THE IDENTIFICATION OF IDEAL SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS: INTEGRATING THE SOCIAL CAPITAL, SOCIAL EXCHANGE, AND SOCIAL LEARNING THEORIES

The biggest challenge in fostering social commerce is to stimulate the willingness of social media influencers (SMIs) to create unboxing reviews of products and to impact customers' attitudes and purchase intentions. This study integrated the social exchange and social capital theories to construct a model for investigating SMIs' willingness to create unboxing reviews. In addition, this study employed the social learning theory to quantify the impact of word-of-mouth on customers' attitudes and purchase intentions. The results may aid in the identification of the motivations underlying SMIs' willingness to create unboxing reviews and the factors that influence customers' attitudes and purchase intentions. The implications of theory, practice, and future research are also discussed.