Electronic Commerce Research

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-023-09719-z

Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,

and ways forward

Yatish Joshi1 · Weng Marc Lim2,3,6 · Khyati Jagani4 · Satish Kumar4,5

Accepted: 14 February 2023

© The Author(s) 2023

Abstract
The increasing use and effectiveness of social media influencers in marketing have
intrigued both academic scholars and industry professionals. To shed light on the
foundations and trends of this contemporary phenomenon, this study undertakes
a systematic literature review using a bibliometric-content analysis to map the
extant literature where consumer behavior, social media, and influencer marketing
are intertwined. Using 214 articles published in journals indexed by the Austral-
ian Business Deans Council (ABDC), Chartered Association of Business Schools
(CABS), and Web of Science (WOS) from 2008 to 2021, this study unpacks the
articles, journals, methods, theories, themes, and constructs (antecedents, modera-
tors, mediators, and consequences) in extant research on social media influencer
marketing. Noteworthily, the review highlighted that the major research streams in
social media influencer marketing research involve parasocial interactions and rela-
tionships, sponsorship, authenticity, and engagement and influence. The review also
revealed the prominent role of audience-, brand-, comparative-, content-, influencer-,
social-, and technology-related factors in influencing how consumers react to social
media influencer marketing. The insights derived from this one-stop, state-of-the-art
review can help social media influencers and marketing scholars and professionals
to recognize key characteristics and trends of social media influencer marketing, and
thus, drive new research and social media marketing practices where social media
influencers are employed and leveraged upon for marketing activities.

Keywords Influencer · Influencer marketing · Social media · Social media

influencer · Systematic literature review

1 Introduction

Social media influencers are increasingly popular and affecting consumers’ atti-
tudes, perceptions, preferences, choices, and decisions. Social media influencers are
regular everyday people who have created an online presence from the grassroots

Extended author information available on the last page of the article

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 Y. Joshi et al.

level through their social media channel or page and, in the process, have created an
extensive network of followers (Bastrygina and Lim [10]. In that sense, social media
influencers are different than traditional celebrities or public figures, who rely on
their existing careers (e.g., actors, singers, politicians) to become popular and exert
influence [88].
Influencers first appeared in the early 2000s, and have since progressed from a
home-based hobby to a lucrative full-time career. Influencer marketing has become
so attractive that with the growing industry, there is an ever-growing set of social
media users that aim to become an influencer. Influencers are now capitalizing on
their popularity and visibility to further their career in mainstream media such as the
film and television industry [1]. The segmentation of influencers is on the number
of followers they have, whereby influencers can be classified as micro-, meso- and
macro-influencers [44]. According to Lou and Yan [88], posts by influencers have
two essential purposes from a marketing perspective: the first purpose is to increase
the purchase intention of their followers, and the second purpose is to enhance their
followers’ attractiveness and product knowledge. Influencers often curate posts with
information and testimonials about the features of the product that they are promot-
ing, which results in increased information value and product knowledge. In the pro-
cess, they leverage and relay their attractiveness and aesthetic value through the use
of sex appeal and posing [104].
Social media influencers have been defined by many scholars in numerous ways.
Freberg et al. [44] characterized social media influencers as a new type of independ-
ent third-party endorser who shapes audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and
the use of other social media. Abidin [1] construed social media influencers as a
form of microcelebrities who document their everyday lives from the trivial and
mundane to the exciting snippets of the exclusive opportunities in their line of work,
thereby shaping public opinion through the conscientious calibration of persona on
social media. De Veirman et al. [28] defined social media influencers as people who
built a large network of followers and are regarded as trusted tastemakers in one or
several niches. Ge and Gretzel [45] denoted social media influencers as individu-
als who are in a consumer’s social graph and has a direct impact on the behavior
of that consumer. More recently, Dhanesh and Duthler [30] described social media
influencers as people who, through personal branding, build and maintain relation-
ships with their followers on social media, and have the ability to inform, entertain,
and influence their followers’ thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. When these defini-
tions are taken collectively and espoused through a marketing lens, social media
influencers are essentially people who develop and maintain a personal brand and a
following on social media through posts that intertwin their personality and lifestyle
with the products (e.g., goods, services, ideas, places, people) that they promote,
which can influence the way their followers behave (e.g., attitudes, perceptions, pref-
erences, choices, decisions), positively (e.g., purchase) or negatively (e.g., do not
purchase).
Social media influencers, as digital opinion leaders, participate in self-presenta-
tion on social media. They form an identity by creating an online image using a rich
multimodal narrative of their everyday personal lives and using it to attract a large
number of followers [59]. Most critical to their success is the influencer-follower

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Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

relationship [1], which future follower behavior (e.g., interaction, purchase inten-
tion) is dependent upon [13], [37], [126]. Indeed, social media influencers are often
perceived to be credible, personal, and easily relatable given their organic rise to
fame [28], [31], [104].
In collaborations between brands and social media influencers, the role of a social
media influencer is to act as a brand ambassador by designing sponsored content for
the brand to convey and enhance its brand image and brand name [104], and to drive
brand engagement and brand loyalty [72]. Such content is often curated by social
media influencers, as independent third-party endorsers, by sharing their experi-
ences and lives in relation to the brand through pictures, texts, stories, hashtags, and
check-ins, among others [28]. Indeed, social media influencers are highly sought
after by brands because they have established credibility with their followers as a
result of their expertise, which allow them to exert influence on the decision-making
of their followers [60]. Moreover, influencer marketing through social media can
provide opportunities to influencers and their followers to contribute to the co-crea-
tion of the brand’s image on social media [88].
With the growing importance of influencer marketing and the popularity of
social media influencers, various brands have started promoting their products with
the help of social media influencers in an attempt to influence consumers to behave
in desired ways (e.g., forming positive brand attitudes and encourage product brand
purchases) [104]. However, consumer behavior is highly complex [81], and increas-
ing inconsistency has been noted in the effectiveness of this medium [124]. Thus,
it is essential to understand the factors (i.e., antecedents) underpinning consumer
decision making (i.e., consequences or decisions) toward brands promoted by social
media influencers, including the factors (i.e., mediators and moderators) responsi-
ble for the inconsistency in consumer responses. In this regard, attempts to consoli-
date extant knowledge in the field is arguably relevant to address the extant gap and
needs of marketing scholars and professionals interested in social media influencer
marketing.
In recognition of the growing influence of social media influencers and influ-
encer marketing in consumer decision making, this study aims to provide a one-
stop, state-of-the-art overview of the articles, journals, methods, theories, themes,
and constructs (antecedents, moderators, mediators, and consequences) relating to
social media influencer marketing using a systematic review of articles in the area
from 2008 to 2021. Though a recent review on social media influencers was con-
ducted by Vrontis et al. [124], the present review remains warranted because the
existing review only considered a small sample of 68 articles published in journals
indexed in the Chartered Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide,
and thus, cannot holistically encapsulate the state of the field. Indeed, the insights
and the integrative framework resulting from their review was relatively lean, which
can be attributed to the sample limitations that the authors had imposed for their
review. The same can be said about another recent review by Bastrygina and Lim
[10], which considered only 45 articles in Scopus that narrowly focused only on the
consumer engagement aspect of social media influencers. To overcome these limita-
tions, the present review will consider a more inclusive search and inclusion criteria
while upholding to the highest standards of academic quality by relying on a broader

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 Y. Joshi et al.

range of indexing sources. The motivation of the present review is also in line with
the call by Lim et al. [86] and Paul et al. [98] for new reviews that address the short-
coming of existing reviews in order to redirect research in the area onto a clearer and
more refined path for progress. In addition, the present review adopts a bibliometric-
content analysis to consolidate current findings, uncover emerging trends and extant
gaps, and curate a future agenda for social media influencer marketing. Notewor-
thily, the rigorous multi-method review technique (i.e., the combination of a biblio-
metric analysis and a content analysis) adopted for the present review is in line with
the recommendation of Lim et al. [86] to facilitate a deeper dive into the literature,
and thus, enabling the curation of a richer depiction of the nomological network
characterizing the field [94], in this case, the field of social media influencer market-
ing. In doing so, this study contributes to answering the following research ques-
tions (RQs):

RQ1. What is the publication trend of social media influencer marketing research,
and which are the key articles?
RQ2. Where is research on social media influencer marketing published?
RQ3. How has social media influencer marketing research been conducted?
RQ4. What are the theories that can be used to inform social media influencer
marketing research?
RQ5. What are the major themes of social media influencer marketing research?
RQ6. What are the constructs (i.e., antecedents, mediators, moderators, and con-
sequences) employed in social media influencer marketing research?
RQ7. Where should social media influencer marketing be heading towards in the
future?

The rest of the paper is structured as follows. The next section provides an
account of the methodology used in the research, followed by the findings and con-
clusions of the study in subsequent sections.

2 Methodology

This study conducts a multi-method systematic literature review on social media

influencer marketing using a bibliometric-content analysis in line with the recom-
mendation of Lim et al. [86] and recent systematic literature reviews (e.g., Kumar
et al. [64]. The assembling, arranging, and assessing techniques stipulated in the
Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-
SLR) protocol by Paul et al. [98] to carry out a systematic literature review are also
adopted and explained in the next sections.

2.1 Assembling

Assembling relates to the identification (i.e., review domain, research questions,

source type, and source quality) and acquisition (i.e., search mechanism and material

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Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

acquisition, search period, search keywords) of articles for review. In terms of iden-
tification, the review domain relates to social media influencer marketing, but within
the subject areas of business management, social sciences, hospitality, tourism, and
economics due to their immediate relevance to the review domain, and thus, articles
in other subject areas such as computer science, engineering, medical, and math-
ematics, which are peripheral to the review domain, were not considered. Next, the
research questions underpinning the review pertain to the articles, journals, meth-
ods, theories, themes, and constructs in the field and were presented in the introduc-
tion section. Only journals were considered as part of source type as they are the
main sources of academic literature that have been rigorously peer reviewed Nord &
Nord, [96]. The source quality was inclusive yet high quality, whereby articles pub-
lished in journals indexed in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC), Char-
tered Association of Business Schools (CABS), and Web of Science (WOS) were
included. In terms of acquisition, the search mechanism and material acquisition
relied on the WOS database, which is connected to myriad publishers such as Emer-
ald, Sage, Springer, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley. The search period starts from
2008 and ends in 2021. The year 2008 was selected as the starting year because it
was the year that the concept of influencer was first introduced by Kiss and Bichler
[63], and thus, a review staring from 2008 can provide a more accurate and relevant
account of the extant literature on influencer marketing, particularly from the lenses
of consumers and social media influencers. The end year 2021 was selected because
it is the most recent full year at the time of search—a practice in line with Lim
et al. [83]. The search keywords—i.e., “consumer behavio*” (truncation technique),
“social media,” “influencer,” and “marketing”—were curated through brainstorm-
ing and endorsed by disciplinary experts in marketing and methodological experts
in review studies. In total, 320 articles were returned from the search, but 17 arti-
cles were removed as they were related to engineering, mathematics, and medicine,
which resulted in only 303 articles that were retrieved for the arranging stage.

2.2 Arranging

Arranging relates to the organization (i.e., organizing codes) and purification (i.e.,
exclusion and inclusion criteria) of articles returned from the search. In terms of
organization, the content of articles was coded based on the key focus of each
research question: journal title, method, theory, and construct (antecedent, mediator,
moderator, consequence). The bibliometric details of the articles were also retrieved
and organized accordingly in this stage. In terms of purification, 89 articles were
eliminated as they were not published in journals indexed by ABDC and CABS,
with the rest of the 214 articles included for review.

2.3 Assessing

Assessing relates to the evaluation (i.e., analysis method, agenda proposal method)
and reporting (i.e., reporting conventions, limitations, and sources of support) of

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articles under review. In terms of evaluation, a bibliometric analysis and a content

analysis were conducted.
For the bibliometric analysis, the Bibliometrix package in R studio software [4]
was used to conduct (1) a performance analysis to reveal the publication trend as
well as the key articles and journals (RQ1 and RQ2), and (2) a science mapping to
uncover the major themes in the field (RQ5) in line with the bibliometric guidelines
by Donthu et al. [32]. With regards to science mapping, a triangulation technique
was adopted in line with the recommendation of Lim et al. [86] using:

1. co-citation using PageRank, wherein the major themes are revealed through the
clustering of articles that are most cited by highly-cited articles,
2. bibliographic coupling, wherein the major themes are revealed through the clus-
tering of articles that cite similar references, and
3. keyword co-occurrence, wherein the major themes are revealed through the clus-
tering of author specified keywords that commonly appear together [32], [64].

For the content analysis, the within-study and between-study literature analysis
method by Ngai [95] was adopted (RQ3, RQ4, and RQ6). The within-study litera-
ture analysis evaluates the entire content of the article (e.g., theoretical founda-
tion, methodology, constructs), whereas the between-study literature analysis con-
solidates, compares, and contrasts information between two or more articles. The
future research agenda proposal method is predicated on the expert evaluation of a
trend analysis by the authors (RQ7). In terms of reporting, the conventions for the
outcomes reported include figures, tables, and words, whereas the limitations and
sources of support are acknowledged at the end.

3 Findings

The findings of the review are organized based on the research questions (RQs) of
the study: articles, journals, methods, theories, themes, and constructs.

3.1 Articles

The first research question (RQ1) deals with the publication trend and key articles of
social media influencer marketing research.
Figure 1 indicates that research on social media influencer marketing began to
flourish 10 years (i.e., 2018 onwards) after the concept of was introduced in 2008
[63]. This implies that interest in social media influencer marketing is fairly recent
(i.e., within the last five years at the time of analysis), wherein its stratospheric
growth appears to have coincided with that of highly interactive and visual content-
focused social media such as Instagram (e.g., Instagram Stories feature launched in
December 2017) [17] and TikTok (e.g., international launch in September 2017)
[129]. The growth of triple-digit publications observed in 2021 during the COVID-
19 pandemic is especially noteworthy as it signals the importance of social media

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Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

140
120 127
100
Article(s)

80
60
40 44
20 26
1 2 1 3 2 8
0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Year

Fig. 1  Publication trend of social media influencer marketing research

influencer marketing in the new normal and reaffirms past observations of an accel-
eration in technology adoption [77], [79].
Table 1 presents the top articles on social media influencer marketing. The most
cited article is De Veirman et al.’s [28] (464 citations), which focused on social
media influencer marketing using Instagram and revealed the impact of the num-
ber of followers and product divergence on brand attitudes among the followers
of social media influencers. The burgeoning interest on Instagram as seen through
this most cited article despite its recency corroborates the earlier observation on the
stratospheric growth in research interest on highly interactive and visual content-
focused social media. The top-cited articles in recent years demonstrate increasing
research interest in comparative studies (e.g., celebrity versus social media influ-
encer endorsements, [104],Instagram versus YouTube; [108], as well as review stud-
ies (e.g., Hudders et al., [48], [124], albeit the latter being limited (e.g., small review
corpus, niche review focus) and thus reaffirming the necessity and value of the pre-
sent review.

3.2 Journals

The second research question (RQ2) deals with the outlets that publish social media
influencer marketing research and the source type chosen according to the recom-
mendation of Paul et al. [98] is journals on the basis of academic quality and rigor.
In total, the 214 articles in the review corpus were published in 87 journal titles
indexed in ABDC, CABS, and WOS. Out of the 87 journal titles, 80 (37.38%) arti-
cles are published by the top 10 journals with the most articles on social media
influencer marketing, with Journal of Business Research, International Journal of
Advertising, and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services emerging as the top
three journals in terms of numbers of articles published in the area (Table 2).

3.3 Methods

The third research question (RQ3) focuses on the methods that can inform
social media influencer marketing research and were identified and coded manu-
ally using the within-study technique and consolidated to portray the outcome
of a between-study literature analysis suggested by Ngai [95]. In total, seven

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 Table 1  Top articles on social media influencer marketing
Author(s) Article Year Journal TC

13
Before 2015
Freberg, Graham, McGaughey, and Freberg Who are the social media influencers? A study of public 2011 Public Relations Review 339
perceptions of personality
Kiss and Bichler Identification of influencers – Measuring influence in 2008 Decision Support Systems 272
customer networks
Goodman, Booth, and Matic Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to 2011 Corporate Communications: An International Journal 189
shape corporate brand perceptions
Since 2015
2015–2017
De Veirman, Cauberghe, and Hudders Marketing through Instagram influencers: The impact of 2017 International Journal of Advertising 465
number of followers and product divergence on brand
attitude
Khamis, Ang, Welling, and Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of social 2017 Celebrity Studies 366
media influencers
Abidin Visibility labour: Engaging with Influencers’ fash- 2016 Media International Australia 174
ion brands and #OOTD advertorial campaigns on
Instagram
2018–2020
Lou and Yuan Influencer marketing: How message value and cred- 2019 Journal of Interactive Advertising 331
ibility affect consumer trust of branded content on
social media
Schouten, Janssen, and Verspaget Celebrity vs. influencer endorsements in advertising: 2020 International Journal of Advertising 211
The role of identification, credibility, and product-
endorser fit
Sokolova and Kefi Instagram and YouTube bloggers promote it, why 2020 Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 208
should I buy? How credibility and parasocial interac-
tion influence purchase intentions
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 1  (continued)
Author(s) Article Year Journal TC

2021
Vrontis, Makrides, Christofi, and Thrassou Social media influencer marketing: A systematic review, 2021 International Journal of Consumer Studies 56
integrative framework and future research agenda
Kim and Kim Influencer advertising on social media: The multiple 2021 Journal of Business Research 42
inference model on influencer-product congruence
and sponsorship disclosure
Hudders, De Jans, and De Veirman The commercialization of social media stars: A litera- 2021 International Journal of Advertising 41
ture review and conceptual framework on the strategic
use of social media influencers

TC, total citations

Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

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 Y. Joshi et al.

Table 2  Top 10 journals with Journal title Article(s)

the most articles on social media
influencer marketing Journal of Business Research 12
International Journal of Advertising 11
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 10
Journal of Marketing Management 8
Public Relations Review 8
Computers in Human Behavior 7
Journal of Advertising 6
International Journal of Strategic Communication 6
Journal of Product and Brand Management 6
Journal of Interactive Advertising 6
Total 80

categories of methods were employed in 214 articles on social media influencer

marketing research (Table 3). As a category, quantitative methods in the form of
surveys were most prevalent (n = 64), followed by qualitative methods (n = 52),
with individual interviews being the most popular method (n = 19). Experi-
mental (n = 38) and machine learning (n = 33) methods were noteworthy too.
Non-empirical methods (n = 19) such as conceptual (n = 9) and review (n = 10)

Table 3  Methods employed Method Article(s)

in social media influencer
marketing research Conceptual (n = 9) 9
Review (n = 10) 10
Quantitative (n = 64)
Survey 64
Qualitative (n = 52)
Case study 6
Focus group interviews 5
Individual interviews 19
Ethnography, netnography 9
Critical incident, semiotic incident 1
Content, pentad, textual, thematic 12
Experiment (n = 38) 38
Machine learning (n = 33)
Analytics, networks 27
Algorithms 3
Latent dirichlet association 1
Mathematical modeling 1
Simulation 1
Mixed methods (n = 8) 8
Total 214

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Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

methods were less prominent. Similarly, mix methods (n = 8) were the least
popular. As a whole, the review indicates that extant research on social media
influencer marketing were mostly empirical in nature albeit in silos (i.e., single
rather than mixed methods).

3.4 Theories

The fourth research question (RQ4) pertains to the theories that can inform social
media influencer marketing research and were identified, coded, and reported
using the same Ngai [95] informed within- and between-study literature analysis
as reported for the methods in the preceding section. In total, 46 different theories
employed in 94 (43.93%) articles on social media influencer marketing research
were revealed (Table 4). Persuasion knowledge theory emerged as the most popular
theory with eight articles, whereas social learning theory, social comparison theory,
social cognitive theory, social exchange theory, social identity theory, social influ-
ence theory, source credibility theory, reactance theory, theory of para-social inter-
action, theory of planned behavior, and uses and gratifications theory were among
the other popular theories (n ≥ 3). The broad range of theories indicate that social
media influencer marketing is an area of research with multi-faceted aspects wor-
thy of exploration and investigation. The sociological theories manifested in the
most ways—namely Bourdieu’s theory, Graph theory, network theory, observational
learning theory, optimal distinctiveness theory, social cognitive theory, social com-
parison theory, social exchange theory, social identity theory, social influence the-
ory, social learning theory, structural hole theory, system justification theory, and
theory of para-social interaction—whereas media theories were not far behind—
namely advertising literacy theory, media dependency theory, megaphone effect the-
ory, source credibility theory, transfer theory, two-step flow theory, uses and gratifi-
cations theory, and visual framing theory. The manifestation of theories that infused
“media” and “sociology” together, such as social media influencer value model and
social-mediated crisis communication theory, were observed as well. Psychological
theories, such as associative learning theory, attachment theory, attribution theory,
consistency theory, construal level theory, dissonance theory, dual process theory,
elaboration likelihood model, halo effect theory, reactance theory, similarity-attrac-
tion model, theory of planned behavior, and theory of reasoned action, and market-
ing theories, such as Doppelganger effect theory, human brand theory, relationship
management theory, and source effect theory, were also noteworthy. Management
theories, such as charismatic and transformational leadership theory and resource
dependency theory, were also observed. Interestingly, only one economic (i.e., cost-
signaling theory) and one technology (i.e., technology acceptance model) theory
were observed, which may indicate that the economic and technology aspects are
underexplored as compared to the media, psychological, management, marketing,
and social aspects of social media influencer marketing.

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 Y. Joshi et al.

Table 4  Theories employed in social media influencer marketing research

Theory Perspective Article(s)

Persuasion knowledge theory Psychology 8

Social learning theory Sociology 5
Social comparison theory Sociology 4
Social cognitive theory Sociology 4
Social exchange theory Sociology 4
Social identity theory Sociology 4
Social influence theory Sociology 4
Source credibility theory Media 4
Reactance theory Psychology 4
Theory of para-social interaction Sociology 4
Theory of planned behavior Psychology 4
Uses and gratification theory Media 3
Attribution theory Psychology 2
Elaboration likelihood model Psychology 2
Halo effect theory Psychology 2
Media dependency theory Media 2
Network theory Sociology 2
Social-mediated crisis communication theory Media, Sociology 2
Theory of reasoned action Psychology 2
Two-step flow theory Media 2
Advertising literacy theory Media 1
Associative learning theory Psychology 1
Attachment theory Psychology 1
Bourdieu’s theory Sociology 1
Charismatic and transformational leadership theory Management 1
Consistency theory Psychology 1
Cost-signaling theory Economics 1
Construal level theory Psychology 1
Dissonance theory Psychology 1
Doppelganger effect theory Marketing 1
Dual process theory Psychology 1
Graph theory Sociology 1
Human brand theory Marketing 1
Megaphone effect theory Media 1
Observational learning theory Sociology 1
Optimal distinctiveness theory Sociology 1
Relationship management theory Marketing 1
Resource dependency theory Management 1
Similarity-attraction model Psychology 1
Social media influencer value model Media, Sociology 1
Source effect theory Marketing 1
Structural hole theory Sociology 1

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Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Table 4  (continued)
Theory Perspective Article(s)

System justification theory Sociology 1

Technology acceptance model Technology 1
Transfer theory Media 1
Visual framing theory Media 1
Total 94

3.5 Themes

The fifth research question (RQ5) involves the mapping of extant research on social
media influencer marketing. To do so, three science mapping techniques that rely on
different sources of bibliographic data were relied upon—namely (1) a co-citation
analysis using PageRank to identify clusters of articles that are most cited by highly-
cited articles, (2) a bibliographic coupling to locate clusters of articles that share
common references, and (3) a keyword co-occurrence analysis to uncover clusters of
author specified keywords that commonly co-appear [32], [65].

3.5.1 Foundational themes (or foundational knowledge)

The foundational themes and the top articles for each foundational theme in social
media influencer marketing research are depicted in Table 5. In essence, founda-
tional themes exemplify the perspectives that a field’s research relies upon, and thus,
these themes may encompass articles inside and outside that field [32]. In the case
of social media influencer marketing, four foundational themes were revealed by
the co-citation analysis using PageRank. Noteworthily, the PageRank scores indi-
cate article prestige, wherein a higher score indicates that the article is cited more
by highly-cited articles in the field, whereas the betweenness and closeness central-
ity scores reflect the article’s relevance across and within themes, wherein a higher
score indicates greater relevance across and within themes, respectively [32].
The first foundational theme depicts the foundations and models for social media
influencer marketing. The articles in this foundational theme signify the key char-
acteristics of concepts associated to social media influencer marketing, such as the
concept of engagement [49], “Instafamous” [55], influencer marketing [88], and
social media influencers [44], including the difference between traditional celebri-
ties and contemporary social media influencers [104].
The second foundational theme denotes the influence and impact perspectives for
social media influencer marketing. The articles in this foundational theme represent
a collection of insights in relation to influence and impact. For example, the most
prestigious article under this theme examines the impact of the number of followers
of Instagram influencers and the divergence of the products promoted by these influ-
encers on the brand attitudes of their followers [28]. Other examples of influence

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 Table 5  Foundational themes in social media influencer marketing based on co-citation analysis using PageRank
Author(s) Article Year Journal PageRank score Betweenness centrality Closeness centrality

Cluster 1: Foundations and models for social media influencer marketing

13
Lou and Yuan Influencer marketing: How mes- 2019 Journal of Interactive 0.012927734 413.168944 0.007633588
sage value and credibility affect Advertising
consumer trust of branded
content on social media
Freberg, Graham, Mcgaughey, Who are the social media influenc- 2011 Public Relations 0.012728973 172.43512 0.007352941
and Freberg ers? A study of public percep- Review
tions of personality
Jin, Muqaddam, and Ryu Instafamous and social media 2019 Marketing Intelli- 0.012148913 86.41738933 0.007092199
influencer marketing gence and Planning
Schouten, Janssen, and Ver- Celebrity vs. influencer endorse- 2020 International Journal 0.011247643 29.00048735 0.006451613
spaget, ments in advertising: The role of Advertising
of identification credibility and
product-endorser fit
Hughes, Swaminathan, and Driving brand engagement through 2019 Journal of Marketing 0.011209457 40.9240624 0.006622517
Brooks online social influencers: An
empirical investigation of spon-
sored blogging campaigns
Cluster 2: Influence and impact perspectives for social media influencer marketing
De Veirman, Cauberghe, and Marketing through Instagram influ- 2017 International Journal 0.012501678 862.3576106 0.008064516
Hudders encers: The impact of number of of Advertising
followers and product divergence
on brand attitude
Evans, Phua, Lim, and Jun Disclosing Instagram influencer 2017 Journal of Interactive 0.011965721 203.1828248 0.007633588
advertising: The effects of Advertising
disclosure language on advertis-
ing recognition attitudes and
behavioral intent
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 5  (continued)
Author(s) Article Year Journal PageRank score Betweenness centrality Closeness centrality

Djafarova and Rushworth Exploring the credibility of online 2017 Computers in Human 0.011389023 50.91316798 0.006756757
celebrities’ Instagram profiles in Behavior
influencing the purchase deci-
sions of young female users
Uzunoğlu and Kip Brand communication through 2014 International Journal 0.011333637 37.15123654 0.006666667
digital influencers: Leveraging of Information
blogger engagement Management
Lee and Watkins YouTube vloggers’ influence on 2016 Journal of Business 0.010954965 32.02175607 0.006329114
consumer luxury brand percep- Research
tions and intentions
Cluster 3: Endorsement and resonance perspectives for social media influencer marketing
Erdogan Celebrity endorsement: A literature 1999 Journal of Marketing 0.011577609 72.30674097 0.006849315
review Management
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Silvera and Austad Factors predicting the effective- 2004 European Journal of 0.011437943 24.92210978 0.006410256
ness of celebrity endorsement Marketing
advertisements
Mccracken Who is the celebrity endorser? 1989 Journal of Consumer 0.011382164 125.0478845 0.007092199
Cultural foundations of the Research
endorsement process
Till and Busler The match-up hypothesis: Physical 2000 Journal of Advertis- 0.011060893 32.54274843 0.006451613
attractiveness expertise and the ing
role of fit on brand attitude pur-
chase intent and brand beliefs
Xu and Pratt Social media influencers as 2018 Journal of Travel and 0.010930497 17.07423914 0.00621118
endorsers to promote travel Tourism Marketing
destinations: An application of
self-congruence theory to the
Chinese Generation Y

13
 Table 5  (continued)
Author(s) Article Year Journal PageRank score Betweenness centrality Closeness centrality

Cluster 4: Profiling and measurement perspectives for social media influencer marketing research

13
Djafarova and Rushworth Exploring the credibility of online 2017 Computers in Human 0.012440704 246.4811305 0.007633588
celebrities’ Instagram profiles in Behavior
influencing the purchase deci-
sions of young female users
Khamis, Ang, and Welling Self-branding ‘micro-celebrity’ 2017 Celebrity Studies 0.01177059 102.6421586 0.007194245
and the rise of social media
influencers
Ohanian Construction and validation of 1990 Journal of Advertis- 0.011681827 65.33977869 0.006711409
a scale to measure celebrity ing
endorsers’ perceived expertise
trustworthiness and attractive-
ness
Fornell and Larcker Evaluating structural equation 1981 Journal of Marketing 0.011368629 67.11667625 0.006896552
models with unobservable vari- Research
ables and measurement error
Ferchaud, Grzeslo, Orme, and Parasocial attributes and YouTube 2018 Computers in Human 0.01114502 39.63705577 0.006097561
Lagroue personalities: Exploring content Behavior
trends across the most subscribed
YouTube channels
Y. Joshi et al.
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

and impact outcomes include attitudes and behavioral intentions [37], engagement
[120], perceptions Lee & Watkins, [67], and purchase decisions [31].
The third foundational theme highlights the importance of endorsement and reso-
nance perspectives for social media influencer marketing. The articles in this theme,
which are widely cited by highly cited articles on social media influencer market-
ing, emphasize the importance of endorsement and resonance literature in ground-
ing the reasons for and outcome of social media influencer marketing. This can be
seen by the prominence of celebrity endorsement (e.g., [34], Mccracken, [93], Sil-
vera & Austad, [107]) and congruence (e.g., Till & Busler, [116]; [[128]] literature
that make up the most prestigious articles under this theme.
The fourth foundational theme relates to the profiling and measurement per-
spectives for social media influencer marketing research. This theme signifies and
reaffirms the value of personal characteristics (e.g., personalities, profiles; [31],
Ferchaud et al., [40]), measurement scales (e.g., expertise trustworthiness and attrac-
tiveness; Ohanian, [97]), and evaluation methods (e.g., structural models; Fornell &
Larcker, [43]) in guiding and informing social media influencer marketing research,
and thus, they form a considerable part of the knowledge relied upon by research in
the field.

3.5.2 Major themes (or major research streams)

The major themes build upon the foundational themes to curate new knowledge
and understanding on social media influencer marketing [32]. To uncover the major
themes, a keyword co-occurrence analysis was initially conducted to gain a sense
of the nomological network for the major themes [94], followed by a bibliographic
coupling to gain an in-depth understanding of the content under each major theme in
the field [32].
The keyword co-occurrence analysis indicates that four major themes character-
ize the knowledge curated by extant research focusing specifically on social media
influencer marketing (Fig. 2 and Table 6), which is triangulated by the six major
themes revealed through bibliographic coupling, in which four bibliographic cou-
pling clusters corresponds to two keyword clusters (Table 7). The key peculiarities
of these themes are presented as follows.
Parasocial interactions and relationships in social media influencer market-
ing. This major theme is most prominent (eight keywords) and relatively recent
(2020.1429–2020.7499). This theme highlights the importance of the “credibility”
(n = 6), “persuasion knowledge” (n = 7), and “source credibility” (n = 7) of social
media influencers as essential “persuasion” (n = 5) factors that influence the “para-
social interactions” (n = 8) and “parasocial relationships” (n = 12) in social media
influencer marketing. Most research in this area is conducted in the context of
“Instagram” (n = 27), wherein “purchase intention” (n = 13) is a common outcome
expected and examined. Noteworthily, extant research concentrating on influencing
parasocial interactions have highlighted the importance of self-influencer congru-
ence (Shan et al., [105]; [128] and the value of message value [88] and credibility
[108], including the moderating role of audience comments [102], in fostering con-
sumer trust and purchase intention toward branded content [88], [102], Shan et al.,

13
 Y. Joshi et al.

Fig. 2  Nomological network of research streams in social media influencer marketing research

[105], [108], [128], whereas those focusing on developing and managing parasocial
relationships emphasized the importance of being entrepreneurial (Fink et al., [41])
and personal branding (Ki et al., [61]) in the pursuit of becoming famous and gar-
nering brand equity and loyalty among followers [18], [55], [57].
Sponsorship in social media influencer marketing. This major theme is fairly
prominent (six keywords) and recent (2019.8–2021). This theme highlights the
importance of “sponsorship disclosure” (n = 6) in “celebrity endorsement” (n = 5)
and among “social media influencers” (n = 60) engaged for “native advertis-
ing” (n = 7) in “influencer marketing” (n = 63), with “YouTube” (n = 9) featuring
prominently in this space. Noteworthily, extant research on this theme is divided
into two notable streams, wherein the first stream sheds light on the commerciali-
zation and value of social media influencer marketing (Britt et al., [16]; Harrigan
et al., [47]; Hudders et al., [48]; [124],), which highlights the importance of the
second stream pertaining to the impact of disclosure (i.e., macro, micro—e.g.,
declaring sponsorship to establish and reaffirm the credibility of social media
influencers and the brands they represent) on the behavioral responses of social
media followers [13], [30], [58], [104], [110].

13
 Table 6  Major themes (clusters) and topics (keywords) in social media influencer marketing research based on keyword co-occurrence analysis

Keyword Occurrence Average publica-

tion year

Keyword cluster 1 (Purple): Parasocial interactions and relationships in social media influencer marketing
Credibility 6 2020.1667
Parasocial relationships 12 2020.7499
Instagram 27 2020.1481
Parasocial interaction 8 2020.5
Persuasion 5 2020.8
Persuasion knowledge 7 2020.1429
Purchase intention 13 2020.6154
Source credibility 7 2020.5714
Keyword cluster 2 (Green): Sponsorship in social media influencer marketing
Celebrity endorsement 5 2019.8
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Influencer marketing 63 2020.5873

Native advertising 7 2020.1429
Social media influencers 60 2020.2333
Sponsorship disclosure 6 2021
YouTube 9 2020.6667
Keyword cluster 3 (Orange): Authenticity of marketing and public relations in social media influencer marketing
Authenticity 7 2021
Marketing 5 2020.4
Public relations 7 2017.4286
Social media 56 2020.0536
Influencers 29 2019.9916
Keyword cluster 4 (Blue): Engagement and influence in social media influencer marketing
Brand engagement 5 2020.2

13
 Table 6  (continued)
Keyword Occurrence Average publica-
tion year

13
Opinion leadership 5 2020.6
Social influence 5 2019.4
Social media marketing 16 2019.8125
Twitter 7 2020.2857
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 7  Major themes (clusters) in social media influencer marketing research based on bibliographic coupling

Author(s) Article Year Journal TC

Bibliographic cluster 1: Engagement and influence in social media influencer marketing (✝ Keyword cluster 4)
De Veirman, Cauberghe, and Hudders Marketing through Instagram influencers: The impact of 2017 International Journal of Advertising 465
number of followers and product divergence on brand
attitude
Kiss and Bichler Identification of influencers – Measuring influence in 2008 Decision Support Systems 272
customer networks
Arora, Bansal, Kandpal, Aswani, and Measuring social media influencer index – Insights from 2019 Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 149
Dwivedi Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Hughes, Swaminathan, and Brooks Driving brand engagement through online social influenc- 2019 Journal of Marketing 121
ers: An empirical investigation of sponsored blogging
campaigns
Lin, Bruning, and Swarna Using online opinion leaders to promote the hedonic and 2018 Business Horizons 86
utilitarian value of products and services
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Bibliographic cluster 2: Authenticity in social media influencer marketing (✝ Keyword cluster 3)

Khamis, Ang, and Welling Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of social 2017 Celebrity Studies 366
media influencers
Abidin Visibility labour: Engaging with influencers’ fashion 2016 Media International Australia 174
brands and #OOTD advertorial campaigns on Instagram
Audrezet, de Kerviler, and Moulard Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers 2020 Journal of Business Research 127
need to go beyond self-presentation
Ge and Gretzel Emoji rhetoric: A social media influencer perspective 2018 Journal of Marketing Management 66
Enke and Borchers Social media influencers in strategic communication: A 2019 International Journal of Strategic Communication 57
conceptual framework for strategic social media influ-
encer communication
Bibliographic cluster 3: Commercialization and value of social media influencer marketing (✝ Keyword cluster 2)
Vrontis, Makrides, Christofi, and Thrassou Social media influencer marketing: A systematic review, 2021 International Journal of Consumer Studies 56
integrative framework and future research agenda

13
 Table 7  (continued)
Author(s) Article Year Journal TC

13
Hudders, De Jans, and De Veirman The commercialization of social media stars: A literature 2021 International Journal of Advertising 41
review and conceptual framework on the strategic use
of social media influencers
Harrigan, Daly, Coussement, Lee, Soutar, Identifying influencers on social media 2021 International Journal of Information Management 29
and Evers
Ye, Hudders, De Jans, and De Veirman The value of influencer marketing for business: A biblio- 2021 Journal of Advertising 18
metric analysis and managerial implications
Britt, Hayes, Britt, and Park Too big to sell? A computational analysis of network and 2020 Journal of Interactive Advertising 17
content characteristics among mega and micro beauty
and fashion social media influencers
Bibliographic cluster 4: Disclosure in social media influencer marketing (✝ Keyword cluster 2)
Schouten, Janssen, and Verspaget Celebrity vs. influencer endorsements in advertising: The 2020 International Journal of Advertising 211
role of identification, credibility, and product-endorser
fit
Boerman The effects of the standardized Instagram disclosure for 2020 Computers in Human Behavior 86
micro- and meso-influencers
Dhanesh and Duthler Relationship management through social media influenc- 2019 Public Relations Review 77
ers: Effects of followers’ awareness of paid endorsement
Stubb and Colliander “This is not sponsored content” – The effects of impar- 2019 Computers in Human Behavior 53
tiality disclosure and e-commerce landing pages on
consumer responses to social media influencer posts
Kay, Mulcahy, and Parkinson When less is more: The impact of macro and micro social 2020 Journal of Marketing Management 52
media influencers’ disclosure
Bibliographic cluster 5: Parasocial interactions in social media influencer marketing (✝ Keyword cluster 1)
Lou and Yuan Influencer marketing: How message value and credibil- 2019 Journal of Interactive Advertising 331
ity affect consumer trust of branded content on social
media
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 7  (continued)
Author(s) Article Year Journal TC

Sokolova and Kefi Instagram and YouTube bloggers promote it, why should 2020 Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 208
I buy? How credibility and parasocial interaction influ-
ence purchase intentions
Xu and Pratt Social media influencers as endorsers to promote travel 2018 Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing 78
destinations: An application of self-congruence theory
to the Chinese Generation Y
Shan, Chen, and Lin When social media influencers endorse brands: The 2020 International Journal of Advertising 64
effects of self-influencer congruence, parasocial identi-
fication, and perceived endorser motive
Reinikainen, Munnukka, Maity, and Luoma- ‘You really are a great big sister’– Parasocial relation- 2020 Journal of Marketing Management 53
aho ships, credibility, and the moderating role of audience
comments in influencer marketing
Cluster 6: Parasocial relationships in social media influencer marketing (✝Keyword cluster 1)
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Jin, Muqaddam, and Ryu Instafamous and social media influencer marketing 2019 Marketing Intelligence and Planning 140
Ki, Cuevas, Chong, and Lim Influencer marketing: Social media influencers as human 2020 Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 68
brands attaching to followers and yielding positive
marketing results by fulfilling needs
Campbell and Farrell More than meets the eye: The functional components 2020 Business Horizons 58
underlying influencer marketing
Jun and Yi What makes followers loyal? The role of influencer inter- 2020 Journal of Product and Brand Management 24
activity in building influencer brand equity
Fink, Koller, Gartner, Floh, and Harms Effective entrepreneurial marketing on Facebook—A 2020 Journal of Business Research 21
longitudinal study

✝Corresponds to; TC, total citations

13
 Y. Joshi et al.

Authenticity of marketing and public relations in social media influencer market-

ing. This major theme is fairly prominent (five keywords) but with a longer history
(2017.4286–2021) than the other major themes. This theme highlights the continu-
ing importance of “authenticity” (n = 7) in the “marketing” (n = 5) and “public rela-
tions” (n = 7) endeavors of “influencers” (n = 29) on “social media” (n = 56). Thus,
it is no surprise that extant research in this theme have focused on traditional mar-
keting concepts such as advertorial campaigns [1], personal branding [59], rhetoric
[45], strategic communication [33], and self-presentation [6].
Engagement and influence in social media influencer marketing. This major
theme is fairly prominent (five keywords) and recent (2019.4–2020.6). This theme
encapsulates “social media marketing” (n = 16) research that concentrates on the
“social influence” (n = 5) of “opinion leadership” (n = 5) and the equivalent out-
come of “brand engagement” (n = 5), with “Twitter” (n = 7) featuring prominently
in this space. Noteworthily, the prominent studies under this theme concentrate on
the power of social networks of social media influencers, including examining the
influence of the number of followers [28], measuring the influence of customer net-
works [63] and social media influencers [5], and the value of opinion leaders [87]
and sponsored campaigns [49] across these networks.
Taken collectively, these themes, which were triangulated across two biblio-
graphic sources of data (i.e., keywords and references) and analytical techniques
(i.e., keyword co-occurrence analysis and bibliographic coupling), suggests that
social media influencer marketing has tremendous commercial value, which jus-
tify the sponsorship that brands are willing to provide to social media influencers
in return for marketing and public relation campaigns for their brands and prod-
ucts. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the power of social media influencers
resides in their authenticity, which is a crucial reason as to why social media influ-
encers are followed and relied upon by their followers. The management of paraso-
cial interactions and relationships are also highly important as they are essential to
foster desired engagement among followers and influence their behaviors in ways
desired by social media influencers and the brands that they represent. The next sec-
tion provides a deeper dive into the mechanisms (constructs) that transpire in social
media influencer marketing.

3.6 Constructs

The sixth research question (RQ6) involves the unpacking of constructs that rel-
evantly explain consumer behavior toward social media influencer marketing,
which were revealed through the same within- and between-study literature anal-
ysis as reported in the methods and theories sections previously [95]. The con-
structs (Fig. 3) were arranged according to testable categories in the form of ante-
cedents (Table 8), mediators (Table 9), moderators (Table 10), and consequences
(Table 11), with each category having sub-categories that encapsulate relevant
constructs that fall under the theme of that sub-category. The thematic naming
of sub-categories are mostly self-explanatory (i.e., audience-, brand-, content-,
influencer-, social-, and technology-related), with only one sub-category being

13
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Antecedents Mediators

Comparative-related Audience-related: Attachment, Attitude, Interest, Psychological ownership, Trust

Influencer-follower relationship Brand-related: Brand recognition, Product attractiveness, Sponsorship transparency

Perceived similarity Comparative-related: Self-influencer connection

Consequences
Content-related Content-related: Disclosure, Message appeal, Message credibility, Message process
involvement, Source credibility Brand-related
Authenticity
Influencer-related: Engagement and interaction, Expertise, Influencer credibility, Brand attitude
Disclosure
Opinion leadership knowledge, Perceived popularity
Brand awareness
Informativeness
Social-related: Electronic word of mouth, Parasocial interaction
Brand involvement
Message construal
Technology-related: Perceived ease of use, Perceived usefulness
Brand purchase or patronage
Perceived quality
Brand recall
Perceived quantity
Brand trust
Perceived originality
Influencer-related
Post credibility
Moderators Engagement and interaction
Influencer-related
Audience-related: Advertisement literacy, Audience engagement, Domains of Following influencer
Engagement and interaction
interest, Envy identification, Interaction propensity, Purchase intention, Self-
Influencer attractiveness discrepancy, Social identification with social commerce Influence

Influencer credibility Brand-related: Brand attitude Social-related

Influencer expertise Comparative-related: Perceived closeness, Perceived fit, Product-endorser fit Recommendation and referral propensity

Influencer likeability Content-related: Audience comments, Disclosure, Download volume, Message Social sharing (e.g., like, repost)
process involvement, Message valence, Number of hashtags, Online ratings,
Perceived trustworthiness
Structural assurance, Visionary insights
Perceived uniqueness
Influencer-related: Influencer social economic status, Number of followers,
Social-related Perceived self-serving motive, Type of influencer

Parasocial relationship Social-related: Parasocial relationship, Parental mediation

Fig. 3  Consumer behavior toward social media influencer marketing

uncommon yet sensible due to the unique nature of the context under study—that
is, the comparative-related sub-category, which captures the essence of constructs
where comparison exist between two or more sub-categories (e.g., influencer-fol-
lower relationship is a construct that accounts for the comparison transcending
the audience- and influencer-related sub-categories, whereas product-endorser
fit is a construct that reflects the comparison between the brand- and influencer-
related sub-categories).
In terms of antecedents, four sub-categories emerged, namely comparative-, con-
tent-, influencer-, and social-related antecedents (Table 8). The comparative-related
antecedents (six counts) comprise of influencer-follower relationship (two counts)
and perceived similarity (four counts). The content-related antecedents (36 counts)
consist of authenticity (four counts), disclosure (14 counts), informativeness (nine
counts), message construal (one count), perceived quality (two counts), perceived
quantity (two counts), perceived originality (one count), and post credibility (three
counts). The influencer-related antecedents (34 counts) consist of engagement and
interaction (two counts), influencer attractiveness (10 counts), influencer credibility
(six counts), influencer expertise (nine counts), influencer likeability (one count),
perceived trustworthiness (five counts), and perceived uniqueness (one count). The
social-related antecedent (four count) contains parasocial relationship (four count)
only. In total, 18 antecedents emerged across four sub-categories. Content-related
antecedents appear to be the most researched (36 counts), followed by influencer-
related antecedents (34 counts), with few studies examining comparative- (six
counts) and social- (four count) related antecedents. Disclosure (14 counts) is the
antecedent that has been studied the most, followed by influencer attractiveness with
10 counts. As a whole, there is good breadth and depth for antecedents as a cat-
egory, but is mixed for its sub-categories.

13
 Table 8  Antecedents in social media influencer marketing

Article Antecedent

13
Comparative- Content-related Influencer-related Social-related
related
IFR PS AUT​ DIS INF MC PQL PQN POR PC EI IA IC IE IL PT PU PSR

Araujo et al. ✓
[2]
Argyris et al. ✓
[3]
Balaji et al.
[8]
Berne-Manero ✓
and Marzo-
Navarro
[12]
Boerman [13] ✓
Boerman ✓
and van
Reijmersdal
[14]
Casalo et al. ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
[19]
Cheioui et al. ✓ ✓
[23]
Chen and ✓
Shan [22]
Cooley and ✓
Parks-Yancy
[24]
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 8  (continued)
Article Antecedent

Comparative- Content-related Influencer-related Social-related

related
IFR PS AUT​ DIS INF MC PQL PQN POR PC EI IA IC IE IL PT PU PSR

Croes and ✓
Bartels [25]
Cuevas et al. ✓ ✓ ✓
[26]
Evans et al. ✓
[37]
Farivar et al. ✓
[38]
Feng et al. ✓
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

[39]
Hughes et al. ✓
[49]
Jang et al. [51] ✓ ✓
Jin and Ryu ✓ ✓
[54]
Jun and Yi ✓
[57]
Kay et al. [58] ✓
Ki and Kim ✓ ✓ ✓
[60]
Kim and Kim ✓
[62]

13
 Table 8  (continued)
Article Antecedent

Comparative- Content-related Influencer-related Social-related

13
related
IFR PS AUT​ DIS INF MC PQL PQN POR PC EI IA IC IE IL PT PU PSR

Kim and Kim ✓

[62]
Lee and Eastin ✓
[68]
Lee and Kim ✓ ✓
[70]
Li and Feng ✓ ✓
[71]
Lim et al. [72] ✓
Lou and Yuan ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
[88]
Lou et al. [89] ✓
Lou et al. [87] ✓
Luoma-Aho
et al. [90]
Magno & ✓ ✓
Cassia [91]
Pick [99] ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Pittman and ✓
Abell [101]
Reinikainen ✓
et al. [102]
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 8  (continued)
Article Antecedent

Comparative- Content-related Influencer-related Social-related

related
IFR PS AUT​ DIS INF MC PQL PQN POR PC EI IA IC IE IL PT PU PSR

Reinikainen ✓ ✓
et al. [102]
Saima and ✓ ✓
Khan [103]
Sánchez- ✓ ✓
Fernández
& Jiménez-
Castillo
[105]
✓
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Shan et al.
[105]
Sokolova and ✓
Kefi [108]
Sokolova and ✓
Perez [109]
Stubb and ✓
Colliander
[110]
Stubb et al. ✓ ✓
[111]
Sun et al. ✓
[115]
Tafesse and ✓
Wood [114]

13
 Table 8  (continued)
Article Antecedent

Comparative- Content-related Influencer-related Social-related

13
related
IFR PS AUT​ DIS INF MC PQL PQN POR PC EI IA IC IE IL PT PU PSR

Taillon et al. ✓ ✓ ✓
[115]
Torres et al. ✓
[117]
Trivedi [118] ✓
Trivedi and ✓
Sama [119]
van Reijmers- ✓
dal and van
Dam [122]
van Reijmers- ✓
dal et al.
[123]
Weismueller ✓
et al. [125]
Total 2 4 4 14 9 1 2 2 1 3 2 10 6 9 1 5 1 4

IFR, influencer-follower relationship; AUT, authenticity; INF, informativeness; MC, message construal; PQL, perceived quality; PQN, perceived quantity; POR, perceived
originality; PC, post credibility; EI, engagement and interaction; PS, perceived similarity; IA, influencer attractiveness; IC, influencer credibility; IE, influencer expertise;
IL, influencer likeability; PT, perceived trustworthiness; PU, perceived uniqueness; PSR, parasocial relationship
Y. Joshi et al.
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

In terms of mediators, seven sub-categories were revealed, namely audi-

ence-, brand-, comparative-, content-, influencer-, social-, and technology-related
mediators (Table 9). The audience-related mediators (13 counts) comprise of
attachment (one count), attitude (five counts), interest (one count), psychologi-
cal ownership (one count), and trust (five counts). The brand-related mediators
(eight counts) consist of brand recognition (five counts), product attractive-
ness (one count), and sponsorship transparency (two counts). The comparative-
related mediator (four counts) contains self-influencer connection (four counts)
only. The content-related mediators (seven counts) encapsulate disclosure (two
counts), message appeal (one count), message credibility (one count), mes-
sage process involvement (one count), and source credibility (two counts). The
influencer-related mediators (15 counts) encompass engagement and interaction
(two counts), expertise (two counts), influencer credibility (five counts), opinion
knowledge leadership (five counts), and perceived popularity (one count). The
social-related mediators (three counts) include electronic word of mouth (one
count) and parasocial interaction (two counts). The technology-related mediators
(two counts) incorporate perceived ease of use (one count) and perceived useful-
ness (one count). In total, 22 mediators were revealed across seven sub-catego-
ries. Influencer- and audience-related mediators appear to be the most researched
with 15 and 13 counts respectively, followed by brand- (eight counts) and con-
tent- (seven counts) related mediators. Attitude, brand recognition, influencer
credibility, opinion leadership knowledge, and trust are the mediators studied the
most with five counts each. Overall, there is reasonable breadth and depth for
mediators as a category, but is mixed for its sub-categories.
In terms of moderators, six sub-categories were unpacked, namely audi-
ence-, brand-, comparative-, content-, influencer-, and social-related moderators
(Table 10). The audience-related moderators (10 counts) comprise of advertisement
literacy (one count), audience engagement (two counts), domains of interest (one
count), envy identification (one count), interaction propensity (one count), purchase
intention (one count), self-discrepancy (two counts), and social identification with
social commerce (one count). The brand-related moderator (one count) consists of
brand attitude (one count) only. The comparative-related moderators (three counts)
contain perceived closeness (one count), perceived fit (one count), and product-
endorser fit (one count). The content-related moderators (nine counts) encapsulate
audience comments (one count), disclosure (one count), download volume (one
count), message process involvement (one count), message valence (one count),
number of hashtags (one count), online ratings (one count), structural assurance (one
count), and visionary insights (one count). The influencer-related moderators (four
counts) encompass influencer socio-economic status (one count), number of follow-
ers (one count), perceived self-serving motive (one count), and type of influencer
(one count). The social-related moderators (two counts) include parasocial relation-
ship (one count) and parental mediation (one count). In total, 27 moderators were
unpacked across six sub-categories. Audience-related moderators (10 counts) appear
to be the most researched, followed by content-related moderators (nine counts). All
moderators had only one count except audience engagement and self-discrepancy,
which have two counts, and thus indicating its breadth but not depth.

13
 Table 9  Mediators in social media influencer marketing
Article Mediator

Audience-related Brand-related Com- Content-related Influencer-related Social- Technol-

13
parative- related ogy-related
related
ATH ATD IN PO TR PA ST SIC DC MA MC MPI SC EI EX IC OLK PP EWOM PSI PEOU PU

Argyris et al. [3] ✓

Balaji et al. [8] ✓
Barry and Gironda ✓
[9]
Boerman [13] ✓
Boerman and van ✓
Reijmersdal [14]
Breves et al. [15] ✓
Casalo et al. [19] ✓
Chae [20] ✓
Cuevas et al. [26] ✓
De Cicco et al. [27] ✓ ✓
De Veirman et al. ✓ ✓
[28]
De Vries [29] ✓
Evans et al. [36] ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Folkvord et al. [43] ✓
Hu et al. [50] ✓ ✓
Jin and Phua [53] ✓
Jin and Ryu [54] ✓
Jun and Yi [57] ✓
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 9  (continued)
Article Mediator

Audience-related Brand-related Com- Content-related Influencer-related Social- Technol-

parative- related ogy-related
related
ATH ATD IN PO TR PA ST SIC DC MA MC MPI SC EI EX IC OLK PP EWOM PSI PEOU PU

Kay et al. [58] ✓

Ki and Kim [60] ✓
Kim and Kim [62] ✓
Lim et al. [72] ✓
Lou and Yuan [88] ✓
Lou et al. [89] ✓
Lou et al. [87] ✓ ✓
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Martinez-Lopez et al. ✓ ✓
[92]
Pick [99] ✓ ✓ ✓
Reinikainen et al. ✓
[102]
Reinikainen et al. ✓
[102]
Saima and Khan ✓
[103]
Sakolova and Kefi ✓ ✓
[108]
Schouten et al. [104] ✓ ✓ ✓
Torres et al. [117] ✓
Trivedi [118] ✓ ✓

13
 Table 9  (continued)
Article Mediator

Audience-related Brand-related Com- Content-related Influencer-related Social- Technol-

13
parative- related ogy-related
related
ATH ATD IN PO TR PA ST SIC DC MA MC MPI SC EI EX IC OLK PP EWOM PSI PEOU PU

Van Reijmersdal ✓
et al. [123]
Weismueller et al. ✓ ✓ ✓
[125]
Total 1 5 1 1 5 5 1 2 4 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 5 5 1 1 2 1 1

ATH, attachment; ATD, attitude; IN, interest; PO, psychological ownership; TR, trust; BR, brand recognition; PA, product attractiveness; ST, sponsorship transparency;
SIC, self-influencer connection; DC, disclosure; MA, message appeal; MC, message credibility; MPI, message process involvement; SC, source credibility; EI, engage-
ment and interaction; EX, expertise; IC, influencer credibility; OLK, opinion leadership knowledge; PP, perceived popularity; EWOM, electronic word of mouth; PSI,
parasocial interaction; PEOU, perceived ease of use; PU, perceived usefulness
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 10  Moderators in social media influencer marketing
Study Moderator

Audience-related Brand- Comparative- Content-related Influencer-related Social-

related related related

AL AE DOI EI IP PI SD SISC BA PC PF PEF AC DC DV MPI MV NOH OR SA VI ISE NOF PSM TOI PR PM

Aw and ✓
Chuah [7]
Barry and ✓ ✓
Gironda [9]
Boerman [13] ✓
Boerman ✓
and van
Reijmersdal
[14]
Casalo et al. ✓ ✓
[19]
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Chetioui et al. ✓ ✓
[23]
De Cicco ✓
et al. [27]
De Vries [29] ✓
Evans et al. ✓
[36]
Hu et al. [50] ✓ ✓ ✓
Jin and Ryu ✓
[54]
Jin et al. [55] ✓
Lee and Eas- ✓
tin [68]
Lou et al. [87] ✓

13
 Table 10  (continued)
Study Moderator

Audience-related Brand- Comparative- Content-related Influencer-related Social-

13
related related related

AL AE DOI EI IP PI SD SISC BA PC PF PEF AC DC DV MPI MV NOH OR SA VI ISE NOF PSM TOI PR PM

Luoma-aho ✓
et al. [90]

Reinikainen ✓
et al. [102]
Schouten ✓
et al. [104]
Shan et al. ✓
[105]
Shin and Lee ✓
[106]
Taillon et al. ✓
[115]
Trivedi and ✓ ✓
Sama [119]
Valsesia et al. ✓
[121]
Woodcock ✓
and Johnson
[127]
Total 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

AL, advertising literacy; AE, audience engagement; DOI, domains of interest; EI, envy identification; IP, interaction propensity; PI, purchase intention; SD, self-discrep-
ancy; SISC, social identification in social commerce; BA, brand attitude; PC, perceived closeness; PF, perceived fit; PEF, product-endorser fit; AC, audience comments;
DC, disclosure; DV, download volume; MPI, message process involvement; MV, message valence; NOH, number of hashtags; OR, online ratings; SA, structural assur-
ance; VI, visionary insights; ISE, influencer social economic status; NOF, number of followers; PSM, perceived self-serving motive; TOI, type of influencer; PR, paraso-
cial relationship; PM, parental mediation
Y. Joshi et al.
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

In terms of consequences, three sub-categories were unveiled, namely brand-,

influencer-, and social-related consequences (Table 11). The brand-related conse-
quences (73 counts) comprise of brand attitude (17 counts), brand awareness (one
count), brand involvement (two counts), brand purchase or patronage (46 counts),
brand recall (two counts), and brand trust (five counts). The influencer-related con-
sequences (19 counts) consist of engagement and interaction (11 counts), follow-
ing influencer (five counts), and influence (three counts). The social-related conse-
quences (12 counts) contain recommendation and referral propensity (nine counts)
and social sharing (three counts). In total, 11 consequences were unveiled across
three sub-categories. Brand-related consequences (73 counts) appear to be the most
researched, followed by influencer- (19 counts) and social- (12 counts) related con-
sequences. Brand purchase or patronage (46 counts) represent the most studied con-
sequence, followed by brand attitude (17 counts) and engagement and interaction
(11 counts). Taken collectively, the consequences unveiled indicate its depth but not
breadth.

4 Trend analysis and future research directions

Agendas for future research are a hallmark of systematic literature reviews [84].
While there are many approaches to develop future research agendas, the present
study adopts an approach that the authors found to be most objective and prag-
matic—that is, a trend analysis from thematic and topical perspectives. The sugges-
tions for future research based on the analysis from these perspectives are presented
in the next sections.

4.1 Thematic perspective

The thematic perspective comprises a trend analysis of bibliographic clusters repre-

senting the major themes of social media influencer marketing research. The choice
of focusing on bibliographic clusters as opposed to keyword clusters was a deliber-
ate decision taken in light of the finer-grained research streams in the former (six
clusters) over the latter (four clusters), as well as the availability of the alternative
perspective (i.e., the topical perspective) that will use keywords to shed light on the
topical trend in the field.
The productivity of the six major themes (research streams) in social media
influencer marketing research has generally improved in recent years, particularly
in 2021, with the exception of research on parasocial relationships in social media
influencer marketing (Cluster 6), which experience a slight decline (i.e., seven in
2020 to six in 2021). Though closely-related research on parasocial interactions has
proliferated (Cluster 5), the difference between the two research streams and their
relatively lower number of studies as compared to other research streams suggest
that new research in both streams is very much required. Similarly, the research
stream on disclosures (Cluster 4) is highly important, yet it remains relatively
low as compared to its more popular counterpart, that is, the research stream on

13
 Table 11  Consequences in social media influencer marketing
Article Consequence

Brand-related Influencer-related Social-related

13
BA BAW BI BP BR BT EI FI INF RRP SS

Araujo et al. [2]

Argyris et al. [3] ✓ ✓
Arora et al. [5] ✓
Balaji et al. [8] ✓
Barry & Gironda [9] ✓
Belanche et al. [11]
Berne-Manero & Marzo-Mavarro [12] ✓
Boerman and van Reijmersdal [14] ✓ ✓
Boerman [13] ✓
Breves et al. [15] ✓
Casalo et al. [19] ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Chatterjee [21] ✓ ✓
Chen et al. [22] ✓
Chetioui et al. [23] ✓ ✓
Cooley and Parks-Yancy [24] ✓
Croes and Bartels [25] ✓
De Cicco et al. [27] ✓ ✓
De Vries [29] ✓ ✓
Dhanesh and Duthler [30] ✓ ✓
Duan [33] ✓
Erz et al. [35] ✓ ✓
Evans et al. [37] ✓ ✓
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 11  (continued)
Article Consequence

Brand-related Influencer-related Social-related

BA BAW BI BP BR BT EI FI INF RRP SS

Evans et al. [36] ✓

Farivar et al. [38] ✓
Folkvord et al. [43] ✓
Gupta et al. [46] ✓
Jang et al. [51] ✓ ✓
Jimenez-Castillo and Sanchez-Fernandez [52] ✓ ✓
Jin and Phua [53] ✓ ✓ ✓
Jin and Ryu [54] ✓
Jin and Ryu [56] ✓
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

Jin et al. [55] ✓ ✓

Kay et al. [58] ✓
Ki and Kim [60] ✓ ✓
Kim and Kim [62] ✓
Lahuerta-Otero & Cordero-Gutierrez [66] ✓
Lee and Eastin [68] ✓ ✓
Lee and Eastin [68] ✓ ✓
Lee and Kim [70] ✓ ✓ ✓
Li and Feng [71] ✓
Lim et al. [72] ✓
Lou & Yuan [88] ✓ ✓
Lou et al. [89] ✓

13
 Table 11  (continued)
Article Consequence

Brand-related Influencer-related Social-related

13
BA BAW BI BP BR BT EI FI INF RRP SS

Lou et al. [87] ✓

Martinez-Lopez et al. [92] ✓
Pick [99] ✓
Piehler et al. [102] ✓
Pittman and Abell [101] ✓
Reinikainen et al. [102] ✓ ✓
Reinikainen et al. [102] ✓
Saima and Khan [103] ✓
Sánchez-Fernández & Jiménez-Castillo [105] ✓
Schouten et al. [104] ✓ ✓
Shan et al. [105] ✓ ✓
Shin and Lee [106] ✓ ✓
Sokolova and Kefi [108] ✓
Sokolova and Perez [109] ✓
Stubb et al. [111] ✓ ✓
Su et al. [112] ✓
Sun et al. [113] ✓ ✓
Tafesse and Wood [114] ✓ ✓
Taillon et al. [115] ✓ ✓ ✓
Torres et al. [117] ✓
Trivedi [118] ✓
Y. Joshi et al.
 Table 11  (continued)
Article Consequence

Brand-related Influencer-related Social-related

BA BAW BI BP BR BT EI FI INF RRP SS

Trivedi and Sama [119] ✓

Valsesia et al. [121] ✓
van Reijmersdal et al. [123] ✓
van Rejimersdal and van Dam [122] ✓ ✓
Weismueller et al. [125] ✓
Woodcock and Johnson [127] ✓
Xu and Pratt [128] ✓ ✓
Total 17 1 2 46 2 5 11 5 3 9 3
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

BA, brand attitude; BAW, brand awareness; BI, brand involvement; BP, brand purchasing/purchase intention or patronage; BC, brand recall; BT, brand trust, EI, engage-
ment and interaction; FI, following influencer; INF, influence; RRP, recommendation and referral propensity; SS, social sharing (e.g., like, repost)

13
 Y. Joshi et al.

commercialization and value of social media influencer marketing (Cluster 3), both
of which are important research streams to the larger umbrella research stream on
sponsorship revealed by the keyword co-occurrence analysis. While the research
streams on authenticity (Cluster 2) and engagement and influence (Cluster 1) in
social media influencer marketing are highly popular, further research remains nec-
essary in light of the evolving changes in the social media landscape. Notwithstand-
ing the productivity of the research streams, several promising avenues avail for
advancing knowledge across all research streams.
In terms of engagement and influence in social media influencer marketing
(Cluster 1), the emergence of augmented, virtual, and mixed realities, including
the metaverse, signals the need for new research that unpacks the opportunities
for engagement in these new social avenues along with the effectiveness of these
avenues as compared to existing avenues for social media influencer marketing. In
addition, the nature of engagement will benefit from finer-grained examination to
account for the differences between its varied cognitive, affective, and behavioral
manifestations [80], [85], which remains underexplored in social media influencer
marketing.
In terms of authenticity in social media influencer marketing (Cluster 2), the key
markers of authenticity and the strategies to communicate and strengthen a sense of
authenticity are potential avenues to enrich understanding of this area. Noteworthily,
future research on authenticity will need to go beyond traditional measures (e.g.,
scales; Ohanian, [97]) and engage in purposeful exploration to uncover the attributes
and actions that if available and taken will enhance followers’ perceptions of the
authenticity of social media influencers. In this regard, future qualitative and experi-
mental research in this research stream is encouraged, wherein the former will lead
to the discovery of new authenticity markers that the latter can test for cause and
effect. Such research should lead to meaningful extensions on the understanding of
authenticity that goes beyond treating the concept as a singular construct in the field.
In terms of commercialization and value of social media influencer marketing
(Cluster 3), the potential of non-economic returns of social media influencer market-
ing could be explored in future research. With the advent of corporate social respon-
sibility and environmental social governance (Lim et al., [83], it is imperative that
the expectations and evaluations of returns goes beyond those that are economic in
nature (e.g., sales) [78]. The advocacy and support of socio-environmental causes
(e.g., hashtags of actions and statements) could be explored, which can be subse-
quently useful to develop sustainability ratings beneficial for illustrating the impact
of both social media influencers and the brands that they represent.
In terms of disclosure in social media influencer marketing (Cluster 4), future
research could explore the different ways in which explicit and implicit disclo-
sures could be curated and signaled by social media influencers to their followers.
Such research should be potentially useful as not all social media platforms provide
options of explicit labels (e.g., sponsor ad) to social media users, especially when
such social media posts are not paid to extend its reach and thus relies on social
media users themselves to self-disclose. Moreover, the effectiveness of these forms
of disclosure, including their combination, have not been adequately studied and
thus should be worthwhile exploring. The negative connotation that may be attached

13
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

to such disclosures should also be addressed in ways that make such disclosures an
asset rather than a liability.
In terms of parasocial interactions in social media influencer marketing (Clus-
ter 5), the multitude ways in which parasocial interactions could be curated repre-
sent a potentially fruitful avenue for future exploration. At present, the general focus
has been on the influence of social media influencer credibility and the congruence
of such interactions to follower expectations and perceptions [108]. In this regard,
future research is encouraged to explore the different ways in which parasocial inter-
actions could be curated, and in the midst of doing so, theorizing the entry points
and sustaining factors that make such interactions parasocial between social media
influencers and their followers. Given the complex nature of parasocial interactions,
future research in this space could benefit from employing neuroscientific tools (e.g.,
eye tracker, wearable biosensors, [73], [74] to gain nuanced insights into biological
responses that can be used to supplement self-reported responses in order to better
ascertain the parasocial nature of interactions among social media influencers and
their followers.
In terms of parasocial relationships in social media influencer marketing (Clus-
ter 6), deeper insights on what makes parasocial relationships gratifying and last-
ing should be developed in future research. Such research should provide a better
understanding on the constitution of parasocial relationships and how social media
influencers can foster and maintain them over time. Nevertheless, errors or mistakes
are bound to happen (e.g., slip of inappropriate word, unintentional non-disclosure
of sponsorship). Thus, the repair and recovery of negatively-affected parasocial rela-
tionships among social media influencers and their followers could also be given
scholarly attention in future research.
Taken collectively, these suggestions for future research should enrich research
across all research streams in social media influencer marketing. The next section
builds on the insights from this section and takes a closer look on topical trends in
the field (Fig. 4).

4.2 Topical perspective

The productivity of topical research in social media influencer marketing has

evolved over the years (Fig. 5). Noteworthily, the extant literature on social media
influencer marketing has been largely predicated on “communication management”,
“centrality”, and “viral marketing” up to 2018. Newer research has nonetheless
made a stronger and more explicit connection to “influencer marketing” and “social
media”, with “Instagram” emerging as the most prominent social media in the field.
The transmission of “eWOM” or “electronic word-of-mouth” and how this translates
into “parasocial interaction” or “immersion” between “social media influencers” and
“followers” has taken center stage alongside “online marketing” and “social media
marketing” considerations such as “advertising”, “brands”, “brand awareness”, and
“purchase intention” from a “neoliberalism” perspective.

13
 Y. Joshi et al.

Notwithstanding the trending topics in social media influencer marketing revealed

by the trend analysis, it is clear that new research focusing on new phenomena is
very much required. For example, new social media platforms such as Clubhouse
and TikTok have been extremely popular platforms for social media influencers in
recent years, and thus, future research should also consider exploring social plat-
forms other than Instagram. Furthermore, the proliferation of augmented and virtual
realities remains underexplored for social media influencer marketing. The rebrand-
ing of Facebook to Meta is a signal of the future rise of the metaverse. New research
in this direction focusing on new-age technologies for social media influencer mar-
keting should provide new knowledge-advancing and practice-relevant insights into
contemporary trends and realities that remain underrepresented in the literature.
Similarly, the diversity and evolution of social media followers also deserve fur-
ther attention in light of accelerated technology adoption by societies worldwide in
response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the new normal [77], as well as the chang-
ing nature of generational cohorts in the society [79].

5 Conclusion

The importance of consumerism for business survival and growth albeit in a more
authentic, meaningful, and sustainable way [76] along with the increasing use of
digital media such as social media [82] have led to the proliferation of social media
influencer marketing and its burgeoning interest among academics and profession-
als [10], [124]. This was evident in the present study, wherein the consumer behav-
ior perspective of social media influencer marketing took center stage. Using the
SPAR-4-SLR protocol as a guide, a bibliometric-content analysis as a multi-method
review technique, and a collection of 214 articles published in 87 journals indexed
in ABDC, CABS, and WOS as relevant documents for review, this study provides,
to date, the most comprehensive one-stop state-of-the-art overview of social media
influencer marketing. Through this review, this study provides several key takeaways
for theory and practice and additional noteworthy suggestions for future research.

5.1 Theoretical contributions and implications

From a theoretical perspective, this study provides two major takeaways for academics.
First, the review indicates that most articles on social media influencer market-
ing published in journals indexed in ABDC, CABS, and WOS were not guided by an
established theory, as only 94 (43.93%) out of the 214 articles reviewed were informed
by theories (e.g., persuasion knowledge theory, social learning theory, source credibil-
ity theory, theory of planned behavior). This implies that most articles relied on prior
literature only to explain their study’s theoretical foundation, which may be attributed
to a lack of awareness on the possible theories that may be relevant to their study. In
fact, a similar review on the topic albeit with a relatively smaller sample of articles
(i.e., 68 articles only) due to protocol limitations (i.e., CABS-indexed journals only)
had acknowledged the issue but unfortunately failed to deliver a collection of theories

13
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

informed by prior research [124]. In this vein, this study hopes to address this issue as
it has revealed 46 different theories that were employed in prior social media influencer
marketing research, which can be used to ground future research in the area. Further-
more, the list of theories can be used to justify the novelty of future research where a
new theory is applied. In addition, future studies can take inspiration from the manifes-
tation of theories emerging from multiple theoretical perspectives, such as the social
influencer value model and the social-mediated crisis communication theory informed
by the media and sociological theoretical perspectives, to develop new theories in the
field, which may be challenging but certainly possible [81]. Alternatively, future studies
can consider theoretical integration by using two or more theories in a single investiga-
tion, which can reveal richer insights on the phenomenon (e.g., which theoretical per-
spective is more prominent or which factors from which theoretical perspective yield
strong impacts and therefore warrant investment prioritization).
Second, the review shows that social media influencer marketing research does not
have to be limited to a simple direct antecedent-consequence relationship or the mul-
tiply of such relationships. Instead, research in the area can benefit from testing the
mediating and moderating effects of various factors to enrich the insights derived from
their study. Interestingly, the review reveals that antecedents can also play the role of
mediators (e.g., engagement and interaction) and moderators (e.g., parasocial relation-
ship) and vice versa, which implies that the conditions in research design setup are fun-
damental to the conclusions made about the consequences of social media influencer
marketing [75], which can take the form of consumer responses to the brand (e.g.,
brand purchase or patronage), the influencer (e.g., following influencer), and the com-
munity (e.g., recommendation, social sharing). In total, seven categories in the form of
audience-, brand-, comparative-, content-, influencer-, social-, and technology-related
factors that could manifest as antecedents, mediators, and moderators were revealed.
Noteworthily, the comparative-related factors such as perceived closeness, perceived fit,
perceived similarity, self-influencer connection, and product-endorser fit transcended
across multiple categories (e.g., audience and influencer, brand and influencer), which
indicate the promise of social media influencer marketing as a research context suitable
for the development of new factors to describe consumer behavior of a comparative
nature. Indeed, comparative-related factors is, to the best knowledge of the authors, a
new categorization that has not been revealed by prior systematic literature reviews,
and thus, represent a key contribution to the literature that should be noted in future
research and reviews. Moreover, the mapping of constructs in Fig. 3 and their counts in
Tables 8, 9, 10, and 11 provide useful starting points to identify the extant gaps in prior
research (e.g., brand-related factors remain underexplored as moderators, comparative-
related factors remain underexplored as mediators) and to inform the direction of future
research accordingly. Finally, the constructs and their associated categories revealed
can also be compared and contrasted in future investigations to delineate the difference
in impact between constructs of different categories, and when paired with appropriate
theories, can provide stronger grounds for managerial recommendations to brands and
influencers interested to leverage off the benefits of social media influencer marketing
to attract and persuade desired consumer behavior.

13
 Y. Joshi et al.

35
32
30 30
27
25
Article(s)

20

16
15
14

10 10
9
8
7
6 6
5 5 5
3
2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2008 2011 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Year

Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4 Cluster 5 Cluster 6

Fig. 4  Productivity trend of major themes in social media influencer marketing research. Note: Cluster
1 = Engagement and influence in social media influencer marketing. Cluster 2 = Authenticity in social
media influencer marketing. Cluster 3 = Commercialization and value of social media influencer market-
ing. Cluster 4 = Disclosure in social media influencer marketing. Cluster 5 = Parasocial interactions in
social media influencer marketing. Cluster 6 = Parasocial relationships in social media influencer market-
ing

Fig. 5  Productivity trend of major topics in social media influencer marketing research

5.2 Managerial contributions and implications

From a managerial perspective, this study provides two major takeaways for brands
and influencers.
First, the review indicates that brands indirectly influence consumers through
influencers—that is to say, the strategy of brands engaging in influencer marketing

13
Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends,…

on social media places influencers at the forefront, with brands taking a backseat in
that strategy. This was evident from the literature review, where brand-related ante-
cedents were absent; instead, the influence of brands manifests in the form of media-
tors (e.g., brand recognition, product attractiveness, sponsorship transparency) and
moderators (e.g., brand attitude). In that sense, it is important that brands identify
and engage with influencers strategically, particularly those who are perceived to be
attractive, credible, engaging and interactive, experts, a good fit for their products,
likeable, opinion leaders, popular, trustworthy, unique, and without overly self-serv-
ing motives in order to encourage desired consumer behavior toward their brands
(e.g., brand purchase and patronage, brand trust), as revealed by the review herein.
Second, the review reveals that social media influencers directly influence con-
sumer behavior toward the brands they promote (e.g., brand attitude, brand aware-
ness, brand involvement, brand recall, brand trust), the influencers themselves (e.g.,
follower, influence), and the social media community at large (e.g., recommenda-
tion, social sharing). In particular, the content that influencers curate on social media
can affect how consumers respond to these stakeholders. The review indicates that
such content should be authentic, credible, informative, original, and transparent
(disclosure). The message appeal and message process involvement are also impor-
tant mediators to strengthen the influencer’s ability to encourage desired consumer
behavior among their followers (e.g., positive audience, brand, influencer, and social
behavior), whereas audience comments, assurance, hashtags, insights, and volume
of posts can moderate or nullify the potential desired impact that influencers could
elicit from their followers on social media. Indeed, the importance of electronic
word of mouth, parasocial interaction, and perceptions of closeness and fit have
also been highlighted through the review. Importantly, when promoting to kids and
youth, it is essential that influencers consider what parents would think about their
posts, as parental mediation was observed to occur in the review.

5.3 Review limitations and future review directions

From a review perspective, this study acknowledges three major limitations that can
inform the curation of future reviews.
First, the systematic literature review herein does not capture article performance
(i.e., citations) because it was mainly interested in unpacking the articles, journals,
theories, methods, and content (themes, constructs) underpinning existing research
on social media influencer marketing, and it kept in mind the space limitation of the
journal. Notwithstanding the comprehensive and rigorous insights revealed using
the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, future reviews may wish to pursue an impact analysis,
which can lead to rich insights pertaining to article performance (e.g., difference in
citations [e.g., total citations, average citations per year, h-index, g-index] between
papers with and without theory, using empirical and non-empirical methods, or
across different methods and thematic categories).
Second, the systematic literature review herein encapsulates only a qualita-
tive evaluation of the constructs in existing social media influencer marketing

13
 Y. Joshi et al.

research. To build on the insights herein, future reviews may wish to pursue a
meta-analytical review, where a meta-analysis involving the antecedents, media-
tors, moderators, and consequences revealed in Tables 8, 9, 10, and 11 in this
review (in the short run) or unveiled in future reviews (in the long run) is per-
formed. Such an endeavor should also provide finer-grained insights on conflict-
ing findings and provide a resolution to such findings in the same study.
Third, the systematic literature review herein focuses only on the consumer
behavior perspective of social media influencer marketing, which is mainly due
to the maturity of research from this perspective [98], as seen through the number
of articles available for review (i.e., 214 articles) under a rigorous protocol (i.e.,
the SPAR-4-SLR protocol). Moving forward, future reviews may wish to pur-
sue a systematic review of social media influencer marketing from the business
and industrial perspective, wherein the impact of influencer marketing on social
media for business and industrial brands in general and across different industries
are reviewed and reported.

Author contribution This paper uses the SPAR-4-SLR protocol as a guide, a collection of 214 articles
published in 87 journals indexed in ABDC, CABS, and WOS as relevant documents, and a bibliometric-
content analysis to curate an enriching one-stop, state-of-the-art review on the articles, journals, meth-
ods, theories, themes, and constructs (antecedents, moderators, mediators, and consequences) in extant
research on social media influencer marketing.

Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
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