Heterophily or Homophily of Social Media Influencers: The Role of Dual Parasocial Relationships in Impulsive Buying

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of social media platforms has empowered social media influencers to trigger impulsive buying behavior among consumers. The effectiveness of social media influencers relies on their ability to establish parasocial relationships with their followers. By leveraging both heterophily and homophily, influencers can cultivate dual parasocial relationships that cater to their followers’ needs for information seeking or affection exchange, thereby influencing impulsive buying. However, little is known about the contribution of dual parasocial relationships to impulsive buying behavior and the competing roles of heterophily (vs. homophily) in fostering different types of parasocial relationships. In line with the two fundamental dimensions of social ties, this study distinguishes between instrumental and expressive parasocial relationships to investigate and compare their effects on impulsive buying behavior. Additionally, we dissect heterophily (vs. homophily) into visible, informational, and value dimensions to investigate their impacts on dual parasocial relationships. The findings reveal that dual parasocial relationships have varying effects on impulsive buying behavior. Furthermore, the three types of heterophily (vs. homophily) exhibit complex and nonlinear impacts on dual parasocial relationships. These insights advance our theoretical understanding of heterophily, homophily, and parasocial relationships in the context of impulsive buying. They also offer practical guidance for social media influencer marketers to develop effective strategies for maintaining relationships with followers, while harnessing the power of both heterophily and homophily.

KEY WORDS AND PHRASES:

• Social commerce
• heterophily
• homophily
• parasocial relationship
• impulsive buying
• online influencers
• online retail
• e-retail
• online followers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (project no. 72171095) and the National Social Science Fund of China (project no. 22VRC153 and no. 18ZDA109).

Notes on contributors

Qian Hu

QIAN HU ([email protected]) is an assistant professor at the School of Management, Wuhan Textile University, China. Dr. Hu’s research focuses on social commerce, information management, and smart service. Her work has been published in International Journal of Information Management, Internet Research, Behaviour & Information Technology, and other journals.

Zhao Pan

ZHAO PAN ([email protected]; corresponding author) is an associate professor in the School of Management at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Dr. Pan’s research focuses on smart service, social commerce, and social computing. His work has been published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Information & Management, Information Technology & People, International Journal of Information Management, Computers in Human Behavior, and other journals.

Yaobin Lu

YAOBIN LU ([email protected]) is a specially appointed professor in management science & information systems at the School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Dr. Lu’s research interests include social commerce, mobile commerce, business mode, electronic commerce, and related topics. He is the author of more than 60 publications in leading international journals such as Journal of Management Information Systems, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Decision Support Systems, Information & Management, Journal of Information Technology, and Information Systems Journal,

Bin Wang

BIN WANG ([email protected]) is a professor of information systems at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Wang’s research focuses on social media and social commerce, crowdfunding, electronic commerce, mobile commerce, information technology (IT) adoption, and performance of IT-focused firms. She has published over 40 refereed articles in such journals as Journal of Management Information Systems, Information and Management, Information Systems Journal, and others.