Consumer Engagement in Online Product Reviews: A Win-Win for Firms and Micro-Influencers: An Abstract

Abstract

The advances of the Internet and social media allow consumers to access more channels and sources of information to inform their purchase decisions. This has also given rise to micro-influencers, who generate content and gradually form a community following and interacting with their social accounts. Micro-influencers differ with traditional celebrities in that the latter become renown through sporting, art or the like (De Veirman et al. 2017). Micro-influencers are perceived as more reflective of their followers (Jin et al. 2019), and are argued to wield powerful influence over consumer choice, despite their much less popularity and followings than traditional celebrities (Boerman 2020). This study examines the relationships among social communication variables relating to micro-influencers on social platforms: online opinion leadership (OOL) and parasocial interaction (PSI) as personal and interpersonal source characteristics, respectively (Sweeney et al. 2008); message quality as a message characteristic (Le et al. 2020); online interaction propensity (OIP) as a receiver characteristic (Labrecque 2014); and consumer engagement behaviours (CEBs) as responses with respect to product review elements including the content, the micro-influencer, and the product/ brand embedded in the post (Casaló et al. 2020). An online survey was conducted with a convenience sample of Vietnamese consumers who have previously purchased or planned to buy a mobile phone within 6 months and have viewed online reviews about mobile phones as part of their information search. A valid data of 371 responses was analysed using smartPLS 3.3.3. Findings reveal that OOL and PSI have significant impact on message quality (p < 0.05), which in turn affects significantly CEBs (p < 0.05): Intention to interact with the post; intention to follow advice of the micro-influencer; and intention to recommend the micro-influencer to others. While the result only finds OIP elevates the impact of message quality on consumers’ intention to interact with the post at p < 0.10; findings show significant direct impact of OIP on CEBs, though not hypothesised. This research contributes to communication literature concerning consumers’ processing of persuasive cues and information exposed to them through the online environment. The research highlights the importance of essential factors requiring attention in micro-influencer marketing: OOL, PSI, message quality and OIP. The study also contributes to consumer engagement literature with evidence concerning the focal object as micro-influencers’ online product reviews. Practically, insights from this research suggest marketers need to detect micro-influencers, target them with appropriate communication strategies so as to influence their generated and disseminated content. Marketers can take the findings of effects on intention with the post and intention to recommend the micro-influencers in approaching micro-influencers for a win-win collaboration. The study also demonstrates OIP as an important individual trait in segmenting consumers for effective consumer engagement.