (Kallas 2 September 2019) . The media sharing sites such as Instagram or YouTube have an influence during the pre-service stage of customer journey since it would allow a user to share informative content while also reach large number of prospect customers. There are various of features that marketers use for generating communication during customer journey Zarrella (2010, 81-83).. ● Organic Content: The first way is when the brand publish content in social media platform in their own account. The second is the social media user create and post media content such as text, pictures, video and so on in the social media platform. ● Digital Asset Optimization or DAO: The process to increase awareness of the customer by getting its existing content to appear in search engine result. ● Tags: An effective way to get more engagement. Tagging is the act of creating a tag on social media. For an example, A celebrity attached a label or tag to pictures or videos. Tags allows user to find content ● Hashtags: Keywords that are added on the posts by using # symbol. For an example, A celebrity used #chanelthailand (Figure 1), This hashtag is clickable and allow other users to go to the page that gather all other posts that use the same tags.. 9.

(15) Figure 1 An example of Celebrity in Instagram. Instagram users in Thailand According to the statistic from Naplolecat (Dec 2019), There were 12,143,000 users in Thailand in December 2019 which accounted for more than 17% of population in Thailand. Women is accounted for 63.6% and the largest user group (4,500,000 users) is people aged between 18 and 24.. 10.

(16) Figure 2 Instagram users in Thailand Source: NapoleonCat 2.2 Purchase intention Most of the brand use well-known celebrities as their brand endorsement in their advertising in order to promote and increase brand awareness. Famous celebrities would able to build trust and enhance brand recognition of the consumers that would eventually increase the consumer purchase intention as well. Purchase intention is described as the attentive determination to acquire an exceptional brand by Spears and Singh (2004, p.56). The purchase intention concept is one of the most persuasive theories to understand the consumer behavior that is particularly the theory of rational action developed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1967, 1980). There are two factors that would shape the intention of individual of the behavior which are the attitude and subjective norms. The behavioral belief and perceived favorable and unfavorable influence the attitude of an individual (Kotler & Keller, 2006, p. 194). Purchase intention can be branched into three groups which are unexpected purchasing, moderately planned. 11.

(17) purchasing and fully expected purchasing. unexpected purchasing means buyers decide to buy certain products either services unintentionally in a shop or could be called as desire purchasing behavior. moderately planned purchasing means buyers decide which product category that need to be bought beforehand and selecting a certain goods together with make a decision later from the provider. Fully expected purchasing means consumers have finalized their own decision on which product and which brand they prefer to purchase aforetime entering into a store (Engel, et al. 1995). H2: Greater levels of perceived influencer expertise will result in more positive attitudes toward purchase intention.. 2.3 Brand trust Brand trust is mentally visualized as an important success element of the brand (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). The impulsive feeling can be occurred from customer consideration of its experience of certain brand which can be viewed as a long process (Arjun Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001). Cognitive brand trust is knowledge drive trust and may reduce emotional response as it could be contemplated as a subjective factor (Casalo et al., 2007). To determine whether the brand is trustworthy, Morrow et al. (2004) careful methodical thought can be used to measure. In the relationship marketing concept, Trust is an important key success factor of marketing effort (e.g., (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Creating trust is one of the main goals of marketing and the way to do is creating the connection of consumer with the brand Hiscock (2001, p. 1). (Arjun Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001) theorized brand trust as “the willingness of the average consumer to rely on the ability of the brand to perform its stated function”. The result of the previous study showed that the uniqueness, specific characteristics of the endorsers or celebrities can enhance. brand trust. (Lassoued & Hobbs, 2015)and 12. word-of-mouth.

(18) communication also build an association around the brand that can also generate the positive impact on brand trust (Hajli, Shanmugam, Papagiannidis, Zahay & Rochard, 2017; Hudson, Huang, Roth & Madden, 2016) .In term of brand loyalty, brand trust also enhance brand loyalty (Delgado‐ Ballester & Luis Munuera‐Alemán, 2001) as it has the ability to build high valuable relationship (A. Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2002).. H1: Greater levels of perceived influencer expertise will result in more positive attitudes toward brand trust. H3: Brand trust has positive effect on purchase intention.. 2.4 Perceived expertise Expertise is defined as "authoritativeness" (McCroskey, 1966) , "competence" (Whitehead, 1968), "expertness" (Applbaum & Anatol, 1972). Expertise is an ability to make valid claims can be defined as influencer expertise that is perceived by audience (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953). Influencer can be perceived by audience as a professional or expert the influencer shares their knowledge, experience or competency about certain things. The professional knowledge, recommendation and experience from advertising celebrities, it would have a major ascendant on purchase intention rather than attractiveness and credibility. The attractiveness, expertise and popularity can attract consumer in a short period of time and can increase purchase intention. (Daneshvary & Schwer, 2000). According to (Ohanian, 1990), endorser’s celebrity advertisement are divided in to three categories which are expertise, attractiveness and credibility and when the endorsers have is an expert or have great knowledge it could raise and have a significance impact on purchase intention 13.

(19) than endorser with credibility and attractiveness. Moreover, expertise was found to have the most influence factor that could affect customers’ attitude as opinion leader than credibility and attractiveness which will eventually lead to greater in purchase intention. The trustworthiness of the advertisement resource is important. (Gotlieb & Sarel, 1991) stated that the effectiveness of the advertisement lies to the resource that presumed to commute the persuasive message to consumer whether it is perceived as credible or not. The previous research has investigated the source expertise and it expresses that the source’s perceived expertise positively affect on the changing of the attitude (Horaim Naccari, and Fatoullah 1974; Maddux and Rogers 1980; (Mills & Harvey, 1972); Ross 1973). Expertise is one of the dimensions of source trustworthiness as entitled by (Hovland et al., 1953). The dimension of expert for example “expert”, “Knowledgeable”, "experienced," together with "qualified" is clearly indicated and that can be used to measure expertise of each person (Applbaum and AnatoI1972; Simpson and Kahler 198081; Wynn 1987).. 2.5 Definition of micro- influencer Becoming a microcelebrity entails “thinking of oneself as a celebrity, and treating others accordingly” (Marwick, 2013a, p. 115). Influencer marketing is the person who earn a huge number of followers on the social media platform. Keller and Berry (2003) determines that the influencers respecting the number of followers and reach as for them “influencers are well connected (and) have a significantly larger number of groups than the average (American)”. A great number of marketers recognize micro-influencers to be any Instagramer, blogger, snapchatter, youtuber and so on with highly engaged and relatively small follower base less than 100,000 (Mediakix, 2016).. 14.

(20) The power of the influencers can be measured by the number of people of is following on influencer’s account. Fame is coming with power and to expand the power is easy by sharing photos, texts and video through their mobile device or PC (Ecmercer, 2015). According to (Marwick & boyd, 2011) ,Social media platform has given the opportunities for people to be wellknown and noticeable easily than before in a particular channel. Micro-influencer has changed the way of being famous, Senft (2012) states that it changes the dynamics of interactions where audiences and the community are the receivers, where the community is interacting also the audience are just listening (Senft, 2012). Senft introduced the specific term “strange familiarity” based on (Milgram et al., 1992) that used the term “familiar strangers” that about community that recognize each oner by not knowing each other, so micro-influencer is becoming “strange familiarity “as it being easily accessible in term of personal information. Micro-Influencer are exiting in a variety of fields according to their expertise, ability and capability of things. For example, athletes, fashion model, fitness model, beauty bloggers and so forth. Forbes (2017) stated the influencer with followers between 10,000 to 100,000 is microinfluencer and influencer with followers over 100,000 will become macro-influencer. People in all level try to enhance their image via social media platforms (Kozinets & Cerone, 2014). Marketers have different ways to use micro-influencers to advertise the goods or services to the consumers such as product placement, discount offering, tagging location and so forth. For an example, Daniel Wellington (Thailand) have used Instagram to promote their product by used micro-influencer posted their photo while wearing the watches and giving 20 percent discount code to their followers where each influencer has their own code. Therefore, marketer will be able to evaluate the effectiveness as they can identify and track how consumer path.. 15.

(21) Figure 3 Examples of micro-celebrities in Thailand. (Uzunoğlu & Misci Kip, 2014) state, that “bloggers, as content creators, have become digital influencers who are skilled at connecting with users through social media networks”. A micro-influencer is one who earn the number of followers between 1,000 to 100,000. Microinfluencers will spot on an exact also are broadly regarded as a professional or topic specialist in specific field such as beauty. Micro-influencers earn more solid tie than a common influencer, this is generally driven by their approach as an opinion leader of a subject matter. For an example, A beauty influencer who is endorsing specific makeup, brand and so forth. A micro-influencer, as anti to the public figure or common influencer, usually has a very identical audience H4: Follower base of a micro-influencer moderate the relationship between expertise and purchase intention 16.

(22) H5: Follower base of a micro-influencer moderate the relationship between expertise and Brand trust. 2.6 Product involvement The definition of product involvement can be determined as a tier of consumer’s interest in purchasing a definite sort of product or service and how much they have committed to a given product or brand. Product involvement can be related to a long-lasting with the band and product and can be referred as personal involvement (Laaksonen, 1994) as it also comes from consumer’s perception that the product meets their value Cox, W., Considine, T., & Principal, T. (2009). The product involvement is also an anterior of buying decision involvement, purchase involvement is when it interests consumer to make a product or service selection. The study will be focused on product involvement that is the interest of audience when seeing influencer with the product placement. Most of the literature classify level of product involvement as either high and low level of product involvement (Aurifeille, Quester, Lockshin, & Spawton, 2002; Barber, Ismail, & Dodd, 2008; Celsi & Olson, 1988). (KRUGMAN, 1965) has initiated the involvement concept into marketing on how different level of the involvement has a TV commercial impact. With the low involvement concept, it can bring a large impact on advertisement and marketing research regarding the consumer behavior theory. Consumer behavior research gradually discuss about involvement decision. Involvement is defined by (Traylor, 1981) as consumers awareness and recognition of an exact brand, product or service. The higher tier of consumer awareness can be called as high involvement while lower tier of consumer awareness, low involvement.. 17.

(23) The categories of product involvement can be catalogued into three categories (Bloch and Richins 1983; Houston and Rothchild 1977): 1. Personal - Values, inherent interests or needs that motivate one toward the object. 2. Physical – Characteristics of the object that increase interest and cause differentiation. 3. Situational- Something that temporarily increase interest or relevance toward the object. H6: Product involvement moderate the relationship between expertise and purchase intention H7: Product involvement moderate the relationship between expertise and Brand trust. Chapter 3 Research Methods. 18.

(24) 3.1 Research framework The research framework as shown in figure 2 includes several variable. Perceived expertise is the independent variable where brand trust is the mediating variable and purchase intention is dependent variable. There are two moderators in this frame work includes follower base and product involvement.. Follower base. H4. Brand Trust. H3. Perceived expertise. H7. H6. Purchase Intention. Product involvement. Figure 4 Research framework. 3.2 Questionnaire design Questionnaire survey was conducted as the research design. The questionnaire survey is a tool that is consisted of a set of research questions to be asked to the respondents of the survey. 19.

(25) Questionnaires cater a quantitative approach of information collecting. The dominance of using a questionnaire is can be able to approach a huge number of respondents with short period of time. There are 3 set of questionnaires where number of follower of micro-influencer (1,711) of each questionnaire will have different number of follower of micro-influencer; Low , medium (51.1K) and high (151.1k) .The questionnaire design in this paper mainly consist of 3 parts., we first ask a participant about their basic background such as gender education, income, area of living and so forth. The first part of the questionnaire is to measure and screen whether the respondent is valid or not. Then we begin by showing the picture of the micro-influencer with their number of follower and some pictures that was uploaded by the micro influencer to show their expertise then follow by question items regarding the research construct about their perception about all the variable includes 5 parts which are perceived expertise of an influencer, number of followers, level of product involvement, brand trust, purchase intention.. 3.3 Measure development For the present study the measurement constructs include purchase intention, brand trust, influencer’s expertise, product involvement by using 5-point Likert scale to measure. Likert scale is a psychometric scale where questions on the scale are normally used in the survey and most widely used by researchers. The multiple-choice option in the questionnaire will include from strongly disagree (5), disagree (4), no opinion (3), agree (2) and strongly Agree (1). Likert scale can be referred as a sort of answer template for scale items and the distinction would be helpful in order to serve to differentiate summated scale sort from template of an individual item. In order to measure expertise, four items were adapted from (Ohanian, 1990). For the dimension of level of product involvement, this study used the multiple dimension from. 20.

(26) (Zaichkowsky, 1985) in order to measure level of product involvement. Table 2 shows all the research variable and its measurement items.. Table 2 Summary of research variables and their measurement items. Research variable. Measurement item. 1. I find the brand endorsed by this influencer is trustworthy. 2. I believe this influencer endorsement can build brand trust in Brand trust. the brand. 3. I find the brand endorsed by this influencer is safe. 21.

(27) 4. I find the brand endorsed by this influencer is an honest. brand. 5. I find the brand endorsed by this influencer can be rely on. 1. This influencer has good knowledge about the digital camera. 2. This influencer provides unbiased product recommendations. Perceived. 3. This influencer is honest.. expertise. 4. This influencer is an expert in digital camera. 5. This influencer is qualified. 6. This influencer seems to have experience in digital camera.. 1. Brand/product endorsed by this influencer draw my attention easily. 2. It is likely that I will buy the products promoted by this Purchase intention. influencer on Instagram. 3. Brands endorsed by this influencer easily come to mind. whenever I have to make a purchase. 4. Would you switch or try from your regular products to a new. product endorsed by an influencer 1. The product/service is interesting. 2. The product/service is exciting. Product involvement. 3. The product/service is appealing. 4. The product/service is desirable. 5. The product/service is needed.. 3.4 Data collection. The questionnaires were created via Google Form where the participants can fill all the answer online. The participants were selected by convenience sampling, Questionnaire includes a clear research purpose introduction and was send through the social media (e.g. Facebook, Line).. 22.

(28) The data collection process was completed in two months. The total of 318 valid respondents were collected after deleting uncompleted and invalid response.. Chapter 4 Results. 4.1 Sample profile analysis. 23.

(29) There is a total of 328 questionnaires that was distributed via online, after screening 10 uncompleted questionnaires was canceled, there was a total of 318 effective questionnaires, the effective return rate was 96.95 percent. From table 3 of the profile analysis, Female respondent (56 percent) is more than male respondent (41.5 percent). The respondents’ age mainly in between 25 to 34 years old (62.9 percent)while their education level mainly lies at Bachelor’s degree (e.g. BA, BS) (61.2 percent) and respondents who live in Bangkok and other province are very close, which is 42.9 percent and 51.5 percent respectively. The respondent’s current employment status mainly lies in two categories with half of the respondent are employed full time (50 percent) follow by student (27.4 percent), and the average income (monthly) mainly lies at more than 25,001 to 40,000 Baht (38.7%).. Table 3 Sample profile analysis Variable. Frequency. Gender. Variable. Frequency. Current employment status. Male. 132 (41.5%). Employed full time. 159 (50.0%). Female. 178 (56%). Employed part time. 11 (3.5%). Others. 8 (2.5%). Homemaker. 3 (.9%). 24.

(30) Nationality Thai. 100 (100%). Other. 4 (1.3%). Self-employed. 31 (9.7%). Student. 87 (27.4%). Unable to work Age. Unemployed and currently. Below 18 year old. 1 (.3%). 18 to 24 year old. 96 (30.2%). Unemployed and not. 25 to 34 year old. 200 (62.9%). currently looking for work. 35 to 55 year old. 21 (6.6%). 1 (.3%) 19 (6.0%). looking for work 3 (.9%). Area of living Marital Status Single (never married) Married or in domestic relationship Widowed. Bangkok Metropolitan Region 296 (93.1%). Other province. 233 (73.3%) 85 (26.7%). 21 (6.6%) 1 (.3%). Education. Income (Baht/month) Less than 25,000 Baht. 117 (36.8%). 25,001 to 40,000 Baht. 123 (38.7%). Elementary / Junior high. 1 (.3%). 40,001 to 65,000 Baht. 46 (14.5%). High school or equivalent. 15 (4.7%). More than 65,000 Baht. 32 (10.1%). Bachelor’s degree (e.g. BA, BS) Higher than Bachelor’s degree. 224 (70.4%). 78 (24.5%). 4.2 Reliability and validity Cronbach’s alpha and PLS was used to measure consistency, reliability and validity the multi regressions model was applied to analyze the data. Table 4 shows that Cronbach’s α coefficients were all above the recommend value of 0.7 (ranging from 0.829 to 0.872) showing. 25.

(31) that the measurement scale has a good reliability (Nunnally, 1978). The construct composite reliabilities were also higher than the recommend value of 0.6 as well (ranging from 0.877~0.910), indicating that the reliability of the scales is well accepted (Hair, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2011). The standardized factor loadings were also higher than the value of 0.6 (recommend threshold) which indicated the convergent validity of the measurement scales while the value of average variance extracted or AVE are all above the recommended value of 0.5, indicating that the reliability is high and the variance captured by the construct was greater than the variance due to the measurement error (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).. Table 4 Summary measures of the PLS analysis Construct. Standardized. Cronbach’s. Factor loadings. α. Brand trust (Tru). 0.872 26. CCRa. AVEb. 0.907. 0.662.

(32) Tru1. 0.776. Tru2. 0.845. Tru3. 0.804. Tru4. 0.801. Tru5. 0.840. Perceived expertise (Exp) Exp1. 0.756. Exp2. 0.633. Exp3. 0.704. Exp4. 0.660. Exp5. 0.846. Exp6. 0.808. Purchase intention (Pur) Pur1. 0.794. Pur2. 0.871. Pur3. 0.887. Pur4. 0.832. Product involvement (Invol) Invol1. 0.789. Invol2. 0.833. Invol3. 0.829. Invol4. 0.849. Invol5. 0.665. 0.829. 0.877. 0.545. 0.868. 0.910. 0.717. 0.848. 0.896. 0.633. a: Composite Construct Reliability; b: Average Variance Extracted. Table 5 shows that the square roots of the AVE values were higher than the off-diagonal elements in rows and column which indicating a good discriminant validity of measurement scales. Therefore, the constructs is in the proposed model. The abbreviations of variables are applied as. 27.

(33) follow Brand trust (Tru), Perceived expertise (Exp), Purchase intention (Pur) and Product involvement (Invol). Table 5 Correlations between constructs and square roots of AVEs. Brand trust. Tru. Exp. Pur. Invol. .813. .587. .583. .338. .738. .506. .310. .847. .428. Perceived expertise Purchase intention Product involvement. .796. Note: Diagonal elements are squared roots of AVEs.. 5.3 Hypothesis testing. The data from questionnaire was entered into SPSS version 23 and checked for incorrect entries and missing data. Table 6 shows the summary of mediating effect or the strength of the relationship of perceived expertise and brand trust with the impact of purchase intention. Model 1 reveals that perceived expertise of the influencer exerts a direct significant impact on purchase intention (β = 0.515, F value = 114.122) as well as perceived expertise in model 2 is found to have a significant influence on brand trust (β = 0.592, F value = 170.084) and found to be significant at 95% confidence level. To investigate the effect of the mediator, the model 3 shows that the standardized coefficients β of perceived expertise (EXP) and brand trust (TRU) is 0.250 and 0.436 respectively and found to be significant at 95% confidence level. However, the β EXP (β = 0.250) decrease when we compare with model 1. Therefore, brand trust as the mediator only play a partial role toward purchase intention. ADJ-R2 of model 1 and model 2 is 0.263 and 0.348 respectively which. 28.

(34) is slightly lower than R square which can be indicated that the model is appropriate. As a result, H2 and H3 are supported.. Table 6 Summary of Mediating Effect Y: Purchase. Y:Brand trust. Y: Purchase Intention. Model 2. Model 3. Intention Model 1 Independent. Standardized. variable. Coefficients β **. VIF. Standardized Coefficients β. EXP. 0.515. TRU. NA. NA. 0.265. 0.350. 0.263. 0.348. 114.122**. 170.084**. R2 ADJ-R. 2. F value. VIF. 1.000. Standardized. VIF. Coefficients β. 0.592** 1.000. 0.250**. 1.527. 0.436**. 1.527. Note: ** represents 5% significance level.. Table 7 shows the summary of moderating effect, the model 4 shows that the standardized coefficients β of all variable are found to be significant at 95% confidence level and have a significant impact toward purchase intention except EXP_INVOL (β = -0.034). Therefore, when perceived expertise is combined with product involvement it does not significantly impact consumer’s purchase intention. Dummy variable was created to group the number of follower in to 3 group as follow: Low follower base (0,0) , Medium follower base (INFLUENNCE1) (1,0) and High follower base (INFLUENCE2) (0,1).The β of INFLUENCE 2 (β = 0.256) is higher than INFLUENCE 1 (β = 0.236) meaning that the high follower base of the micro-influencer will have more impact on purchase intention than low and medium follower base. Then when EXP was. 29.

(35) added together with INFLUNCE 1 and 2, the Standardized Coefficients β of EXP_INFLUENCE 2 (0.171) is still slightly higher than EXP_INFLUENCE 1 (0.154). As a result, micro-influencer with expertise and high follower will have more impact on purchase intention than expert micro-influencer with low and medium follower base. For product involvement. It has the direct effect on purchase intention but there is no significant interaction effect on the relationship between expertise and purchase intention. Thus, H4 are supported but H6 are not supported. As ADJ-R2 of model 4 is 0.486, purchase intention as the dependent variable can be explained by all the variable by 48.6 % where F value is 38.491. In model 5, brand trust is investigated, EXP (β = 0.654) and INVOL (β = 0.166) are found to be significant at 95% confidence level. However, product involvement does not significantly affect the relationship between perceived expertise and brand trust. Thus, H7 is not supported. All level of follower base of micro-influencer does not have a significant impact on brand trust. However, standardized Coefficients β of the interaction of expertise and high follower base (EXP_INFLUENCE 2) is -0.159 and found to be significant at 95% confidence level. As a result, high follower base (INFLUENCE 2) of a micro influencer will have negative effect on the relationship between expertise and brand trust. Therefore, micro-influencer with high expertise and follower base will negatively influence brand trust and H5 is not supported where brand trust can be explained by all the variable by 38.1 % where F value is 17.878.. Table 7 Summary of Moderating effect. 30.

(36) Independent variable. Y: Purchase intention. Y: Brand Trust. Model 4. Model 5. Standardized. VIF. Coefficients β. Standardized. VIF. Coefficients β 4.376. 0.654**. TRU. 0.371. **. 1.652. NA. INVOL. 0.217**. 1.200. 0.166**. 1.155. EXP_INVOL. -0.034. 1.123. 0.077. 1.113. INFLUENCE 1. 0.236**. 1.434. 0.077. 1.424. INFLUENCE 2. 0.256. **. 1.456. 0.081. 1.445. EXP_INFLUENCE 1. 0.154**. 2.298. -0.020. 2.297. EXP_INFLUENCE 2. 0.171**. 2.168. -0.159**. 2.126. EXP. 0.010. 3.670. R2. 0.499. 0.395. ADJ-R2. 0.486. 0.381. F value. 38.491**. 17.878**. Note: ** represents 5% significance level.. 31.

(37) Chapter 5 Conclusion 5.1Discussion The goal of our study was to investigated the differences between different level follower base of micro-influencer and product involvement and their effect on the relationship between expertise and purchase intention as well as on brand trust. Table 8 shows the summary of the result of the hypothesis that was tested, the result shows that H1,H2,H3 and H4 are supported whereas H6,H7 and H8 are not supported. Table 8 Summary of the result. Hypothesis. Result. H1: Greater levels of perceived influencer expertise will result in more positive attitudes toward brand trust.. Supported. H2: Greater levels of perceived influencer expertise will result in more positive attitudes toward purchase intention.. Supported. H3: Brand trust has positive effect on purchase intention.. Supported. H4: Follower base of a micro-influencer moderate the relationship between expertise and purchase intention.. Supported. H5: Follower base of a micro-influencer moderate the relationship between expertise and Brand trust.. Not Supported. H6: Product involvement moderate the relationship between expertise and purchase intention.. Not Supported. H7: Product involvement moderate the relationship between expertise and Brand trust. Not Supported. 32.

(38) The study reveals that in order to enhance purchase intentions choosing the microinfluencer with greater level of expertise is still an effective choice. The results are consistent with the component source credibility model (Ohanian, 1990) that expertise characteristic is related to purchase intention and will result in higher level of purchase intention. The result of the finding might due to fact that most of the micro-influencer on Instagram or other social media platform are most likely to be experts in some specific field such as beauty, food and so forth compare with traditional celebrities. As well as perceived expertise of the micro-influencer can influence brand trust this result also affirms the assumption declared by (Dwivedi & Johnson, 2013) stating that expertise is one of the source of credibility of the influencer exerts a direct significant impact on brand trust. In term of brand trust , it has positive influence on purchase intention which in the line with (Bouhlel, 2011) which states that the brand trust will positively affect purchase intention . Product involvement as the moderator of the relationship between perceived expertise and brand trust found out to has no positive significant effect as well as no significant effect on purchase intention. Product involvement have a positive significant influence on purchase intention and brand trust which correspond with (Neese & Taylor, 1994) that high involvement causes a distinctly positive purchase intention when compare with low product involvement. Nevertheless, product involvement as moderator does not have significant impact on the relationship between expertise and purchase intention as well as brand trust. Wherefore, product involvement should not be the main concern when we aim to promote either brand trust or purchase intention by using micro-influencer as the marketing tool. The result suggested that all level of follower base of micro-influencer would positively influence purchase intention where high follower base will have slightly more impact than those micro-influencers that has low and medium follower base.. 33.

(39) Then we further investigated by using different level of follower base as the moderator to investigate the relationship between expertise and purchase intention. Micro-influencer with all level of follower base would positively influence the relationship between perceived expertise and purchase intention and still micro-influencer with high expertise and follower base will still have more positive impact on purchase intention if comparing with low and medium level. In contrast, all level of follower base does not have a significant impact on brand trust. However, there is the negative interaction effect of high follower base on the relationship between and expertise of the micro-influencer and brand trust meaning that high level of follower base and expertise of microinfluencer will have the negative impact on brand trust and that can be implied that when microinfluencer has high follower and perceived expertise, this will lead to an decrease in brand trust.. 5.2 Managerial implication. Based on the result of our study on micro-influencer is something that marketer should use in order to increase purchase intention and brand trust. Perceived expertise of the micro-influencer needed to be highly considered as it plays an important role and have a positive impact on both brand trust and purchase intention. Therefore, choosing micro-influencer with greater level of expertise can definitely enhance both brand trust and purchase intention of the brand. However, product involvement of the consumer is somewhat not necessary when we chose micro-influencer as it does not have any significant effect on both brand trust and purchase intention. When we further consider different level of follower base of micro-influence with their expertise, the result shows that high follower base has more impact to purchase intention than low and medium follower base. So, if the purpose is to increase the purchase intention, selecting micro-influencer with high expertise and follower base is still the best option among all levels. 34.

(40) In contrast with brand trust, micro influencer with low and medium follower base does not have significant impact on brand trust. However, it is interesting that micro influencer with high follower base has a negative interaction effect on brand trust. It might due to the fact that perceived expertise of micro-influencer would not be important to enhance brand trust as the followers would only look at the number of influencers not their expertise. This may be corresponding with the social identity behavior that the consumers might want to belong to the group or community and often imitate the influencers’ behavior and action on Instagram or social media platform regardless of their perceived expertise as long as the influencer have certain level of follower base and popularity. Moreover, in this present people become micro-influencer more easily due to the ease of the internet. So, there are various kind of micro-influencer that might not have a good image. For an example, during that time there might be lots of micro-influencer with bad behavior that could destroy the trust from the public as a whole. Thus, there are so many other facts that could intervening trust. Even though media influencer have is already powerful but in consumer aspect it might be some doubt whether we can trust the influence when the influencer promotes the product since most of them are paid to promote product or service. It might because microinfluencer with high level of follower base might become celebrity in customer perspective From a managerial implication perspective, the study offered several considerations when marketer select a social media influencer to improve their purchase intention or gain competitive advantages in the market and able to attract the targeted audience. Based on the results, brand trust and perceived expertise can influence purchase intention of consumers. Therefore, marketer should pay attention on using the appropriate influencer for the marketing campaign.. 35.

(41) 5.3 Limitations and future research Even though the finding has potential implications for marketers and other researcher, there are still several limitations exists, some underlying mechanisms can affect these factors as well, such as the sponsorship discloser, different kinds of posts, attractiveness of the influencer and product category. Also, it would be interesting if cost effectiveness is investigated. Further research needs to be done in order to compare and make these results more generalizable. Future research could examine other moderator such as product category, brand familiarity as well as to compare the effectiveness of micro-influencer with nano-influencer.. 36.

(42) References Abidin, C. (2016). Visibility labour: Engaging with Influencers’ fashion brands and# OOTD advertorial campaigns on Instagram. Media International Australia, 161(1), 86-100. Aurifeille, J. M., Quester, P. G., Lockshin, L., & Spawton, T. (2002). Global vs international involvement‐based segmentation. International Marketing Review. Applbaum, R. F., & Anatol, K. W. (1972). The factor structure of source credibility as a function of the speaking situation. Atkin, C., & Block, M. (1983). Effectiveness of celebrity endorsers. Journal of advertising research. Bouhlel, O., Mzoughi, N., Hadiji, D., & Slimane, I. B. (2011). Brand personality's influence on the purchase intention: A mobile marketing case. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(9), 210. Bloch, P. H., & Richins, M. L. (1983). Shopping without purchase: An investigation of consumer browsing behavior. ACR North American Advances. Bughin, J., Doogan, J., & Vetvik, O. J. (2010). A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing. McKinsey Quarterly, 2, 113-116. Casaló, L. V., Flavián, C., & Ibáñez-Sánchez, S. (2018). Influencers on Instagram: Antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership. Journal of Business Research. Celsi, R. L., & Olson, J. C. (1988). The role of involvement in attention and comprehension processes. Journal of consumer research, 15(2), 210-224. ChaudhuriA, H. M. B. (2001). TheChain ofEffectsfrom BrandTrustandBrandAffectto BrandPerformance: TheRoleofBrandLoyalty. JournalofMarketing, 65(2), 81-93. Chaudhuri, A., & Holbrook, M. B. (2002). Product-class effects on brand commitment and brand 37.

(43) outcomes: The role of brand trust and brand affect. Journal of Brand Management, 10(1), 33-58. Cox, W., Considine, T., & Principal, T. (2009). Price communication, product definition, and service-oriented energy. Grid-Interop, Denver, CO, USA, 17-19. Daneshvary, R., & Schwer, R. K. (2000). The association endorsement and consumers’ intention to purchase. Journal of consumer marketing. De Vries, L., Gensler, S., & Leeflang, P. S. (2012). Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of interactive marketing, 26(2), 83-91. De Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2017). Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising, 36(5), 798-828. Delgado‐Ballester, E., & Munuera‐Alemán, J. L. (2001). Brand trust in the context of consumer loyalty. European Journal of marketing. Djafarova, E., & Rushworth, C. (2017). Exploring the credibility of online celebrities' Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 1-7. Dwivedi, A., & Johnson, L. W. (2013). Trust–commitment as a mediator of the celebrity endorser–brand equity relationship in a service context. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 21(1), 36-42. Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39-50. Gotlieb, J. B., & Sarel, D. (1991). Comparative advertising effectiveness: The role of involvement and source credibility. Journal of Advertising, 20(1), 38-45.. 38.

(44) Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. Journal of Marketing theory and Practice, 19(2), 139-152. Hajli, N., Shanmugam, M., Papagiannidis, S., Zahay, D., & Richard, M. O. (2017). Branding cocreation with members of online brand communities. Journal of Business Research, 70, 136-144. Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion. Hudson, S., Huang, L., Roth, M. S., & Madden, T. J. (2016). The influence of social media interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing behaviors. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), 27-41. Houston, M. J., & Rothschild, M. L. (1977). A paradigm for research on consumer involvement. Graduate School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kolarova, M. (2018). # Influencer marketing: The effects of influencer type, brand familiarity, and sponsorship disclosure on purchase intention and brand trust on Instagram (Master's thesis, University of Twente). Kozinets, R. V., & Cerone, S. (2014). Between the suit and the selfie: Executives’ lessons on the social “micro-celebrity”. GfK Marketing Intelligence Review, 6(2), 21-21. Krugman, H. E. (1966). The measurement of advertising involvement. Public opinion quarterly, 30(4), 583-596. Laaksonen, P. (1994). Consumer involvement: Concepts and research. Routledge. Lassoued, R., & Hobbs, J. E. (2015). Consumer confidence in credence attributes: The role of brand trust. Food Policy, 52, 99-107. Leal, G. P. A., Hor-Meyll, L. F., & de Paula Pessôa, L. A. G. (2014). Influence of virtual communities in purchasing decisions: The participants' perspective. Journal of Business Research, 67(5), 882-890.. 39.

(45) Maddux, J. E., & Rogers, R. W. (1980). Effects of source expertness, physical attractiveness, and supporting arguments on persuasion: A case of brains over beauty. Journal of personality and social psychology, 39(2), 235. Marwick, A., & Boyd, D. (2011). To see and be seen: Celebrity practice on Twitter. Convergence, 17(2), 139-158. Marwick, A. E. (2013). Status update: Celebrity, publicity, and branding in the social media age. Yale University Press. McCroskey, J. C. (1966). Scales for the measurement of ethos. Mills, J., & Harvey, J. (1972). Opinion change as a function of when information about the communicator is received and whether he is attractive or expert. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 21(1), 52. Morgan, R. M., & Hunt, S. D. (1994). The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing. Journal of marketing, 58(3), 20-38. Neese, W. T., & Taylor, R. D. (1994). Verbal strategies for indirect comparative advertising. Journal of advertising Research, 34(2), 56-70. Nejad, M. G., Sherrell, D. L., & Babakus, E. (2014). Influentials and influence mechanisms in new product diffusion: an integrative review. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 22(2), 185-208. Nunnally, J. Psychometric methods. 1978. Ohanian, R. (1990). Construction and validation of a scale to measure celebrity endorsers' perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Journal of advertising, 19(3), 39-52.. 40.

(46) Schouten, A. P., Janssen, L., & Verspaget, M. (2020). Celebrity vs. Influencer endorsements in advertising: the role of identification, credibility, and Product-Endorser fit. International journal of advertising, 39(2), 258-281. Senft, T. (2012). Micro-celebrity and the Branded Self. Retrieved February 22, 2016, from https://www.academia.edu/3775110/Micro-celebrity_and_the_Branded_Self Teramoto, T., Inoue, A., & Saito, K. (2005). How opinion leaders are made by the Social Media. The future of marketing Expanding the possibilities of marketing, AD Studies, 52. Traylor, M. B. (1981). Product involvement and brand commitment. Journal of Advertising Research. Uzunoğlu, E., & Kip, S. M. (2014). Brand communication through digital influencers: Leveraging blogger engagement. International Journal of Information Management, 34(5), 592602. Whitehead Jr, J. L. (1968). Factors of source credibility. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 54(1), 5963. Zaichkowsky, J. L. (1985). Measuring the involvement construct. Journal of consumer research, 12(3), 341-352. Statista, Instagram: Active users 2018. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users “Social media users in Thailand” (September 2019) Retrieved from https://napoleoncat.com/stats/instagram-users-in-thailand/2019/12. 41.

(47) Appendix: Questionnaires. Survey on micro influencer marketing As parts MBA research thesis at National Taiwan Normal University, I am conducting a survey that investigates the influence of an influencer on Social Media, I will appreciate if you could complete the following questionnaire. Any information obtained in connection with this study that can be determined with you will remain confidential. Please make a ✓in the box that most corresponding to yourself and your opinion Part 1 (Personal Data) 1.Gender *  Male  Female  Others 2.Nationality *  Thai  Non-Thai 3.What is your age? *  Under 18 year old  18 to 24 year old  25 to 34 year old  35 to 55 year old. 42.

(48)  More than 55 year old 4.What is your marital status? *  Single (never married)  Married, or in a domestic partnership  Divorced  Separated  Widowed. 5.What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? If currently enrolled, highest degree received. *  Elementary / Junior high  High school or equivalent  Bachelor’s degree (e.g. BA, BS)  Higher than Bachelor’s degree  Other:. 6.What is your current employment status? *  Employed full time  Employed part time  Unemployed and currently looking for work  Unemployed and not currently looking for work. 43.

(49)  Student  Retired  Self-employed  Homemaker  Unable to work  Other 7.Area of Living *  Bangkok Metropolitan Region  Other province 8.Income (Baht/month) *  Less than 25,000 Baht  25,001 to 40,000 Baht  40,001 to 65,000 Baht  More than 65,000 Baht 9.Do you use Instagram? *  Yes  No. 44.

(50) 10.How often do you use Instagram in a day (Total amount of time per day)? *  Less than 1 hour  1 to 3 hours  More than 3 hours  Don't use Instagram 11. Do you buy product or service online? *  Yes  No. 45.

(51) Part 2 Please specify your opinion on the following characteristics of Micro-Influencer by marking ✔ in the space that is closest to your opinion from 1) Strongly Disagree 2) Disagree 3) Neutral 4) agree 5) Strongly agree You think that this influencer has ….. number of followers? *  Low  Medium  High Please look at the following pictures carefully then answer the question below Pictures below:. 46.

(52) 47.

(53) 48.

(54) 49.

(55) 50.

(56) 51.

(57) 52.

(58) Please make a ✓ in the box that most corresponding to yourself and your opinion. Level of Opinion Strongly Agree > Strongly Disagree. Brand trust 1. I find product endorsed by an influencer are trustworthy. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 2. I find product endorsed by celebrities are trustworthy. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 3. This influencer has good knowledge about. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 4. This virtual advisor provides unbiased product recommendations. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. This influencer is honest. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Expertise 1. This influencer is an expert. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 2. The person provides professional knowledge to you. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 3. The influencer is qualified. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 4. The influencer seems to have experience. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Purchase intention 1. I pretend to buy the products promoted by the influencers on Instagram. 2. It is likely that I will buy the products promoted by the influencers on Instagram. 3. I am willing to buy the products promoted by the influencers on Instagram. 4. Would you switch or try from your regular products to a new product endorsed by an influencer. 5. Will you purchase a product which is endorsed by an influencer. 53.

(59) Product involvement. 1. The product/service is interesting. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 2. The product/service is exciting. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 3. The product/service is appealing. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 4. The product/service is desirable. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 5. The product/service is needed. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. ----------Thank you----------. 54.

(60)