Consumers' healthy lifestyle as a determinant of the influence of microcelebrities and microinfluencers

Palazón, Mariola; Alarcón-del-Amo, María-del-Carmen; Martínez, Borja; López, Manuela Article Consumers' healthy lifestyle as a determinant of the influence of microcelebrities and microinfluencers European Journal of Management and Business Economics (EJM&BE) Provided in Cooperation with: European Academy of Management and Business Economics (AEDEM), Vigo (Pontevedra) Suggested Citation: Palazón, Mariola; Alarcón-del-Amo, María-del-Carmen; Martínez, Borja; López, Manuela (2025) : Consumers' healthy lifestyle as a determinant of the influence of microcelebrities and microinfluencers, European Journal of Management and Business Economics (EJM&BE), ISSN 2444-8451, Emerald, Leeds, Vol. 34, Iss. 2, pp. 133-148, https://doi.org/10.1108/EJMBE-02-2024-0041 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/325590 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Consumers’ healthy lifestyle as a determinant of the influence of microcelebrities and microinfluencers Mariola Palaz� on, Mar� ıa del Carmen Alarc� on-del-Amo, Borja Mart� ınez and Manuela L� opez Department of Marketing, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain Abstract Purpose –This study analyzes what type of influencer – microcelebrity or microinfluencer – is best suited to promoting healthy food brands and how that influence depends on consumers’ healthy lifestyles. Design/methodology/approach –An empirical study with a real healthy food brand was developed in which three real influencers from Instagram collaborated and posted a story showing the company’s products. A total of 148 individuals participated in the study. The proposed model was tested using the PROCESS macro. Findings –Drawing on the celebrity endorsement literature and the meaning transfer model, this study proposes that microcelebrities’ and microinfluencers’ influence on consumers’ perception and behavior in terms of post relevance, brand attitude and purchase intention toward healthy food brands depends on the consumers’ healthy lifestyle. Thus, microcelebrities have more influence on individuals with unhealthy lifestyles, while microinfluencers have more influence on individuals that pursue a healthy lifestyle. Originality/value –It is one of the first studies to examine the different roles of microinfluencers versus microcelebrities in promoting consumers’ attitudes and behaviors toward healthy food brands. In addition, this is one of the few studies to show a higher effect of microcelebrities over microinfluencers. Keywords Healthy food brands, Healthy lifestyle, Microcelebrities, Microinfluencers, Food influencers Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Consumers’ concerns about food quality have been increasing, particularly regarding food’s perceived healthiness (Teixeira and Rodrigues, 2021). People have developed a propensity to maintain healthy lifestyles (Teixeira and Rodrigues, 2021) and use social media to seek and share information regarding healthy food consumption (Belenioti et al., 2015;Samoggia et al., 2019). One of the most powerful information sources on social media about healthy food is influencers, as they have been shown to affect consumers’ food choices. For instance, Chetioui et al. (2023) demonstrated that influencers affect consumers’ purchases of organic food brands; Sicilia et al. (2023) showed that influencers can even have a greater effect on healthy food choices compared to front-of-package labeling. Therefore, companies selling healthy products have begun to rely on influencers in their communication campaigns (Alwafi et al., 2022). Although previous studies in the food context have started to analyze influencers’ effect, a clear understanding of their influence is still lacking (Hudders and Lou, 2023). It is European Journal of Management and Business Economics 133 © Mariola Palaz� on, Mar� ıa del Carmen Alarc� on-del-Amo, Borja Mart� ınez and Manuela L� opez. Published in European Journal of Management and Business Economics. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone mayreproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and noncommercialpurposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full termsof this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode The authors thank the grant MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Grant number: PID 2020-116247 GB-I00) for supporting this work. The authors also thank the influencers that collaborated in the data collection without any compensation. We also appreciate the valuable comments received during the review process. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2444-8494.htm Received 8 February 2024 Revised 9 June 2024 2 August 2024 23 September 2024 Accepted 23 October 2024 European Journal of Management and Business Economics Vol. 34 No. 2, 2025 pp. 133-148 Emerald Publishing Limited e-ISSN: 2444-8494 p-ISSN: 2444-8451 DOI 10.1108/EJMBE-02-2024-0041 vital to analyze whether influencer endorsement can affect consumer knowledge, awareness of healthy food choices, and healthy food behaviors (Ventura et al., 2021). This study seeks to understand how different types of influencers (microinfluencers vs microcelebrities) are best suited to promoting healthy food brands. Previous research about influencers has distinguished between celebrities, who are known in other areas outside social media, and influencers, who are unknown offline but have become famous through their selfbranding activities on the Internet (Al-Emadi and Yahia, 2020). Both can be considered micro if they have fewer than 100,000 followers (De Veirman et al., 2017). In general, previous studies have shown a higher effect of influencers on consumers compared to celebrities (Djafarova and Rushworth, 2017;Schouten et al., 2021). This result could be explained because influencers are seen as closer than celebrities (Leung et al., 2022). However, when both types of influencers have a similar number of followers, microcelebrities interact similarly to influencers, reducing their followers’ distance. In fact, microinfluencers and microcelebrities have been found to be more influential than macro ones (Taylor, 2020). Additionally, previous studies have shown that celebrities’ influence on consumers is aspirational, that is, consumers follow the celebrity’s behavior because they want to be like him/her (Escalas and Bettman, 2009). Therefore, in the healthy food context, consumers could eat the same foods as celebrities to get the same body. Then, microcelebrities could become relevant in promoting healthy food compared to microinfluencers. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has compared whether microinfluencers are also more influential than microcelebrities in promoting healthy food brands. Previous studies in the food context have not distinguished between different types of influencers (e.g. Chetioui et al., 2023); instead, they have analyzed a unique type of influencer (e.g. Pfender et al., 2023) or focused on sporty influencers (Von Mettenheim and Wiedmann, 2021). This indicates the need to improve our understanding of the complex figure of the influencer and their potential effects on health decisions (Truman, 2022). In the context of healthy food consumption, consumers’ concerns about following a healthy lifestyle stand out. Attitudes toward healthy food and following a healthy lifestyle are related to the intention to consume healthy food (Tan et al., 2022) and may determine how an influencer’s recommendation is perceived (Von Mettenheim and Wiedmann, 2021). Consumers’ healthy lifestyle concerns in the context of food could have a similar role to product involvement in determining consumers’ responses to influencers’ recommendations in other product categories such as beauty, tech, or travel. In that context, product involvement could determine the different effects of celebrities and influencers on consumers (e.g. Chapa and Khan, 2024). However, previous results are not conclusive. Some studies have shown celebrities’superiority to influencers in high-involvement conditions (Chapa and Khan, 2024), while other studies demonstrated the opposite (Ahmadi and Ieamsom, 2022). Nevertheless, these studies are limited to product categories unrelated to consumers’ health. Therefore, the need arises to investigate how microcelebrities’ and microinfluencers’ impact on consumers varies for consumers with different healthy lifestyle concerns. Therefore, we propose that the effect of microcelebrity endorsers and microinfluencers on brand attitude and purchase intention toward healthy food brands is mediated by post relevance, and this indirect effect is contingent on individuals’ concern about following a healthy lifestyle. This study makes two main contributions to the literature: (1) It examines the different roles of microinfluencers versus microcelebrities in promoting consumers’ attitudes and behaviors toward healthy food brands. (2) It considers consumers’ concerns about following a healthy lifestyle. 2. Theoretical background 2.1 Microcelebrities versus microinfluencers Celebrities are primarily known for their non-social-media-related activities (e.g. music) and can have their own community of followers on social media (Jin et al., 2019). However, neither their followers nor their main outcomes come from social media; rather, they use social media EJMBE 34,2 134 to support their careers (Campbell and Farrell, 2020). Therefore, celebrities’ characteristics, such as their source of influence, their role as content creators, and their relationship with their followers, are different compared to influencers (Sicilia and L� opez, 2023). Celebrities typically do not feel that they must create content and interact with their followers. In fact, celebrities are less likely than influencers to interact with followers and thus are perceived as more distant (Yuan and Lou, 2020). In general, consumers are influenced by celebrities because they admire the celebrities and aspire to be like them (Escalas and Bettman, 2009). In contrast, influencers gain fame on social media through self-branding – that is, using their social media activities to engage in strategic self-presentation to attract the attention of a large number of followers (Folkvord et al., 2020). They can be defined as “people who built a large network of followers and are regarded as trusted tastemakers in one or several niches” (De Veirman et al., 2017). Ordinary people can become influencers, producing their own content and managing their personal brand image to increase public awareness and develop a following that can be used for commercial endorsement purposes through online platforms (Khamis et al., 2017). Their great influence usually comes from their knowledge, experience, expertise, and involvement with a product category (Lyons and Henderson, 2005). Sometimes, they also influence consumers due to their physical and social attractiveness (Delbaere et al., 2021) or because they are seen as authentic and close to their followers (Leung et al., 2022). Previous studies have compared the effects of celebrities versus influencers on consumers. Schouten et al. (2021) have shown that influencers have a higher effect on consumers with respect to ad attitude and brand intention compared with celebrities. This higher effect is explained by influencers’ higher credibility, expertise in the product category, and perceived similarity to followers (Schouten et al., 2021). More recently, Hess et al. (2022) showed that influencers have a greater effect than celebrities when they fulfill their followers’ expectations and are perceived as credible. However, celebrities can have a greater effect on consumers than influencers in certain conditions. For example, Jin et al. (2019) found that celebrities have a greater effect than influencers under conditions of high self-discrepancy – that is, when the follower compares themselves with the celebrity or influencer and feels there is a discrepancy between that person’s actual self and the idealized media images. Furthermore, Gr€ ave and Bartsch (2022) showed that celebrities have a greater effect on consumers when the promotion is intrusive. In this context, the size of the community also determines microcelebrities’ and microinfluencers’ influence. Some studies have shown that microinfluencers exert a higher influence on consumers than macroinfluencers (Taylor, 2020). This effect can be explained by stronger parasocial relationships with the microinfluencers (Conde and Casais, 2023) and because they are perceived as more authentic than macroinfluencers (Taylor, 2020). In the same vein, microcelebrities may be more influential than macro ones. Microcelebrities can deliver very targeted messages, as their audiences include followers who have similar interests to the microcelebrity compared to macrocelebrities’ interests (Taylor, 2020). However, no study has compared the different influences that microinfluencers and microcelebrities exert. Microcelebrities may also have traditional characteristics associated with microinfluencers such as higher authenticity or higher connection with their community. Therefore, there is a need to analyze microcelebrities’ and microinfluencers’ influence in relation to healthy food brands. 2.2 Influencer marketing of healthy products Healthy food intake is important not only because it can reduce obesity but also because it increases well-being and prevents diseases (Blanchflower et al., 2013). Understanding the factors that influence consumers’ food choices is essential (Tan et al., 2022). Traditionally, customers’ food selection has been greatly influenced by their social environment, including friends’ opinions, and by commercial information. In view of this, the food industry has been European Journal of Management and Business Economics 135 criticized for encouraging the consumption of highly processed products and not promoting consumers’ health (Fleming-Milici and Harris, 2020). However, since the outbreak of COVID-19, the global food industry has been under tremendous pressure to adapt to the changes in the market, and researchers and industry experts have observed a surge in demand for healthy foods (FoodCircle, 2022). Accordingly, social media can influence what food consumers buy and eat (Castro-Gonz� alez et al., 2024). Consumers who are exposed to socially endorse healthy food images on Instagram tend to select and consume larger portions of fruits and vegetables, in comparison to those exposed to non-healthy food (Hawkins et al., 2021). According to Hawkins et al. (2021), the more individuals perceive other Facebook users to consume fruit and vegetables, the more the individuals consume themselves. In addition, obese customers who disclose their fitness goals on social media show healthier lifestyle behavior intentions compared to those that do not disclose their goals (Singh and Sharma, 2022). Influencers may affect this (Folkvord et al., 2020), as they are important creators of content. In fact, new figures in this realm have appeared, such as Instagram health and well-being influencers (Chetioui et al., 2023) and digital food influencers (Goodman and Jaworska, 2020), who are impacting the consumption of healthy products. In fact, previous studies have shown that influencers can affect consumers’ well-being (Jamil et al., 2024). In this context, influencer expertise, credibility, and physical attractiveness have been identified as antecedents of attitude toward the influencer, and hence toward the intention purchase to organic products (Chetioui et al., 2023). In addition, the influencer’s personal characteristics (i.e. athletic vs sedentary lifestyle) may affect children’s healthy food choices (De Jans et al., 2021). Instagram posts regularly feature influencers whose lifestyles and values are referenced in images – for example, an image of an influencer eating healthy foods (Coates et al., 2019). For instance, young people have been shown to attend to health-food advertising posts from influencers for longer than those from other sources (e.g. peers) (Murphy et al., 2020). However, considering the characteristics of healthy products, viewers may be engaged with the influencer but not feel inclined to imitate their dietary behavior (Von Mettenheim and Wiedmann, 2021). That is, consumers may feel attracted by the influencer, but not by the product category promoted. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the role influencers play in followers’ engagement with posts and intention to consume healthy products. 2.3 The meaning transfer model Various models and theories have been employed to explain celebrity endorsement, including the source credibility model, the source attractiveness model, the congruence or match-up model, and the meaning transfer model (Han and Balabanis, 2024;Jain and Roy, 2016). More recently, Han and Balabanis (2024) identified parasocial interaction theory, the two-step flow model, and the persuasion knowledge model as being able to explain influencers’ impact on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes – although these theories do not consider the endorsement process. The source credibility model posits that the endorser’s credibility can carry over to strengthen the persuasiveness of product information (i.e. Sternthal et al., 1978). Regarding the source attractiveness model, endorsement researchers have found that an attractive celebrity can affect consumer attitudes more favorably than a less attractive celebrity (Jain and Roy, 2016). The congruence or match-up model suggests that the endorser’s effects are contingent on the “fit,” or endorser–product congruence (Kirmani and Shiv, 1998). According to the meaning transfer model, consumers buy the meanings of the celebrity lifestyle by consuming endorsed brands, assuming that these symbolic meanings will transfer to them through mimicry and thus enhance their self-identity (McCracken, 1989). Considering the different meanings that microcelebrities and microinfluencers may transfer to healthy food brands, the meaning transfer model (McCracken, 1989) is especially relevant to analyze which type of influencer, the microcelebrity or the microinfluencer, is more EJMBE 34,2 136 effective in promoting healthy food brands. McCracken (1989) proposed a three-stage meaning transfer process. In the first stage (pre-endorsement), the meanings associated with a celebrity emerge from the celebrity’s roles, campaigns, characteristics, or accomplishments. Celebrities in general, and microcelebrities in particular, are influential cultural symbols, and as a result, consumers associate them with certain valued personality and lifestyle attributes (McCracken, 1989). The meanings associated with microcelebrities derive mainly from their professional careers (e.g. singers, actors, journalists) and were created outside of social media, whereas microinfluencers’ meanings derive from self-branding on social media. In the second stage (endorsement), the celebrity transfers the meanings to products through endorsement (Jain and Roy, 2016). Jain and Roy (2016) identified seven themes of celebrity meaning: personality, credibility, physical appearance, feeling, performance, values, and cogent power. In this sense, Campbell and Warren (2012) found that both positive meanings, such as smartness and fun and negative meanings, such as conceitedness and arrogance, were transferred from celebrities to endorsed products and brands. Microcelebrities transmit a meaning associated with their fame and professional activity that microinfluencers do not possess. This process takes place through celebrity-endorsed advertisements (Chan and Fan, 2022). In the third stage (post-endorsement), meanings are transferred from the product to the consumers through purchase and consumption. The observation of role models’ (celebrities’) behaviors, attitudes, and lifestyle choices may lead to vicarious observational learning and behavioral emulation (East et al., 2014): “If I see a good-looking microcelebrity eating a healthy food, I am likely to emulate that behavior.” When the consumer can identify the product’s meanings, they will respond to the endorsement, proceeding to the last step, namely consuming the product (Lee and Jeong, 2023). 3. Research model and hypotheses This study proposes that the effect of microinfluencers’ versus microcelebrities’ endorsements on post relevance will differ. Post relevance is defined as the extent to which consumers perceive the information conveyed in a post as valuable (Sohn, 2014). The proposed different effects on post relevance can be explained through the “endorsement stage,” when the celebrity or influencer should transfer certain meanings to products (Jain and Roy, 2016). According to Parmar et al. (2020), for beverages and food products, endorsement requires the celebrity or influencer to be attractive and have a healthy lifestyle. Celebrities, as opposed to experts, create greater levels of pleasure and arousal from Instagram food posts (Kusumasondjaja and Tjiptono, 2019). Batra and Homer (2004) provided some of the earliest experimental evidence showing that celebrity traits could be transferred from celebrities to endorsed brands. Thus, the symbolic meanings associated with microcelebrities are transferred to the brands that they endorse through advertising and marketing communications (Parmar et al., 2020). As Roy and Jain (2017) demonstrated, celebrity meaning contributes to brand meaning. However, the symbolic values that microinfluencers endorse are based on the personal brands they have created through their posts on Instagram, so they lack certain imagery associated with microcelebrities. Finally, in the post-endorsement stage, consumers perceive that the imagery associated with the celebrity can be achieved if they also consume the healthy product. Based on this reasoning, we propose that microcelebrities may transfer more meaning to healthy food brands than microinfluencers due to the symbolic meanings associated with microcelebrities. Therefore, we propose: H1. An Instagram publication about a healthy food brand will be perceived as more relevant when it is published by a microcelebrity than by a microinfluencer. Brand attitude and purchase intention are important outcomes to determine the return on investment for a social media endorsement (Sicilia and L� opez, 2023). Effective brandEuropean Journal of Management and Business Economics 137 sponsored content on Instagram has led to positive consumer responses, such as stronger recognition, more favorable attitudes toward the brand, or greater intention to purchase (Djafarova and Rushworth, 2017). We propose that this effect could be moderated by consumers’ healthy lifestyle concern. In the context of healthy food brands, consumers’ healthy lifestyle is an important determinant of attitude toward green products (Tan et al., 2022). A healthy lifestyle is defined as the behavior related to health-promoting activities – for example, the consumption of natural food products, taking care of one’s health, and maintaining balance in life (Teixeira and Rodrigues, 2021). Health-conscious people tend to have positive attitudes toward organic products and a higher intention to consume them, and they adjust their behavior to maintain a healthy lifestyle (Ahmadi Kaliji et al., 2022). However, consumers who have low involvement with healthy products are typically also those whom a healthy nutrition campaign should primarily target (Von Mettenheim and Wiedmann, 2021). When a microcelebrity or microinfluencer posts regarding healthy food brands, consumers’ healthy lifestyles may influence their perception of this message. According to the meaning transfer model, celebrities/influencers will transfer meanings to the product they endorse (Jain and Roy, 2016). As was discussed above, microcelebrities transmit meanings associated with their fame and professional activity. The meanings they transmit are more related to their image outside of social media than the content they publish. Accordingly, we propose that for consumers who have low healthy lifestyle concern, microcelebrities’ recommendations will be valued more, as consumers try to adopt celebrities’ behaviors (Bandura, 2004). People will be motivated to develop a certain behavior when they see the success that it brings to others whom they would like to emulate (De Jans et al., 2021). Therefore, they will imitate a microcelebrity’s behavior to attain his/her image. In contrast, for consumers who have high healthy lifestyle concern, the microcelebrity’s effect is less important, as these consumers already have more knowledge regarding the benefits of healthy products and so will be less influenced by the role models represented by microcelebrities (Hung et al., 2011). Microinfluencers usually share on social media their lifestyle, what they eat, and the exercise they do and advise followers about these issues. Therefore, consumers who have high healthy lifestyle concern will be more critical of content about healthy food, perceiving as more relevant the content created by a microinfluencer who has built his/her image by sharing this type of content. Therefore, microinfluencers’ publications will have a higher effect on them. Thus, we propose: H2. An Instagram publication about a healthy food brand posted by a microcelebrity (versus a microinfluencer) (a) will be perceived as more relevant and will have a higher effect on (b) brand attitude and (c) purchase intention for individuals with less concern toward maintaining a healthy lifestyle. According to the meaning transfer model (McCracken, 1989), the positive disposition toward a post endorsed by a celebrity with whom consumers can identify (i.e. a microcelebrity) will transfer into a more positive attitude toward the brand (Jin, 2018). Dutta and Singh (2013) demonstrated that celebrity endorsement led to higher sales of healthy food brands because the celebrities appeared to make a conscious effort to stay healthy by consuming healthy food brands and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A celebrity’s behavior affects consumers’ actions (Bandura, 2004); therefore, we propose that the effect of microcelebrity endorsers and microinfluencers on brand attitude and purchase intention is mediated by post relevance, and this indirect effect is contingent on whether individuals have high or low concern about following a healthy lifestyle. Based on this reasoning, we propose the following. H3. The effect of the type of influencer (microcelebrity vs microinfluencer) on (a) attitude toward a healthy food brand and (b) purchase intention is mediated by post relevance and is contingent on the individual’s level of concern toward maintaining a healthy lifestyle. EJMBE 34,2 138 Figure 1 shows the relationships proposed. 4. Methodology 4.1 Data collection and sample The study was developed on Instagram, since it is the most popular platform for lifestyle marketing (Statista, 2019). In addition, Instagram is a highly popular platform on which to share “fitspiration” (a portmanteau of “fitness” and “inspiration”) images while endorsing healthy products by “fit influencers” (Tiggemann and Zaccardo, 2018). The study’s population was followers of microinfluencers and microcelebrities on Instagram. First, we chose the influencers, and then we approached their followers. As previous studies have shown that an influencer’s characteristics, such as gender, age, or type of content shared, affect their influence on followers (Sicilia and L� opez, 2023), to use microinfluencers and microcelebrities with similar characteristics is needed. Thus, influencers based on our own judgments were sampled. To approach their followers, the influencers asked them to answer a questionnaire (see next section). Thus, participants were selected using a non-probabilistic self-selecting method. This process was followed as the control of external variables was prioritized above sample representativeness. The study was developed in collaboration with the company Primaflor (a brand of vegetables and salads), so three influencers from a panel of an influencer marketing agency that offered their services to this company were selected. These influencers showed an interest in participating voluntarily in the research, without any economic incentive for recommending the brand. A microcelebrity and two microinfluencers were selected. Two microinfluencers, instead of one were used, to ensure a minimum sample size for the social media influencer category. The microcelebrity was Flora Gonz� alez (97,200 followers), who is a weather presenter on Channel News in Spain and appears in some TV shows. The microinfluencers were Cristina Polanco (27,800 followers), who is a nurse and athlete, and Rosa Sorroche (15,700 followers), who is a beauty and lifestyle blogger [1]. The three women were of a similar age, and the marketing agency considered that, due to their profiles and interests (e.g. beauty, lifestyle, and sports), they were suitable to promote Primaflor products. The study was conducted in a realistic setting. Each influencer created a story about the product and shared it on their profile on Instagram, so each influencer’s followers saw the story created. To ensure that the stories created by each influencer were similar, the influencers were instructed on the characteristics of the story they should create. Specifically, they were told that the story should be an unboxing video, the duration should be around 20 s, they should tag the brand’s Instagram account (@Primaflor), and they should write some short text or sentences referring to the Christmas season, as the data were collected in December. It was not realistic Figure 1. Proposed model European Journal of Management and Business Economics 139 for each influencer to post identical Instagram stories, as each has her own communication style. To ensure that the publications posted by the three influencers were perceived similarly, after data collection, a pre-test was conducted on the stories that were published. We employed a convenience sample of 81 individuals (49.4% women, mean age 521.67). These were randomly assigned to one of the stories and rated the extent to which the stories were attractive and interesting, as previous studies have shown that these variables affect consumers’ attitudes and behaviors (Chang et al., 2015). The following responses were measured using a sevenpoint Likert scale: “The story was interesting,” “The story was attractive.” No significant differences were found between the three influencers in terms of attractiveness (F51.844; p> 0.1) or level of interest (F51.724; p> 0.1). 4.2 Procedure and measurement The sample collection procedure was as follows: First, influencers posted the video via Instagram stories, a feature that lets users post photos and videos that automatically disappear after 24 h. Twenty-four hours later, influencers posted a recruitment message through the same channel asking their followers to participate in a 10-min research survey to provide their opinions and feedback about the Primaflor salads shown in the story. Thus, participants were asked several questions regarding vegetable brands, post relevance, brand attitude, purchase intention, and healthy lifestyle. Other control questions were asked, such as attitude toward the post (Batra and Stayman, 1990), the influencers’ credibility (Schouten et al., 2021), identification with the influencers (Bergami and Bagozzi, 2000), and brand awareness (Yoo et al., 2000). In total, 148 participants answered the questionnaire, representing the final sample size. The study took place in December 2020. Detailed information on the reliability and validity assessment of the measurement scales is included as Supplementary Material. 5. Analyses and results 5.1 Sample characteristics The participants’ mean age was 33.9, and 85.71% were women. Of the participants, 74.32% were unfamiliar with the brand Primaflor before the influencer’s post, and 47.29% remembered the post about Primaflor after the exposure. Before testing the hypotheses, the sample was split into two groups: individuals exposed to the microcelebrity (n586) and individuals exposed to the microinfluencers (n562). There were no differences in mean age between the two groups (M microcelebrity 533.8, M microinfluencers 534, p> 0.10). To check for differences between the two groups, we controlled for credibility and identification with the influencer. There were no differences in credibility (Cronbach’s α50.95) (M microcelebrity 55.90, M microinfluencers 55.75, p> 0.10) and identification with the influencer (M microcelebrity 55.10, M microinfluencers 55.15, p> 0.10) between the two groups. The attitude toward the post (Cronbach’s α50.96) was over 4.5 for both types of influencers. Thus, the stories were valued positively. 5.2 Hypothesis testing A moderated mediation model (see Table 1) was calculated with the PROCESS macro 4.2 (Hayes, 2022, Model 8). We decided to use the PROCESS macro because it is specifically tailored for mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis (Hayes, 2022). All of the reported regression coefficients were unstandardized, and the bootstrapping method (m510,000) was employed. Brand awareness was introduced as a control variable. As predicted, the type of influencer (microcelebrity 51; microinfluencer 50) had a significant effect on post relevance (β53.01, p< 0.05). That is, microcelebrity posts were perceived to be more relevant than posts from microinfluencers, which leads us to accept H1. As we can see in Table 1, there was a significant negative interaction between influencer type and consumers’ EJMBE 34,2 140 Jain, V. and Roy, S. (2016), “Understanding meaning transfer in celebrity endorsements: a qualitative exploration”, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 266-286, doi: 10.1108/qmr-03-2015-0020. Jamil, R.A., Qayyum, U., ul Hassan, S.R. and Khan, T.I. (2024), “Impact of social media influencers on consumers’ well-being and purchase intention: a TikTok perspective”, European Journal of Management and Business Economics, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 366-385. Jin, S.V. (2018), “‘Celebrity 2.0 and beyond!’ Effects of Facebook profile sources on social networking advertising”, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 79, pp. 154-168, doi: 10.1016/j. chb.2017.10.033. Jin, S.V., Muqaddam, A. and Ryu, E. (2019), “Instafamous and social media influencer marketing”, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 567-579, doi: 10.1108/mip-092018-0375. Khamis, S., Ang, L. and Welling, R. (2017), “Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of social media influencers”, Celebrity Studies, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 191-208, doi: 10.1080/ 19392397.2016.1218292. Ki, C.C. and Kim, Y. (2019), “The mechanism by which social media influencers persuade consumers: the role of consumers’ desire to mimic”, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 10, pp. 905-922, doi: 10.1002/mar.21244. Kirmani, A. and Shiv, B. (1998), “Effects of source congruity on brand attitudes and beliefs: the moderating role of issue-relevant elaboration”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 25-47, doi: 10.1207/s15327663jcp0701_02. Kusumasondjaja, S. and Tjiptono, F. (2019), “Endorsement and visual complexity in food advertising on Instagram”, Internet Research, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 659-687, doi: 10.1108/intr-11-2017-0459. Lee, S. and Jeong, E.L. (2023), “An integrative approach to examining the celebrity endorsement process in shaping affective destination image: a K-pop culture perspectives”, Tourism Management Perspectives, Vol. 48, 101150, doi: 10.1016/j.tmp.2023.101150. Leung, F.F., Gu, F.F., Li, Y., Zhang, J.Z. and Palmatier, R.W. (2022), “Influencer marketing effectiveness”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 86 No. 6, pp. 93-115, doi: 10.1177/ 00222429221102889. Lyons, B. and Henderson, K. (2005), “Opinion leadership in a computer-mediated environment”, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Vol. 4 No. 5, pp. 319-329, doi: 10.1002/cb.22. McCracken, G. (1989), “Who is the celebrity endorser? Cultural foundations of the endorsement process”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 310-321, doi: 10.1086/209217. Murphy, G., Corcoran, C., Tatlow-Golden, M., Boyland, E. and Rooney, B. (2020), “See, like, share, remember: adolescents’ responses to unhealthy-healthyand non-food advertising in social media”, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 17 No. 7, p. 2181, doi: 10.3390/ijerph17072181. Parmar, Y., Ghuman, M.K. and Mann, B.J.S. (2020), “The match-up between celebrity associations and product type”, Journal of Creative Communications, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 65-89, doi: 10.1177/ 0973258619875604. Pfender, E.J., Wanzer, C. and Bleakley, A. (2023), “A content analysis of social media influencers’ ‘what I eat in a day’ vlogs on YouTube”, Health Communication, Vol. 39 No. 11, pp. 2244-2255, doi: 10.1080/10410236.2023.2260966. Roy, S. and Jain, V. (2017), “Exploring meaning transfer in celebrity endorsements: measurement and validation”, Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 87-104, doi: 10.1108/apjba-06-2016-0058. Samoggia, A., Bertazzoli, A. and Ruggeri, A. (2019), “Food retailing marketing management: social media communication for healthy food”, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Vol. 47 No. 9, pp. 928-956, doi: 10.1108/ijrdm-08-2018-0178. Schouten, A.P., Janssen, L. and Verspaget, M. (2021), “Celebrity vs influencer endorsements in advertising: the role of identification, credibility, and product-endorser fit”, in Leveraged Marketing Communications, Routledge, pp. 208-231. European Journal of Management and Business Economics 147 Sicilia, M. and L� opez, M. (2023), “What do we know about influencers on social media? Toward a new conceptualization and classification of influencers”, in Wang, C.L. (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Interactive Marketing, Springer International Publishing, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 593-622. Sicilia, M., L� opez, M. and Palaz� on, M. (2023), “The combined effect of front-of-package labels and influencer recommendations on food choice decisions”, Appetite, Vol. 191, 107074, doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2023.107074. Singh, G. and Sharma, S. (2022), “Obese customers’ fitness goal disclosure on social media: exploring weight-loss image sharing on emotions and healthy lifestyle aspirations”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56 No. 11, pp. 3138-3167, doi: 10.1108/ejm-07-2021-0518. Sohn, D. (2014), “Coping with information in social media: the effects of network structure and knowledge on perception of information value”, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 32, pp. 145-151, doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.12.006. Statista (2019), “Instagram: distribution of global audiences 2019, by age and gender”, Statista Research Department, available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/248769/age-distributionof-worldwideinstagram-users/ (accessed 18 May 2023). Sternthal, B., Dholakia, R. and Leavitt, C. (1978), “The persuasive effect of source credibility: tests of cognitive response”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 252-260, doi: 10.1086/ 208704. Tan, B.C., Lau, T.C., Sarwar, A. and Khan, N. (2022), “The effects of consumer consciousness, food safety concern and healthy lifestyle on attitudes toward eating ‘green”, British Food Journal, Vol. 124 No. 4, pp. 1187-1203, doi: 10.1108/bfj-01-2021-0005. Taylor, C.R. (2020), “The urgent need for more research on influencer marketing”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 39 No. 7, pp. 889-891, doi: 10.1080/02650487.2020.1822104. Teixeira, A. and Rodrigues, S. (2021), “Consumer perceptions towards healthier meat products”, Current Opinion in Food Science, Vol. 38, pp. 147-154, doi: 10.1016/j.cofs.2020.12.004. Tiggemann, M. and Zaccardo, M. (2018), “Strong is the new skinny’: a content analysis of #fitspiration images on Instagram”, Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 23 No. 8, pp. 1003-1011, doi: 10.1177/1359105316639436. Truman, E. (2022), “Influencing diet: social media, micro-celebrity, food, and health”, Elliott, C. and Greenberg J. (Eds), Communication and Health, Springer, Singapore, pp. 143-163. Ventura, V., Cavaliere, A. and Ianno, B. (2021), “#Socialfood: virtuous or vicious? A systematic review”, Trends in Food Science and Technology, Vol. 110, pp. 674-686, doi: 10.1016/j. tifs.2021.02.018. Von Mettenheim, W. and Wiedmann, K.-P. (2021), “Social influencers and healthy nutrition – the challenge of overshadowing effects and uninvolved consumers”, Journal of Food Products Marketing, Vol. 27 Nos 8-9, pp. 365-383, doi: 10.1080/10454446.2022.2028692. Yoo, B., Donthu, N. and Lee, S. (2000), “An examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 195-211, doi: 10.1177/0092070300282002. Yuan, S. and Lou, C. (2020), “How social media influencers foster relationships with followers: the roles of source credibility and fairness in parasocial relationship and product interest”, Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 133-147, doi: 10.1080/15252019.2020.1769514. Supplementary material The supplementary material for this article can be found online. Corresponding author Mariola Palaz� on can be contacted at: [email protected] For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website: www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm Or contact us for further details: [email protected] EJMBE 34,2 148