THE EFFICACY OF SINGAPORE INFLUENCER ENDORSEMENTS: THE ROLE OF EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS IN CONSUMER PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

The digital age has heralded a new era of e-commerce businesses that heavily rely on social media to market their services and products. As a result, a new profession of social media influencers (SMI) has emerged and is often engaged by companies to endorse brands - usually at high price tags. Although extensive research has been done on the efficacy of SMI in the consumer purchase decision, many papers choose to study extrinsic factors (i.e., influencer credibility) and intrinsic factors (i.e., self-determination) in insolation, failing to consider how each motivation affects another in informing one's purchase decision. Quantitative surveys were conducted with 311 active Instagram users from Singapore to explore the dual role of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations in affecting purchase intention towards an influencer-endorsed product. We found that consumers' perception of influencers (extrinsic) has no association to their perception of self (intrinsic), consumers' positive perception of influencers is positively correlated with higher purchase intention of endorsed product, and that consumers' positive perception of self indirectly affects higher purchase intention, mediated by their perceived value of the endorsed product.