TikTokers Turned Influencers: iGeneration’s Perceptions toward their 'Preferred' TikTok Influencers to Follow
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11594/ijmaber.04.10.21Keywords:
Growth, SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, iGeneration, lifestyle, SDG 10 Decent Work and Economic, SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals, TikTok influencersAbstract
Purpose – This study explored the potential factors the iGeneration considers before intending to follow TikTok influencers, assessed their behavioral response as an outcome of the intention, and examined the impact TikTok influencers had on their potential followers.
Design/methodology/approach – The researchers used a convergent mixed-parallel design to interpret data gathered from interviews and surveys with the quantitative data analyzed through the Jamovi software. This study used the philosophies of pragmatism and interpretivism.
Findings – TikTok users considered perceived added value to personal lifestyle and perceived hedonic experience the most compared to other antecedents tested. The researchers classified them according to the findings and arrived at three (3) distinct categories, transitioning from intention to behavior; (A) Nonchalant, (B) Serious, and (C) Adaptive.
Research Limitations/Implications – The scope and delimitations of this study only involved students currently enrolled in De La Salle University, between 17 to 24 years old. The researchers used purposive and convenience sampling to acquire respondents for the Google Forms survey and Zoom interviews.
Practical and Social Implications – This study has implications for business and e-commerce, especially in the current commercial climate where influencer marketing is gaining popularity.
Furthermore, it can help enterprises look for suitable influencers who can positively impact their branding to the public.
Originality/Value – This study addressed the gap in the literature on TikTok users and their behavior toward the consumption of influencer content, with the increasing popularity of TikTok as a social platform and the growth of influencers as online opinion leaders.
Downloads
References
Abert, M., Lunderøy, M. J., & Radmacher, C. (2019). New ventures in the age of digital media technologies–A qualitative study of influencer entrepreneurs (Master's thesis, Nord universitet). https://nordopen.nord.no/nord-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2620537/abertlunder%C3%B8yradmacher.pdf?sequence=1
Abidin, C. (2020). Mapping internet celebrity on TikTok: Exploring attention econo-mies and visibility labours. Cultural Sci-ence Journal, 12(1), 77–103. https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.140
Agater, A. M. (2022). So Many Views: The in-fluence of TikTok “blow-ups” on the men-tal health of Gen Z creators (thesis). Uni-versity of Twente. http://essay.utwente.nl/91480/
An, C., & Haryanto, J. O. (2021). Exploring mo-tivations of social media influencers as an emerging job market. IDEAS: Journal of Management & Technology, 1(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.33021/ideas.v1i1.1700
Balaban, D., Iancu, I., Mustățea, M., Pavelea, A., & Culic, L. (2020). What Determines Young People to Follow Influencers? The Role of Perceived Information Quality and Trustworthiness on Users’ Following Intentions. Romanian Journal Of Commu-nication And Public Relations, 22(3), 5-19. doi:10otivations of social media influ-encers as an emerging job market. IDE-AS: Journal of Management & Technolo-gy, 1(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.33021/ideas.v1i1.1700.21018/rjcpr.2020.3.306
Barta, S., Belanche, D., Fernández, A., & Fla-vián, M. (2022). Having Fun on TikTok: A New Trend for Influencer Marketing. [Corporate and Marketing Communica-tions Conference, University of Nicosia] https://www.unic.ac.cy/cmc2022/wp-con-tent/uploads/sites/33/2022/05/Book-of-Proceedings-CMC2022.pdf#page=229
Barta, S., Belanche, D., Fernández, A., & Fla-vián, M. (2023). Influencer marketing on TikTok: The effectiveness of humor and followers’ hedonic experience. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 70, 103149. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103149
Belanche, D., Casaló, L. V., Flavián, M., & Ibá-ñez-Sánchez, S. (2021). Understanding in-fluencer marketing: The role of congru-ence between influencers, products and consumers. Journal of Business Research, 132, 186-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.03.067
Bolter, J. (2000), ‘Identity’, in Swiss, T. (2001). Unspun: Key Concepts for Understanding the World Wide Web, New York Universi-ty Press, New York, pp. 17 - 29.
Bognar, Z. B., Puljic, N. P., & Kadezabek, D. (2019). Impact of influencer marketing on consumer behaviour. Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceed-ings, 301-309.
Demir, S. B., & Pismek, N. (2018). A conver-gent parallel mixed-methods study of controversial issues in social studies clas-ses: A clash of ideologies. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 18(1), 119–149. https://doi.org/10.12738/estp.2018.1.0298
Dimock, M. (2019). Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins. Pew Research Center, 17(1), 1-7. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/
Dolot, A. (2018). The characteristic of Genera-tion Z. e-mentor, 2(74), 44-50. https://doi.org/10.15219/em74.1351
Dunas, D. V., & Vartanov, S. A. (2020). Emerg-ing Digital Media Culture in Russia: Mod-eling the media consumption of genera-tion Z. Journal of Multicultural Discours-es, 15(2), 186–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2020.1751648
Fraser, A. M., Stockdale, L. A., Bryce, C. I., & Alexander, B. L. (2022). College students’ media habits, concern for themselves and others, and mental health in the era of COVID-19.Psychology of Popular Media, 11(2), 139–151. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000345
Guiñez-Cabrera, N., & Aqueveque, C. (2021). Entrepreneurial influencers and influen-tial entrepreneurs: Two sides of the same coin. International Journal of Entrepre-neurial Behavior & Research, 28(1), 231–254. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijebr-08-2020-0563
Haenlein, M., Anadol, E., Farnsworth, T., Hugo, H., Hunichen, J., & Welte, D. (2020). Navi-gating the new era of influencer market-ing: How to be successful on Instagram, TikTok, & Co. California Management Re-view, 63(1), 5–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125620958166
Junjie, M., & Yingxin, M. (2022). The discus-sions of positivism and interpretivism. Global Academic Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 4(1), 10–14. https://doi.org/10.36348/gajhss.2022.v04i01.002
Stahl, C. C., & Literat, I. (2022). #GenZ on Tik-Tok: the collective online self-Portrait of the social media generation. Journal of Youth Studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2053671
Hudders, L., De Jans, S., & De Veirman, M. (2021). The commercialization of Social Media Stars: A Literature Review and conceptual framework on the strategic use of Social Media influencers. Interna-tional Journal of Advertising, 40(3), 327–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2020.1836925
Jaramillo-Dent, D., Contreras-Pulido, P., & Pé-rez-Rodríguez, A. (2022). Immigrant in-fluencers on TikTok: Diverse microceleb-rity profiles and algorithmic (in)visibility. Media and Communication, 10(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v10i1.4743
Ki, C.-W., C., Cuevas, L. M., Chong, S. M., & Lim, H. (2020). Influencer Marketing: Social media influencers as human brands at-taching to followers and yielding positive marketing results by fulfilling needs. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Ser-vices, 55, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102133
Ki, C. “Chloe”, & Kim, Y. (2019). The mecha-nism by which social media influencers persuade consumers: The role of con-sumers’ desire to mimic. Psychology & Marketing, 36(10), 905–922. doi:10.1002/mar.21244
Kim, D. Y., & Kim, H.-Y. (2022). Social Media influencers as human brands: An interac-tive marketing perspective. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/jrim-08-2021-0200
Koay, K. Y., Teoh, C. W., & Soh, P. C.-H. (2021). Instagram influencer marketing: Per-ceived social media marketing activities and online impulse buying. First Monday, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i9.11598
Malik, A. Z., Thapa, S., & Paswan, A. K. (2022). Social Media Influencer (SMI) as a human brand – a need fulfillment perspective. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbm-07-2021-3546
Moore, C., Barbour, K., & Lee, K. (2017). Five dimensions of online persona. Persona Studies, 3(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.21153/ps2017vol3no1art658
Rodriguez, M., Boyer, S., Fleming, D., & Cohen, S. (2019). Managing the next generation of sales, Gen Z/Millennial Cusp: An explo-ration of grit, entrepreneurship, and Loy-alty. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 26(1), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/1051712x.2019.1565136
Singh, H., Cascini, G., & McComb, C. (2020). Analysing the effect of self-efficacy and influencers on design team performance. Proceedings of the Design Society: DE-SIGN Conference, 1, 2571–2580. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsd.2020.64
Su, B.-C., Wu, L.-W., Chang, Y.-Y.-C., & Hong, R.-H. (2021). Influencers on social media as references: Understanding the im-portance of parasocial relationships. Sus-tainability, 13, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910919
Torres, P., Augusto, M., & Matos, M. (2019). Antecedents and outcomes of Digital In-fluencer Endorsement: An exploratory study. Psychology & Marketing, 36(12), 1267–1276. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21274
Weismueller, J., Harrigan, P., Wang, S., & Sout-ar, G. N. (2020). Influencer endorse-ments: How advertising disclosure and source credibility affect consumer pur-chase intention on social media. Australa-sian Marketing Journal, 28(4), 160-170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.03.002
Yuan, S., & Lou, C. (2020). How social media influencers foster relationships with fol-lowers: The roles of source credibility and fairness in parasocial relationship and product interest. Journal of Interac-tive Advertising, 20(2), 133–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2020.176951
Žukauskas, P., Vveinhardt, J., & Andriukaitienė, R. (2018). Philosophy and Paradigm of Scientific Research. In P. ?ukauskas, J. Vveinhardt, & R. Andriukaitien? (Eds.), Management Culture and Corporate So-cial Responsibility. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70628
Zhou, S., Blazquez, M., McCormick, H., & Barnes, L. (2021). How social media in-fluencers’ narrative strategies benefit cul-tivating influencer marketing: Tackling issues of cultural barriers, commercial-ised content, and sponsorship disclosure. Journal of Business Research, 134, 122–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See the Effect of Open Access).
