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"Paid partnership with...": the effect of advertising disclosures on the followers' behaviour with regard to an influencer on Instagram

Preckeler, Jonas (2019) "Paid partnership with...": the effect of advertising disclosures on the followers' behaviour with regard to an influencer on Instagram.

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Abstract:Since social media influencers do not always properly disclose their paid partnerships with brands, the practice of influencer marketing has been widely criticized. Several institutions called for improved labelling of sponsored posts by means of advertising disclosures. In line with this, the aim of this research study is to investigate how advertising disclosures affect the followers’ behaviour with regard to the influencer who disclosed his or her Instagram post as advertising. An online experiment with a between subjects design was conducted, whereby the respondents were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (Instagram post with disclosure vs. Instagram post without a disclosure). In total, 294 responses to the experiment were obtained. It was found that advertising disclosures on Instagram increase the followers’ intention to demonstrate adverse behaviour towards the influencer (i.e. ‘swiping further’, ‘writing a negative comment’ or ‘unfollowing the influencer’). This effect can be explained by advertising recognition, cognitive resistance, affective resistance and attitude towards the influencer. In addition, also a less strong effect of advertising disclosure on adverse behavioural intentions via advertising recognition and attitude towards the influencer was identified. Based on the results it is concluded that an advertising disclosure negatively impacts the social media influencer.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/79332
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