Online Video Game Influencer's Credibility and Purchase Intention

Abstract

In the last few years, and especially during the COVID-19
pandemic, the majority of everyday activities were shifted
online. Therefore, marketing strategies had to adapt to this
shift. This led to the development of new forms of marketing,
including influencer marketing. Although credibility is often
theorised as the reason why the audience prefers to follow
influencers over celebrities, empirical evidence is mixed and
unrelated to the gaming industry. Therefore, our aim in this
study was to test if source credibility (and its three elements:
attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise) predicts video
games purchase intentions, as well as to check if the model
misspecifications caused by ignored links of causality led to
inconsistent conclusions in earlier studies. The results based on
an international sample of PewDiePie's followers (N = 238)
have confirmed both ideas: source credibility predicts purchase
intentions and model misspecifications of source credibility
could have led to inaccurate estimates in earlier studies.