IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v65y2022i6p765-776.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

All that glitters is not real affiliation: How to handle affiliate marketing programs in the era of falsity

Author

Listed:
  • Mangiò, Federico
  • Di Domenico, Giandomenico

Abstract

Affiliate or partnership marketing programs are a performance-based approach to online marketing whereby brands only pay when a sale occurs and is traced back to the affiliate who made it happen. Affiliate marketing programs conquered Web 2.0 and are now one of the most used channels for marketers and publishers online. Despite their success, affiliate marketing programs are exposed to different and problematic degrees of falsity, which finally threaten both consumers and brands. Acknowledging the lack of strategic and academic guidance about how to prevent and handle affiliate frauds, in this article we provide an original classification differentiating between noninfluencer and influencer falsity. We describe the direct and indirect costs that the various techniques belonging to each category cause and outline the best strategies that brands can implement to preserve their economic and reputational integrity. We then propose a two-stage affiliate listening protocol and show its applicability with an illustrative case on real influencer affiliate data. We offer several insights to marketers who need to manage their brands in an era of falsity, suggesting that continuous affiliate listening is needed to identify falsity in affiliate marketing programs and carefully select the affiliate influencers with whom to partner.

Suggested Citation

  • Mangiò, Federico & Di Domenico, Giandomenico, 2022. "All that glitters is not real affiliation: How to handle affiliate marketing programs in the era of falsity," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 765-776.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:65:y:2022:i:6:p:765-776
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2022.07.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681322000775
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2022.07.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fernando Santini & Wagner Junior Ladeira & Diego Costa Pinto & Márcia Maurer Herter & Claudio Hoffmann Sampaio & Barry J. Babin, 2020. "Customer engagement in social media: a framework and meta-analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 1211-1228, November.
    2. Lee, In, 2018. "Social media analytics for enterprises: Typology, methods, and processes," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 199-210.
    3. Domenico, Giandomenico Di & Sit, Jason & Ishizaka, Alessio & Nunan, Daniel, 2021. "Fake news, social media and marketing: A systematic review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 329-341.
    4. Fine F. Leung & Flora F. Gu & Robert W. Palmatier, 2022. "Online influencer marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 226-251, March.
    5. Karagür, Zeynep & Becker, Jan-Michael & Klein, Kristina & Edeling, Alexander, 2022. "How, why, and when disclosure type matters for influencer marketing," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 313-335.
    6. Villarroel Ordenes, Francisco & Silipo, Rosaria, 2021. "Machine learning for marketing on the KNIME Hub: The development of a live repository for marketing applications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 393-410.
    7. Campbell, Colin & Farrell, Justine Rapp, 2020. "More than meets the eye: The functional components underlying influencer marketing," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 469-479.
    8. Brunzel, Johannes, 2021. "Making use of quantitative content analysis: Insights from academia and business practice," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 453-464.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Yiru & Zamudio, César & Jewell, Robert D., 2023. "The more they know: Using transparent online communication to combat fake online reviews," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 753-764.
    2. Syrdal, Holly A. & Myers, Susan & Sen, Sandipan & Woodroof, Parker J. & McDowell, William C., 2023. "Influencer marketing and the growth of affiliates: The effects of language features on engagement behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zafar, Abaid Ullah & Shahzad, Mohsin & Ashfaq, Muhammad & Shahzad, Khuram, 2023. "Forecasting impulsive consumers driven by macro-influencers posts: Intervention of followers' flow state and perceived informativeness," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Zheng Shen, 2024. "Shall brands create their own virtual influencers? A comprehensive study of 33 virtual influencers on Instagram," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Alnoor, Alhamzah & Abbas, Sammar & Khaw, Khai Wah & Muhsen, Yousif Raad & Chew, XinYing, 2024. "Unveiling the optimal configuration of impulsive buying behavior using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis and multi-criteria decision approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Gerrath, Maximilian H.E.E. & Olya, Hossein & Shah, Zahra & Li, Huaiyu, 2024. "Virtual influencers and pro-environmental causes: The roles of message warmth and trust in experts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    5. McMullan, Kylie, 2023. "A checklist for managers to enhance influencer partnerships and avoid potential pitfalls," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 443-452.
    6. Shuqair, Saleh & Filieri, Raffaele & Viglia, Giampaolo & Mattila, Anna S. & Costa Pinto, Diego, 2024. "Leveraging online selling through social media influencers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    7. Venciute, Dominyka & Mackeviciene, Ieva & Kuslys, Marius & Correia, Ricardo Fontes, 2023. "The role of influencer–follower congruence in the relationship between influencer marketing and purchase behaviour," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. Edeling, Alexander & Wies, Simone, 2024. "Embracing entrepreneurship in the creator economy: The rise of creatrepreneurs," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 436-454.
    9. Ren, Shengnan & Karimi, Sahar & Bravo Velázquez, Alberto & Cai, Jianfeng, 2023. "Endorsement effectiveness of different social media influencers: The moderating effect of brand competence and warmth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. Liao, Junyun & Chen, Jiada, 2024. "The authenticity advantage: How influencer authenticity management strategies shape digital engagement with sponsored videos," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    11. Ahmad M. Alghamdi & Salvatore Flavio Pileggi & Osama Sohaib, 2023. "Social Media Analysis to Enhance Sustainable Knowledge Management: A Concise Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-30, June.
    12. Federico Mangiò & Giuseppe Pedeliento & Daniela Andreini & Lia Zarantonello, 2024. "How persuasive is woke brand communication on social media? Evidence from a consumer engagement analysis on Facebook," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(4), pages 345-381, July.
    13. Rosengren, Sara & Campbell, Colin & Rapp Farrell, Justine, 2024. "Tricks of the trade: Understanding and utilizing influencer tactics to improve retailer performance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Zofia Saternus & Cristina Mihale-Wilson & Oliver Hinz, 2024. "Influencer marketing on Instagram—The optimal disclosure strategy from influencers’ and marketers’ perspectives," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 34(1), pages 1-27, December.
    15. Penttinen, Valeria, 2023. "Hi, I’m taking over this account! Leveraging social media takeovers in fostering consumer-brand relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    16. Zhang, Shaoling (Katee) & Tang, Tanya (Ya) & Krallman, Alexandra, 2024. "Navigating livestream commerce: A dual-lens framework of influencers’ impact on product sales," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    17. Ganesh Dash & Chetan Sharma & Shamneesh Sharma, 2023. "Sustainable Marketing and the Role of Social Media: An Experimental Study Using Natural Language Processing (NLP)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    18. Sinziana-Maria Rindasu & Ioan Dan Topor & Liliana Ionescu-Feleaga, 2023. "The Evolution of Management Accountants' Digital Skills in Industry 4.0: A Qualitative Approach," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 1, pages 38-48, March.
    19. Zeinab Shahbazi & Yung-Cheol Byun, 2022. "NLP-Based Digital Forensic Analysis for Online Social Network Based on System Security," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-14, June.
    20. Xia, Huosong & Wang, Yuan & Zhang, Justin Zuopeng & Zheng, Leven J. & Kamal, Muhammad Mustafa & Arya, Varsha, 2023. "COVID-19 fake news detection: A hybrid CNN-BiLSTM-AM model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:65:y:2022:i:6:p:765-776. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.