IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v167y2023ics0148296323005088.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Not so different after all? A netnographic exploration of user engagement with non-human influencers on social media

Author

Listed:
  • Xie-Carson, Li
  • Benckendorff, Pierre
  • Hughes, Karen

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of non-human influencers on social media, including living entities such as animals and plants, as well as non-living entities such as objects, toys, mascots, robots, licensed characters, and virtual influencers. Using more-than-human netnography, the study analyses 1112 user comments from 52 Instagram posts to identify and describe the key source and content factors that drive user engagement with non-human influencers. The findings suggest that users engage with non-human influencers for a variety of reasons, including entertainment value, emotional connection, and educational content. The study contributes to the conceptualisation of non-human influencers by proposing a framework mapping the engagement factors and presenting research questions for future exploration. The implications of this study are significant for brands and businesses seeking to work with non-human influencers in their marketing strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Xie-Carson, Li & Benckendorff, Pierre & Hughes, Karen, 2023. "Not so different after all? A netnographic exploration of user engagement with non-human influencers on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:167:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323005088
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323005088
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114149?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. Donna L Hoffman & Thomas P Novak & Eileen FischerEditor & Robert KozinetsAssociate Editor, 2018. "Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(6), pages 1178-1204.
    2. de Vries, Lisette & Gensler, Sonja & Leeflang, Peter S.H., 2012. "Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 83-91.
    3. Agnès Helme-Guizon & Fanny Magnoni, 2019. "Consumer brand engagement and its social side on brand-hosted social media: how do they contribute to brand loyalty?," Post-Print hal-03591683, HAL.
    4. Rishika Rishika & Ashish Kumar & Ramkumar Janakiraman & Ram Bezawada, 2013. "The Effect of Customers' Social Media Participation on Customer Visit Frequency and Profitability: An Empirical Investigation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 108-127, March.
    5. Park, Hyun Jung & Lin, Li Min, 2020. "The effects of match-ups on the consumer attitudes toward internet celebrities and their live streaming contents in the context of product endorsement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Agnès Helme-Guizon & Fanny Magnoni, 2019. "Consumer brand engagement and its social side on brand-hosted social media: how do they contribute to brand loyalty?," Post-Print hal-02492743, HAL.
    7. Mora Cortez, Roberto & Ghosh Dastidar, Ayan, 2022. "A longitudinal study of B2B customer engagement in LinkedIn: The role of brand personality," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 92-105.
    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. Liu, Fanjue & Lee, Yu-Hao, 2024. "Virtually responsible? Attribution of responsibility toward human vs. virtual influencers and the mediating role of mind perception," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Jiang, Kan & Zheng, Junyuan & Luo, Shaohua, 2024. "Green power of virtual influencer: The role of virtual influencer image, emotional appeal, and product involvement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(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. Waqas, Muhammad & Salleh, Noor Akma Mohd & Hamzah, Zalfa Laili, 2021. "Branded Content Experience in Social Media: Conceptualization, Scale Development, and Validation," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 106-120.
    2. Halloran, Timothy J. & Lutz, Richard J., 2021. "Let's Give Them Something to Talk About: Which Social Media Engagements Predict Purchase Frequency?," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 83-95.
    3. Raza, Ali & Ishaq, Muhammad Ishtiaq & Khan, Ayesha & Ahmad, Rehan & Haj Salem, Narjes, 2023. "How fashion cewebrity influences customer engagement behavior in emerging economy? Social network influence as moderator," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    4. Lim, Weng Marc & Rasul, Tareq, 2022. "Customer engagement and social media: Revisiting the past to inform the future," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 325-342.
    5. Lu, Qiang Steven & Miller, Rohan, 2019. "How Social Media Communications Combine with Customer Loyalty Management to Boost Green Retail Sales," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 87-100.
    6. Hajer Kefi & Sitesh Indra & Talel Abdessalem, 2016. "Social media marketing analytics : a multicultural approach applied to the beauty & cosmetic sector," Post-Print hal-01456580, HAL.
    7. Muhammad Naeem & Wilson Ozuem, 2021. "Understanding the social consumer fashion brand engagement journey: insights about reputed fashion brands," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(5), pages 510-525, September.
    8. Schaefers, Tobias & Falk, Tomas & Kumar, Ashish & Schamari, Julia, 2021. "More of the same? Effects of volume and variety of social media brand engagement behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 282-294.
    9. Naveen Kumar & Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2018. "Exit, Voice, and Response on Digital Platforms: An Empirical Investigation of Online Management Response Strategies," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 849-870, December.
    10. María Bonilla-Quijada & Juan Tugores-Ques & Josep Lluís Olmo Arriaga, 2021. "Promotion of urban tourism: insights into user engagement on social media," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 611-632, December.
    11. Matti Haverila & Kai Haverila & Caitlin McLaughlin & Mehak Arora, 2022. "Engagement, participation, and relationship quality in the context of co-creation in brand communities," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(3), pages 232-249, September.
    12. Chang Heon Lee & J. Leon Zhao, 2022. "Social media engagement and crowdfunding performance: The moderating role of product type and entrepreneurs' characteristics," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(11), pages 1559-1578, November.
    13. Oberoi, Poonam & Patel, Chirag & Haon, Christophe, 2017. "Technology sourcing for website personalization and social media marketing: A study of e-retailing industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 10-23.
    14. Mangirdas Mork̄unas, 2023. "Revealing Differences in Brand Loyalty and Brand Engagement of Single or no Parented Young Adults," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 12(1), pages 102-111, January.
    15. He, Jiaxun & Zhang, Shuang, 2022. "How digitalized interactive platforms create new value for customers by integrating B2B and B2C models? An empirical study in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 694-706.
    16. Imran Khan & Mobin Fatma, 2023. "Does Perceived Sustainability Affect the Customer Responses toward the Brands? Role of Customer Engagement as a Mediator," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-13, May.
    17. Wang, Wei & Liang, Qiaozhuan & Mahto, Raj V. & Deng, Wei & Zhang, Stephen X., 2020. "Entrepreneurial entry: The role of social media," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    18. Campo Elias Lopez-Rodriguez & Gerson Jaquin Cristancho-Triana & Jenny Liliana Amaya-Tellez, 2020. "Perception and Desired Brand Personality in Organizations that Internationalize Services: The Case of the Colombian Business Environment," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 581-597.
    19. Hee-Min Lee & Jee-Won Kang & Young Namkung, 2021. "Instagram Users’ Information Acceptance Process for Food-Content," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, March.
    20. Abbasi, Amir Zaib & Tsiotsou, Rodoula H. & Hussain, Khalil & Rather, Raouf Ahmad & Ting, Ding Hooi, 2023. "Investigating the impact of social media images’ value, consumer engagement, and involvement on eWOM of a tourism destination: A transmittal mediation approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(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:jbrese:v:167:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323005088. 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/jbusres .

    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.