THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER CHARACTERISTICS ON

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Juulia Karaila

International Business
Bachelor's Thesis
Supervisor: Srdan Zdravkovic
Date of approval: 6 April 2021

Aalto University
School of Business
Bachelor´s Program in International Business
Mikkeli Campus
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER CHARACTERISTICS ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Juulia Karaila

International Business
Bachelor's Thesis
Supervisor: Srdan Zdravkovic
Date of approval: 6 April 2021

Aalto University
School of Business
Bachelor´s Program in International Business
Mikkeli Campus
AALTO UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT OF
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS BACHELOR’S THESIS
Mikkeli Campus

Author: Juulia Karaila

Title of thesis: The role of social media influencer characteristics on
consumer behaviour

Date: 6 April 2021

Degree: Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration

Supervisor: Srdan Zdravkovic

Objectives
The main objectives of this study were to identify the main characteristics of
social media influencers that impact consumer behaviour and to assess the
impact of the main characteristics of social media influencers on consumer
behaviour. In addition, this study explored if the type of game, indie or AAA,
impacts the relationship between social media influencer characteristics and
consumer behaviour.

Summary
Literature on influencer marketing, characteristics of social media influencer
and consumer behaviour were explored to create a conceptual framework for
the study. Next, a survey was created to pre-test how characteristics were
perceived, which helped creating a survey to research if attractiveness and
trustworthiness impacted consumer behavioural outcomes and if type of game
impacts the relationship.

Conclusions
Attractiveness of social media influencers was found to positively impact word-
of-mouth, purchase intent, attitude towards streamer and attitude towards indie
games. Trustworthiness of social media influencers was found to positively
impact word-of-mouth, purchase intent, attitude towards the streamer, attitude
towards indie and AAA games. Type of game did not function as a moderating
variable between characteristics and consumer behaviour. Also, important traits
of social media influencers were identified, which can help managers in
choosing influencers for marketing purposes.

Key words: social media influencer, consumer behaviour, streamer, video games, influencer
marketing

See: http://web.lib.aalto.fi/en/helevoc/pdf/

Language: English
Grade:
Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 1
1.1. Background .................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Research Problem ....................................................................................... 2
1.3. Research Questions .................................................................................... 3
1.4. Research Objectives .................................................................................... 3

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 4

2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 4
2.2. Influencer marketing .................................................................................... 4
2.3. Marketing of video games ............................................................................ 7
2.4. Attractiveness of social media influencers ................................................. 10
2.5. Trustworthiness of social media influencers............................................... 14
2.6. Other characteristics of social media influencers ....................................... 18
2.6.1. Similarities .............................................................................................. 18
2.6.2. Authenticity ............................................................................................. 21
2.7. Consumer behaviour .................................................................................. 23
2.7.1. Word-of-mouth ....................................................................................... 23
2.7.2. Purchase intent ...................................................................................... 25
2.8. Conceptual framework ............................................................................... 26

3. METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................. 28
3.1. Data collection ........................................................................................... 28
3.2. Pre-test survey design ............................................................................... 29
3.3. Main study survey design........................................................................... 31
3.4. Sample ....................................................................................................... 33

4. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ............................................................................. 34

4.1. Pre-test sample profile ............................................................................... 34
4.2. Main study sample profile .......................................................................... 35
4.3. Reliability analysis...................................................................................... 36
4.4. Characteristics and consumer behaviour analysis ..................................... 37
4.5. Type of game moderator analysis .............................................................. 42

5. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................... 43
5.1. Impact of attractiveness of an SMI on consumer behaviour....................... 43
5.2. Impact of trustworthiness of an SMI on consumer behaviour..................... 44
 5.3. Type of game as a moderating variable ..................................................... 45
5.4. Limitations .................................................................................................. 46

6. CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................ 47
6.1. Main Findings............................................................................................. 47
6.2. Implications for International Business ....................................................... 48
6.3. Suggestions for Further Research ............................................................. 49

References and appendices .................................................................................. 50

Appendix A: Pre-test survey ................................................................................. 56

Appendix B: Main study survey ............................................................................ 61

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

The video game industry has grown rapidly through the recent years, the value of the
video game market predicted to pass $200 billion in 2023 (Clement, 2021a). Moreover,
Twitch.tv is one of the most successful online live streaming platforms in the world,
with 1.44 million concurrent viewers, 3.64 million monthly streamers and revenue of
over $1.5 billion (Iqbal, 2021). Twitch acts as a space where frequent, heavy video
game players meet with casual video game players meet with video game companies.
It is a melting pot for the video game community, where each party can meet each
other. Twitch shares common features with other social media platforms; however, it
is unique in its scale to provide live televised content (Woodcock and Johnson, 2019).
Even YouTube, where recorded videos are shared on a huge scale, does not come
close to Twitch on sharing live content.

Moreover, influencer marketing, as it’s known nowadays, is not a new concept.

However, in recent years companies have woken up to the benefits of influencer
marketing. Twitch allows for a unique opportunity for video game companies to take
advantage of a very targeted audience on Twitch through the streamers to reach their
followers for gaming products. Even if influencer marketing is becoming common in
marketing and advertising of products, the opportunities that lie within the gaming
community and the platform of Twitch are not yet very well explored, which is why the
relationship between the streamers and their followers should be further studied. The
focus of this thesis is to explore influencer marketing, characteristics of social media
influencers (SMIs), how these characteristics match up with streamers and how the
characteristics impact consumer behaviour, especially within the gaming community.

This thesis will explore social media influencer characteristics and their impact on
consumer behaviour. First, the research problem, research questions and research
objectives of this thesis are specified. Next, relevant previous literature is explored
around the topic and a conceptual framework is built and presented based on that.

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Third, the methodology and findings of the surveys conducted to study characteristics
of streamers and their impact on consumer behaviour will be presented. Finally, this
thesis will discuss findings of the study, its limitations and implications, and suggest
some future research.

1.2. Research Problem

Marketing is shifting more towards social media and companies are more interested
in using SMIs in their marketing efforts. Social media marketing refers to marketing
that uses the internet and social media platforms. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs)
have noted that traditional marketing budgets are decreasing in favour of digital ones,
for 2020 digital marketing budgets grew by 14.3 %, while traditional marketing budgets
decreased by 0.2 % compared to the previous year (Guttmann, 2021). For companies,
it is crucial that they find suitable SMIs who fulfil their needs and can achieve the
marketing objectives. Research has identified a relationship between SMIs and video
game popularity (Johnson and Woodcock, 2019). Especially it was discovered that
SMIs impact the popularity of independent games (indie games) which are created by
smaller independent developer teams (ibid). However, this research did not go deeper
into the relationship between an SMI and the popularity of a video game or might there
be a difference when the game is not an indie game. An example of an indie game
that a streamer helped make popular is Among Us, “a social deduction game” (Awan,
n.d.). A part of the game’s popularity can be attributed to Chance “Sodapopping”
Morris, a Twitch streamer holding number 27 spot for most subscribers on the platform,
who streamed Among Us on the platform and the game blew up on the platform (ibid).
The game was first released already in 2018 but did not at first get much popularity
(ibid); however, in 2020 the visibility the game got on the platform Twitch helped with
its popularity.

Furthermore, there has been studies and research into SMI characteristics, for
example how the attractiveness of the source impacts the purchase intention of an
individual (Gupta, Agarwal and Singh, 2020). However, most of these kinds of studies
have been done either on the platform Instagram or mostly relating to beauty or fashion
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related content (e.g., (Sokolova and Kefi, 2020)). As Johnson and Woodcock (2019)
discovered in their research “gamers” or people who like playing video games tend to
consume small amounts of television and other sources of traditional advertising.
Because of the use of SMIs has increased in marketing, it is in the best interest of
marketing managers to understand the relationship between characteristics of SMIs
and consumer behaviour. The goal of this study is to explore SMI characteristics and
how they impact marketing and consumer behaviour, to know what impacts video
game popularity on the side of SMIs and so marketing managers know more on how
to choose suitable SMIs for their marketing efforts.

1.3. Research Questions

The research aims to answer the following questions:

1. Do characteristics of social media influencers impact behavioural

intentions?
2. Does type of game act as a moderating variable in the relationship
between SMI characteristics and behavioural intentions?

1.4. Research Objectives

The research objectives of the thesis are the following:

- To identify the main characteristics of social media influencers that

impact consumer behaviour
- To assess the impact of the main characteristics of social media
influencers on consumer behaviour

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction

The purpose of this literature review is to form an understanding of previous literature

and studies that have examined influencer marketing, relationship between SMIs and
their followers and especially the characteristics of SMIs which are the main focus of
this study. First, the overall influencer marketing literature is examined comparing
influencer marketing with what is considered traditional marketing. Second, two main
characteristics of SMIs are presented and examined. Next, other characteristics of
SMIs will be presented and explored. Fourth, the relevant consumer behaviours are
considered with respect to video games and influencer marketing. Fifth, there is an
overview of marketing of video games and the differences between Triple-A and indie
video games are explored. Finally, a conceptual framework will be presented based
on the explored literature.

2.2. Influencer marketing

An often-used definition of a social media influencer (SMI) is one by (Freberg et al.,

2011) which defines social media influencer as “a new type of independent third-party
endorser who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other
social media”. Abidin (2015) provides a definition that goes beyond the one Freberg
et al. provided by defining SMIs as:
“everyday, ordinary internet users who accumulate a relatively large following on blogs
and social media through the textual and visual narration of their personal lives and
lifestyles, engage with their following in digital and physical spaces, and monetize their
following by integrating ‘advertorials’ into their blog or social media posts.”
The definition of SMIs by Abidin (2015) builds on the previous definitions by attaching
the dimensions of status, the content they produce, that SMIs need to have following
and engagement with the following and that SMIs are willing to monetize their activity
on social media. Streamers, who could be considered the central SMIs in the gaming
industry and gaming community, fit in to this definition. Streamers are ordinary internet
users, who stream live video on social media platforms, the content usually revolving
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around games and the gaming community (Woodcock and Johnson, 2019).
Furthermore, live streaming gives SMIs a unique opportunity to connect and engage
with their followers in a live environment, which other forms of content creation does
not achieve to do (ibid). Finally, as respondents in Woodcock and Johnson (2019)
study said one of the core activities as a video game streamer is playing a game which
is free advertising for the game. Thus, it can be concluded that streamers and other
video game players on social media platforms can be considered SMIs and fit into the
definition of an SMI.

Influencer marketing can be more effective than traditional marketing, especially in

consumer behavioural intentions after seeing the content. Colliander and Dahlén
(2011) tested this in their study by comparing blogs and online magazines, online
magazines being considered the more traditional digital media. The study found that
blogs publicity effectiveness of blogs is clearly higher than online magazines and blogs
generated higher brand attitudes and purchase intention in the consumers. Colliander
and Dahlén (2011) also concluded that this is because in influencer marketing the
media, marketing and consumer are “joined in friendship”, so there is a closer
relationship between the source and the receiver than in traditional marketing.
Moreover, another study supports this conclusion by discussing that magazines rely
on reputation to earn audience trust, while SMIs build trust with transparency and
authenticity (Dekavalla, 2020). The same seems to also apply for when comparing
SMIs with celebrities, celebrities being considered the more traditional endorser used
in marketing. Consumers are more willing to purchase a product endorsed by an
influencer rather than a celebrity even if the consumers do not particularly like either
advertisement better (Schouten, Janssen and Verspaget, 2020). This suggests that
influencer marketing achieves a closer relationship between the source and the
receiver by having trust in the source itself which generates higher brand attitudes and
purchase intentions, thus making influencer marketing more effective than traditional
marketing.

Influencer marketing is great in reaching the harder to reach communities which

traditional marketing could not achieve. A trend can be seen of consumers watching
and consuming less and less of traditional media like television or printed advertising
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(Carter, 2016; Pütter, 2017; Johnson and Woodcock, 2019). Additionally, especially
the consumers who participate in the gaming community seem to be “tech-savvy” and
thus do not consume almost any traditional media (Foster, 2016; Johnson and
Woodcock, 2019; Woodcock and Johnson, 2019). Furthermore, SMIs provide access
to other hard-to-reach consumer groups, like teenagers, young adults and other
special groups (Enke and Borchers, 2019). Therefore, influencer marketing is
especially important in reaching the gaming community and other special communities
and could be the most effective way to advertise products for these consumer groups.

However, typically SMIs have fewer number of followers than traditional celebrities
(Tankovska, 2021), hence traditional celebrities have a wider reach than SMIs.
Therefore, SMI’s in marketing could be better for targeted audiences and harder-to-
reach communities, like the gaming community, but if the objective is to reach as large
amount of people as possible or the general population traditional celebrities could be
better. As de Veirman, Cauberghe and Hudders (2017) outline in their study more
important is the topics the SMIs posts about and the audience they reach in terms of
interests than the size of the audience.

Moreover, brands can select SMIs to endorse their products to strategically position
their brand. For example, as de Veirman, Cauberghe and Hudders (2017) outline the
best SMI for a brand might not be an SMI with large following because that could
decrease the perceived uniqueness of the brand and thus the brand attitudes.
Therefore, influencer that fits the image of the brand can help overall with the brand
image. Furthermore, the image of the influencer can transfer to the brand image for
consumers (Enke and Borchers, 2019). Especially for new emerging brands using
SMIs to strategically position the brand could be helpful, as consumers engage more
with brands that influencers endorse and they place greater expectations of value and
have increased purchase intentions (Jiménez-Castillo and Sánchez-Fernández,
2019). Also, being endorsed by an influencer enhances the credibility of the brand
(Childers, Lemon and Hoy, 2019). Since brands are looking to “put their name and
brand on everything they can” (Johnson and Woodcock, 2019), SMIs could be an
important in the branding strategies of companies as it could help the brand reach new
audiences, make it more credible and increase purchase intentions.
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Furthermore, influencer marketing is incorporated into the social media platform feeds,
so consumers are not spending time avoiding the advertisements. The Interactive
Advertising Bureau (2013) outlines these kinds of advertisement as native
advertisement which are “so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the
design, and consistent with the platform behaviour that the viewer simply feels that
they belong”. Moreover, in streaming it is even harder to distinguish without clear
disclosure what is an advertisement and what is the core activity of playing video
games (Woodcock and Johnson, 2019). Essentially as Childers, Lemon and Hoy
(2019) study found out advertising and social media content is blurring together which
highlights the importance of influencer marketing. Additionally, as participants in
Balaban and Mustățea (2019) study outlined in traditional marketing there are number
of different positions that in influencer marketing are replaced by just one person,
making influencer marketing more inexpensive than traditional marketing. Thus, not
only are marketing agencies benefitting from the added exposure that happens
because consumers are not avoiding the advertisement on social media, but they also
benefit from having to only contact and pay one person in the making of influencer
marketing campaign.

2.3. Marketing of video games

Video games can be defined and divided into two groups by how and who they are
produced by: indie video games and Triple-A (AAA) video games. However, this
distinction is sometimes hard to do. An example of an indie game is Stardew Valley,
which has been developed by one person, Eric “CornernedApe” Barone
(StardewValley.net, n.d.). It was first released in 2016 on Microsoft Windows and later
on other gaming platforms and consoles as well (ibid). As the game has been
expanded some more people have helped with the game, however even currently, the
Stardew team is just Eric Barone and Arthur Lee (ibid).

AAA video games are often times defined by being the video games with the largest
budgets and largest production teams (Steinke, 2014; Daniels, 2015; Egenfeldt-
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Nielsen, Smith and Tosca, 2019). Moreover, AAA games are characterised as being
“large scale commercial games” (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Smith and Tosca, 2019) and
having game developers working across different continents (Steinke, 2014). AAA
video games are sometimes even called the “big budget” games (Mathews and
Wearn, 2016). AAA video games are the big companies in the video game industry,
who produce often commercial, big budget games with large developer teams. An
example of a AAA game is Zelda, which was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and
Takashi Tezuka and developed and published by Nintendo (Development of The
Legend of Zelda Series, n.d.). The original Legend of Zelda was released in 1984, and
since then the series has had 19 entries to the franchise on Nintendo’s game consoles
(ibid).

However, indie video games are harder to define, and it seems that the definition of
indie video games can differ person to person (Mathews and Wearn, 2016). There is
agreement that the word “indie” comes from “independent developer” describing a
video game developer that is an individual or a small studio with few developers (ibid).
Moreover, the term “independent” is used to juxtapose with the mainstream, AAA, way
of developing, creating, distributing and marketing a video game (Martin and Deuze,
2009). However, there is disagreement if indie means independence from the
mainstream (Lipkin, 2013). Kerr (2006) describes three different levels of integration
with video game publishing companies:
“First, there are the first-party developers which are fully integrated into a publishing
company; second are the second-party developers who are contracted to create
games from concepts developed by a publisher; and finally there are the third-party
developers, who develop their own projects and try to sell them to a publisher.”
This would suggest that the definition of an indie game is not as simple as the
developers being “struggling artist” or that the developer needs to be fully independent
to be considered an indie video game developer. However, as indie game developers
are seen as having more freedom, they are often regarded as being able to work on
passion projects or experiment with ideas (Mathews and Wearn, 2016). The final
definition that Lipkin (2013) came to, was that indie video games have common
characteristics and attitudes regarding innovative game design, community spirit, and
alternative production and distribution structures. Overall, indie video games are
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usually video games developed by a small group of developers, who might or might
not be connected to video game publishing companies.

Nonetheless, the marketing of video games seems to be as effective for both types of
games. Mathews and Wearn (2016) specifically research how effective different
marketing mediums are for video games. The study found out that consumers place
most trust in the recommendations of friends and family and the least trust in TV
adverts. Moreover, Mathews and Wearn (2016) pointed out that word-of-mouth
marketing can be more effective than organised, technology-based marketing
campaigns and the word-of-mouth marketing does not have to be paid for by the
companies. However, in here lies the problem that if companies cannot reach the
friends and families of a person and convince them of the video game, that person is
unlikely to go out and buy the game (ibid). As Mathews and Wearn (2016) discuss
social media is a viable option for video game marketing and it seems to be replacing
traditional TV marketing, even if people do not trust it as much as recommendations
from friends and family.

Thus, social media seems to be increasingly important in the marketing of video

games. As the trust in TV advertising is declining (Mathews and Wearn, 2016), video
game companies need to find new ways to market their products. It seems that social
media platforms like Twitch are a great way to advertise video games as it can bring
an unknown game into the focus of public attention in astonishing speed (Johnson and
Woodcock, 2019). Moreover, Twitch and the streamers on the platform are able to
highlight and bring indie games into the visibility of public and is able to extend the
lifespan of older games that previously has not been possible without the platform
(Johnson and Woodcock, 2019). As video game companies have been worried about
how to stimulate word-of-mouth promotion for new titles (Mathews and Wearn, 2016),
social media and specifically Twitch as a platform could be an answer to the problem.
Nonetheless, social media is growing in importance in marketing of video games
because the consumer have low trust in TV advertising (Mathews and Wearn, 2016)
and the demographic of “gamers” are consuming less of traditional marketing
mediums like TV and print media (Woodcock and Johnson, 2019).

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2.4. Attractiveness of social media influencers

An often-used theory into the research of SMIs is the Source Credibility Theory, which
includes SMI characteristics of attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise and
similarities (with the SMI) (Munnukka, Uusitalo and Toivonen, 2016; Djafarova and
Rushworth, 2017; Balaban and Mustățea, 2019; Lou and Yuan, 2019). From the
Source Credibility Theory, the more popular SMIs can be perceived as more attractive
by viewers (Gupta, Agarwal and Singh, 2020). There are two different measurements
that can be used to indicate the popularity of an SMI or more precisely a streamer.
First, the number of viewers which reflects the cumulative popularity of a streaming
channel or second, followers count which reflects the current popularity of the streamer
(Zhao et al., 2019). Moreover, there are common personality traits popular streamers
share with each other. Popular streamers are focused, unconventional and
emotionally sensitive (Zhao et al., 2019). These kinds of streamers are found to be
more popular and thus they could be considered more attractive by the followers. As
(Torres, Augusto and Matos, 2019) discussed in their study attractiveness does not
necessarily mean the physical attractiveness of the source. Furthermore, it could be
that the SMIs that are perceived as more attractive by viewers are the ones to become
more popular and not just that popularity makes SMIs more attractive to viewers.

Additionally, the popularity of the SMI or the product they endorse have been found to
influence consumer behaviour. Gupta, Agarwal and Singh (2020) found that the more
popular and thus more attractive the source was the more the source impacted the
consumer purchase intent. Moreover, there have been research examining the
influence of popularity on consumer perceptions of advertisements (Steyn et al., 2011)
and how popularity of user-generated content impact consumer attitudes (Dhar and
Chang, 2009) and the popularity of the advertised product also influences consumer
attitudes (Dhar and Chang, 2009). User-generated content (UGC) can be defined as
“user reviews, product videos, brand-centric videos or other assets … fans post”
(Harris, 2020). The perceived attractiveness or the popularity of SMI, the content they
produce or the product they endorse can impact consumer behaviour.

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Furthermore, the popularity and thus attractiveness of an SMI can impact the viewer
perception of them as opinion leaders. SMIs that are considered more popular by the
reflection of the number of followers they have are seen as more credible opinion
leaders (de Veirman, Cauberghe and Hudders, 2017). Moreover, these SMIs are
considered to be more likeable partly because they are considered more popular (ibid).
However, the study also discusses that if the SMI themselves follow very few accounts
they can be perceived as less likeable which can also impact their perceived opinion
leadership (ibid).

Moreover, the attractiveness of SMIs can impact consumer behavioural intents. The
attractiveness of SMIs have been connected with positive consumer attitudes (Ki and
Kim, 2019; Pöyry et al., 2019; Taillon et al., 2020). In addition, the attractiveness of
SMIs has also been connected with increases in word-of-mouth (Taillon et al., 2020),
trust in SMIs (Lou and Yuan, 2019) and in purchase intent (Torres, Augusto and Matos,
2019; Gupta, Agarwal and Singh, 2020; Taillon et al., 2020). As the respondents in
Balaban and Mustățea (2019) study outlined, it seems that attractiveness of SMIs is a
very important characteristic to be a successful SMI and overall an important feature
in SMIs.

Influencer marketing effectiveness is also dependent on the influencer-brand fit, the fit
between the product that is being advertised and the influencer themselves. This same
principal has also been used in traditional celebrity endorsements, the “match-up
hypothesis” (Kamins, 1990; Choi and Rifon, 2012; Fleck, Korchia and le Roy, 2012).
Also, the SMIs themselves have discussed the importance of congruence between
themselves and the brand or the product they showcase in the influencer’s platform
(Woodcock and Johnson, 2019). The product match-up impacts the purchase intention
(Lim et al., 2017; Breves et al., 2019; Torres, Augusto and Matos, 2019), the word-of-
mouth (Colliander and Dahlén, 2011; Breves et al., 2019), and brand attitude (Lim et
al., 2017; Breves et al., 2019; Torres, Augusto and Matos, 2019). For popular and
attractive SMIs the product match-up does not seem to be that important and they can
endorse almost any brand without hurting their own brand or their perceived credibility
(Breves et al., 2019; Torres, Augusto and Matos, 2019). However, for newly
established SMIs or SMIs with smaller following or constantly changing audience the
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product match-up is more important (Breves et al., 2019). Schouten, Janssen and
Verspaget (2020) outline in their findings that for an influencer endorsement to be
more effective than traditional celebrity endorsement the SMI needs to be able to
emphasize feelings of similarity and wishful identification with the audience. Overall, it
seems that it is worse for brand image for a brand to select a nonmatching influencer
than for an influencer to endorse a nonmatching brand (Breves et al., 2019).

However, research also to shows that the attractiveness of SMIs might not actually
impact consumer behavioural intents. Number of studies have shown that
attractiveness is not one of the factors that impacts if the source is seen as credible or
leads to purchase intent (Lim et al., 2017; Pöyry et al., 2019; Hill, Troshani and
Chandrasekar, 2020; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). Moreover, previous research has
implied that attractiveness might only be a factor in consumer purchase intents if the
product is related to attractiveness for example beauty adjacent products like
perfumes and cosmetics (Kahle and Homer, 1985). Actually, some studies suggest
that attractiveness as a factor is irrelevant in product categories like technology that
are not related to attractiveness (Till and Busler, 2000). As Wohn, Freeman and
McLaughlin (2018) suggest, attractiveness might not be as important of a factor as
previous research might imply. Furthermore, in the context of video games, as it is a
product category related to technology and generally might not be related to
attractiveness, attractiveness of SMIs might not act as factor in the behavioural
intentions of consumers. Though video games could be related to attractiveness
because there is a wide range of topics the video games could be about, including
beauty and attractiveness.

On the other hand, the perceived attractiveness and if it impacts behavioural intents
or not might depend on what the consumer perceives as attractive. As Hill, Troshani
and Chandrasekar (2020) suggest consumer’s judgement of an SMI’s attractiveness
might depend on the consumer’s idea of attractiveness and also depend partly on the
popularity of the SMI. Moreover, Sokolova and Kefi (2020) suggest that the physical
attractiveness of SMIs would only be important for luxury beauty and fashion products
and less important for consumers seeking mass-market products. Furthermore, they
suggest that attractiveness might be related to number of factors based on what the
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consumer subjective definition of “beautiful” is (Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). Therefore,
the attractiveness characteristics of SMIs can be very subjective based on the
consumer. Also, if attractiveness contributes to the behavioural intentions of consumer
might depend on what category of products and what kind of quality of products are in
question.

Table 1 summarises the different ways past studies on SMI attractiveness have
measured attractiveness.

Table 1: Summary of how different studies have measured attractiveness

Source Attractiveness measurement style

Gupta, Agarwal and Singh Physical attractiveness, with parameters:
(2020) 1. beautiful
2. sexy
3. and good looking
Wohn, Freeman and McLaughlin Physical attractiveness, adapted from
(2018) McCroskey and McCain (1974) study:
1. I think he (she) is quite handsome (pretty)
2. He (she) is very sexy looking
3. I find him (her) very attractive physically
4. I don’t like the way he (she) looks
5. He (she) is somewhat ugly
6. He (she) is not very good looking
7. He (she) wears neat clothes
8. The clothes he (she) wears are not becoming
Torres, Augusto and Matos 1. I like this influencer.
(2019) 2. This influencer is physically attractive.
3. This influencer is knowledgeable.
4. I am always aware of the influencer on the
web.
5. This influencer has a good reputation.
6. This influencer makes me feel comfortable.

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 Hill, Troshani and Chandrasekar From Ohanian (1990) study:
(2020), Lim et al. (2017) and Unattractive – Attractive
Taillon et al. (2020) Not classy – Classy
Ugly – Beautiful
Plain – Elegant
Not sexy – Sexy
Sokolova and Kefi (2020) Social attractiveness:
1. I think she could be a friend of mine
2. I would like to have a friendly chat with her
Physical attractiveness:
1. I think she is quite pretty
2. I find her very attractive physically

2.5. Trustworthiness of social media influencers

The Source Credibility Theory also includes trustworthiness and expertise which make
up credibility (Munnukka, Uusitalo and Toivonen, 2016; Djafarova and Rushworth,
2017; Lou and Yuan, 2019). The expertise from the Source Credibility Theory have
been left out as there have been research showing that SMI expertise do not impact
the SMI credibility (Lim et al., 2017; Lou and Yuan, 2019). Specifically, research has
shown that SMIs lack professional expertise over the topics and products they talk
about, which has been identified as the main reason SMIs’ lack credibility in some
topics (Lim et al., 2017; Lou and Yuan, 2019). However, at the same time this lack of
expertise has been identified to not impact the trust viewers’ have in branded content
(Lou and Yuan, 2019). Because of these findings, instead of focusing on credibility of
SMIs as a whole, this section is focusing on trustworthiness alone, as that seems to
be the main reason SMIs could be seen as credible.

In line with the Source Credibility Theory, more popular SMIs are perceived as more
trustworthy (Cheng and Ho, 2015; Gupta, Agarwal and Singh, 2020; Hill, Troshani and
Chandrasekar, 2020). Hayes, Singer and Ceppos (2007) outline audience trust as

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audience feeling “confident they are not being lied to” and it “is earned through the
regular provision of information that is credible”. Moreover, this trust audience place
on SMIs makes the relationship very fragile while the audience is more susceptible to
the SMI’s opinions, as the SMI is seen as unbiased and credible source of information
(Colliander and Dahlén, 2011). Furthermore, research has identified that
trustworthiness is an important characteristic to function as an SMI (Balaban and
Mustățea, 2019; Woodcock and Johnson, 2019). Thus, trustworthiness is an important
characteristic in SMIs that helps build the relationships they have with their
communities, audiences and brands.

Nonetheless, there is research showing that viewers do not find SMIs or the products
they promote trustworthy (Leparoux, Minier and Anand, 2019). Even if viewers do not
find the SMIs or the endorsed products trustworthy, they still follow them and buy the
endorsed products (ibid). Moreover, the SMIs themselves view themselves and the
products they endorse as trustworthy (ibid). Hence, even if SMIs are not always
viewed as trustworthy that does not diminish the purchase intentions or the positive
attitudes of consumers.

SMIs also are part of creating user-generated content, which builds their
trustworthiness. UGC has been found to be a credible, reliable and trustworthy source
of information (Zhu and Zhang, 2010) and as this content is also partly made up by
SMIs, it is reasonable to consider that some of this trustworthiness is due to SMIs.
Moreover, it was found that consumers who has had a greater experience with the
Internet were more influenced by the UGC (Zhu and Zhang, 2010), which could
suggest that regular followers of SMIs are better able to accurately determine the
reliability and trustworthiness of the content SMIs produce. Furthermore, user-
generated content has been tested against professionally generated content and UGC
was found to be 22 times more effective in persuading consumers (Goh, Heng and
Lin, 2013). This could be due to consumers trusting SMIs more than celebrities
because there has not been found a difference between SMI and celebrity expertise
(Schouten, Janssen and Verspaget, 2020).

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SMI transparency can increase their perceived trustworthiness. For example, a study
showed that the disclosure of paid endorsements increased the follower’s perception
of influencer’s openness and transparency (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019). This
awareness led to trust and satisfaction (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019), meaning that
when SMIs are more open and transparent they can be perceived as more trustworthy.
Furthermore, another study also examined how transparency impacts the
trustworthiness of SMIs and it found that routines of transparency, independence and
authenticity increases the perception of influencer trustworthiness (Dekavalla, 2020).
Therefore, SMIs that are more transparent can be seen as more trustworthy.

Moreover, being transparent and perceived trustworthy can strengthen the

relationship between the SMI and viewer. A study suggests that the openness and
transparency of influencers can also positively impact the influencer-follower
relationship and behavioural intentions (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019). When followers
are made aware of paid content, they use it to better make decision rather than
damaging the influencer-follower relationship (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019) and
furthermore this only strengthened the relationship especially trust and satisfaction
with the influencer. Thus, there is no damage from SMIs disclosing paid content and
the disclosure could actually help the relationship with the audience rather than
damage it.

However, also having a parasocial relationship with the SMI can increase the
perceived trustworthiness of the SMI. Reinikainen et al. (2020) discovered in their
research that a parasocial relationship with the influencer builds the perceived
credibility or trustworthiness of the influencer. Therefore, followers having some kind
of a relationship with the SMI is essential because that increases the trustworthiness
of the SMI.

Furthermore, the trustworthiness of SMIs has been linked with several consumer
behavioural intentions and brand equity. Research has found that source credibility or
the trustworthiness of influencers impact consumer’s brand trust (Wu and Wang, 2011;
Balaban and Mustățea, 2019; Reinikainen et al., 2020), brand attitudes (Wu and
Wang, 2011; Schouten, Janssen and Verspaget, 2020), brand affection (Wu and
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Wang, 2011), brand awareness (Balaban and Mustățea, 2019; Lou and Yuan, 2019),
positive word-of-mouth (Hsu, Chuan‐Chuan Lin and Chiang, 2013; Cosenza, Solomon
and Kwon, 2014) and purchase intention (Wu and Wang, 2011; Balaban and
Mustățea, 2019; Lou and Yuan, 2019; Reinikainen et al., 2020; Schouten, Janssen
and Verspaget, 2020; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). This indicates that trustworthiness is
an essential characteristic of SMIs that impacts number of behavioural intentions and
through the influencer impacts brand equity in many ways. Therefore, this could
indicate that successful SMIs are often perceived as trustworthy.

It is important for SMIs to showcase brands that go in line with the image they have
built, so not to damage the trust they have created with the viewers. Even if other
research has found expertise of influencers not to be relevant to their credibility, the
follower perceived expertise that influencers have are still relevant according to
consumers (Balaban and Mustățea, 2019). This is related to the trustworthiness and
the choice of products SMIs choose to advertise, as not having expertise, thus
advertising a product that does not match the influencer could impact the perceived
trustworthiness of the SMI (ibid). As another study identifies if an influencer is said to
be knowledgeable and liked automobiles, they were perceived to be more trustworthy
and have more expertise (Breves et al., 2019). This matching of product and influencer
was seen as a credible source of information and internally motivated rather than
driven by money, thus they were perceived to be more trustworthy (ibid). However, if
a SMI endorses an unmatching product their perceived expertise and trustworthiness
are damaged and this could in the long-term damage their engagement levels and
likeability (Koernig and Boyd, 2009). Therefore, it is important for influencers to
endorse brands and products that match their expertise and the community they are
engaged within, because it can increase their perceived trustworthiness. To do
otherwise, could damage their perceived trustworthiness and career in the long-term.

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2.6. Other characteristics of social media influencers

There are other social media influencer characteristics that have been researched and
could impact consumer behaviour. Two of the SMI characteristics, similarities and
authenticity, have been chosen from previous research and looked closer into in this
section of the literature review. Similarity refers to the similarity audience feels with the
SMI and is part of the Source Credibility Theory (Munnukka, Uusitalo and Toivonen,
2016; Djafarova and Rushworth, 2017; Balaban and Mustățea, 2019; Lou and Yuan,
2019). Also, authenticity of SMIs has been chosen because it has been widely
discussed in relation to SMIs (Duffy, 2017; Leparoux, Minier and Anand, 2019;
Dekavalla, 2020). These are not regarded as the main characteristics of SMIs and will
not be tested in the empirical research. However, to provide a more rounded picture
of SMI characteristics these have been included in the literature review and should be
kept in mind when talking about characteristics of SMIs.

2.6.1. Similarities

There are different types of relationships identified between SMIs and followers. SMIs
establish relationships with other social media users which can be described as peer-
to-peer relationships or friendships (García-Rapp, 2017), as egalitarian friendships
(Abidin and Thompson, 2012), as sisterly (Berryman and Kavka, 2017), as relations
based on a sense of equality (Jerslev, 2016), or as parasocial relationships (Colliander
and Dahlén, 2011; Wohn, Freeman and McLaughlin, 2018; Breves et al., 2019;
Reinikainen et al., 2020; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). The most well researched,
parasocial relationship, is explained as being the relationships develop with individuals
that have never met (Wohn, Freeman and McLaughlin, 2018).

Moreover, parasocial relationship has been researched to impact consumer

behaviours. The stronger relationships have been found to impact viewing and
attention of consumers (Perse, 1990), purchase intents (Fetscherin, 2014; Sokolova
and Kefi, 2020) and positive WOM intentions (Fetscherin, 2014). However, recently
there have been raised a question if parasocial relationships in fact impact consumer
behaviours when talking about SMIs (Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). Especially for younger
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generations it seems that parasocial relationship does not explain the impact on the
consumer behaviour and it is proposed to re-conceptualisation of the parasocial
relationship because it seems to have changed (ibid).

Regardless, consumers are more likely to follow and pay attention to things that they
identify with and are close with. For example, a user is more likely to pay attention to
advertising that is shared by their friends or family, because this kind of advertising is
seen as more relevant, less annoying and fitting to one’s personal taste and interest
(Thota, 2018). Furthermore, this also applies to SMIs the users follow as the SMIs are
often viewed as the user’s peers and users tend to follow SMIs that are interested in
similar activities (Balaban and Mustățea, 2019). As the users follow SMIs that are
interested in similar activities they are often also view as being similar to the user which
leads to influencer endorsement being perceived with higher similarity than celebrity
endorsement (Balaban and Mustățea, 2019; Schouten, Janssen and Verspaget,
2020). Although, for younger generation, the generation Z, the relationship between
SMI and follower was described to be more of an addiction rather than a friendly
relationship (Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). Therefore, advertising from SMIs can be seen
as being similar to the advertising friends and family would share in their social
networks. However, for the younger generation this relationship might be changing
and might not be seen as a friendly relationship anymore even if the users would feel
similar to the SMIs they follow.

Moreover, the intimate relationship and the similarities between followers and SMIs
can clearly be seen in social media platforms and in different communities within these
platforms. As an example, both the beauty SMI and their audience are beauty
consumers who face similar challenges within the beauty community with products
and social pressures (Enke and Borchers, 2019). The similarities of situations with the
audience build an intimate relationship between the influencer and the audience (ibid).
Furthermore, the same phenomenon can be observed within the gaming community
in Twitch, the appeal to watch and follow is based on a sense of association with others
and the shared interests (Woodcock and Johnson, 2019; Zhao et al., 2019). However,
the live aspect of streaming creates even closer relationship between the SMI and
audience as there is the possibility to interact in real-time (Woodcock and Johnson,
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2019; Hsu, Lin and Miao, 2020). The relationship between SMIs and their audience
build is usually an intimate one as the similarities make audiences feel close with the
influencer.

SMIs can strengthen the relationship between them and their followers with their
actions. Previous research has shown that users mostly watch streams of video
games because of the interactive nature of them (Sjöblom and Hamari, 2017; Hilvert-
Bruce et al., 2018; Sjöblom et al., 2019). Moreover, the interactions between the
streamer and their audience have been found to be a critical factor in whether or not
a viewer will watch the stream or not (Zhao et al., 2019). Furthermore, research has
shown that immediate feedback, cues, language variety and personal focus correlate
with positive attitudes about the media richness of live streams which makes the
streams more effective in consumer minds (Hsu, Lin and Miao, 2020). Therefore, to
make the audience perceive the live streams as effective and to strengthen the
relationship between the streamer and the audience, the streamer should focus on
being interactive with their audience with variety of cues and language and focus on
being personal with the audience.

Furthermore, consumers perceive user-generated content contributed by people

similar to them as more credible and are more likely to act on the given information
(Flanagin, Hocevar and Samahito, 2014). Users perceive SMIs to be more similar to
them than celebrities because SMIs tend to share their personal lives and directly
interact with the audience (Schau and Gilly, 2003). Moreover, the interactions an
impression of face-to-face interactions which are more likely to make the audience
more impressionable to the SMI’s posts (Knoll et al., 2015). Also, research has noted
that SMI’s posts have enhanced credibility because the messages come from a source
the user has chosen to follow rather than from a brand (Childers, Lemon and Hoy,
2019). This would suggest that SMI messages are perceived as more credible by
consumers and they are more willing to act on the information given to them by SMIs
rather than brands or celebrities.

Research has shown that as followers feel closer and identify with the SMIs they
follow, they are more likely to act on behavioural intentions. Studies have shown that
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because of the close relationship between SMIs and audiences, users are more likely
to have behavioural intentions (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019), like increased purchase
intention (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019; Ki and Kim, 2019; Sokolova and Kefi, 2020),
and word-of-mouth intention (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019; Ki and Kim, 2019).
Moreover, research suggests that consumers have a desire to mimic SMIs which
drives these behavioural intentions, especially purchase intent (Ki and Kim, 2019).
Also, the closer the relationship between the SMI and the user is the more likely the
user is to purchase (Sokolova and Kefi, 2020). In addition, followers tend to trust SMIs
that are perceived as more similar to them (Lou and Yuan, 2019). Given the above,
consumer feel close and identify with SMIs and the more they identify with the SMIs
the more likely the consumers are to act on their behavioural intentions, especially on
purchase intent.

2.6.2. Authenticity

SMIs being and conveying authenticity can be defined as expressing, speaking and
otherwise communicating in a manner that it relevant to the subculture one wishes to
be a part of and engage with (Duffy, 2017). Moreover, authenticity aims to encourage
trust through content that appears to be unscripted, spontaneous, ordinary and
imperfect (Enli, 2016) and authentic talk involves speaking in a “real”, spontaneous,
conversational mode that does not appear scripted or rehearsed and appears to be
true to oneself (Montgomery, 2001). Also, an “authentic” SMI needs to be able to do
this easily and comfortably (Duffy, 2017). Thus, SMIs that want to appear to be
authentic within their communities, truly need to appear to be a part of it.

Moreover, consumers have expectations on what authenticity in SMIs looks like. For
example, in the gaming community streamers are expected to be engaged in the
community because they share the love for video games and not because of money
(Woodcock and Johnson, 2019). In addition, streamers can present themselves as
authentic if they are comfortable with the lingo, culture and ideas of gaming (Duffy,
2017). Furthermore, SMIs can present themselves as authentic through ordinariness
and authenticity routines, which could involve showing themselves as uncertain,
humble, concerned about their perception like an ordinary person would and not as a
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confident part of the media industry (Dekavalla, 2020). Also, SMIs in communities that
encourage the members to participate and are interactive, are perceived as more
authentic (Luoma-aho et al., 2019). These routines make SMIs look more authentic
because they make SMIs look like ordinary people and more similar to the audience.
Additionally, when SMIs present themselves as being involved in the community
because they are interested in the community and not for money, this brings SMIs
closer to the audience as then the motivation behind being involved is the same for
both.

SMIs are seen as authentic and authenticity of SMIs increases the perceived
trustworthiness of SMIs. SMIs maintain the authenticity and trustworthiness, that they
have built over the years, when they grow larger and gain popularity within their
communities (Schwemmer and Ziewiecki, 2018). Moreover, authenticity is a critical
factor in building trust for influencers (Leparoux, Minier and Anand, 2019).
Interestingly, a study claims that because of the perceived authenticity and thus
trustworthiness of SMIs, consumers are no longer able to distinguish real and honest
opinions within the commercial content on social media (Schwemmer and Ziewiecki,
2018). Overall, it seems that SMIs are perceived as authentic and the authenticity of
SMIs increases trustworthiness.

However, there have been research that shows that not all consumers perceive SMIs
as authentic. Some studies have shown that consumers do not perceive SMIs as being
authentic (Balaban and Mustățea, 2019; Leparoux, Minier and Anand, 2019;
Woodcock and Johnson, 2019). Especially, the sponsored content of SMIs is seen as
being unauthentic (Balaban and Mustățea, 2019). As Woodcock and Johnson (2019)
outline in their research, the paid influencing attempts can make SMIs look
unauthentic, and audiences can reject these influencing attempts.

Therefore, the blending of the SMIs’ authentic voice and the brand’s advertising
strategy need to be carefully balanced. As Balaban and Mustățea (2019) outline
successful influencer marketing is a balance of between the influencer’s own,
authentic voice and brand advertising strategies. The SMIs need to find the right
company that they believe in and find the right balance (Woodcock and Johnson,
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2019). When there is a successful balance between the influencer’s voice and the
brand’s message, influencers can act as credible, authentic voices for the brands.
Therefore, the fit between the brand and influencer matter because it can create
authenticity for the influencer and the brand, and the wrong brand can damage the
influencer’s authentic image. However, popular, well-established influencers might be
able to endorse a brand that does not perfectly match their image, but there is still the
risk of damaging their authentic image (Breves et al., 2019).

Moreover, the authenticity of the source helps advertising not feel like advertising to
the viewers. When there is the right fit between an influencer and a brand and the
source and the message are perceived as authentic, advertising can be unnoticeable
to the audience (Schwemmer and Ziewiecki, 2018; Pöyry et al., 2019; Woodcock and
Johnson, 2019). Thus, it can be helpful for brands to find a fitting SMI because it can
help the brand image and attitudes when the advertising does not feel like true
advertising.

2.7. Consumer behaviour

Two consumer behavioural outcomes were chosen for this thesis. Word-of-mouth and
purchase intent were chosen based on the importance of the behavioural intentions
for the gaming industry and the gaming community. Word-of-mouth (WOM) indicates
engagement in the video games and indirectly can indicate the popularity of the video
game. Purchase intents suggest interest in the game and willingness to buy the game
which also can indirectly indicate the popularity of the video game.

2.7.1. Word-of-mouth

Consumers have different motivations behind engaging in WOM. Thota (2018)

describes that consumers enjoy acting as opinion leaders and share their knowledge
and expertise. Moreover, engaging in WOM with others satisfies their autonomy and
competence needs and doing this through social media further satisfies consumer
control goal while distributing the information to general public which leads to visibility
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and recognition by the wider audiences (Thota, 2018). Hence, engaging in WOM,
especially on social media, satisfies consumer autonomy, competences while giving
them the feel of control and satisfaction of acting as an opinion leader.

Furthermore, the motivation and willingness to engage in WOM changes if the product
in question is a “free” product or a paid-to-use product. Research done in the difference
motivations behind engaging in WOM suggests that consumers are motivated to help
producers and consumers (Bond, He and Wen, 2019). Moreover, for free products
engaging in WOM helps consumers not feel guilty by “reciprocating” through positive
WOM (Bond, He and Wen, 2019). For paid-to-use products it is important for
consumers to feel like they are providing useful information which might enhance
status or reputation of the consumer (ibid). This seems to go in line with the previous
research done by (Thota, 2018) that engaging in WOM satisfies consumer
competences and the feel for control. However, the research done by Bond, He and
Wen (2019) builds on the motivations by identifying the additional motivation of
reciprocating the free products to producer by engaging in positive WOM.

WOM can also increase the visibility of products and brands and it is a great way to
make a brand more visible for new customers. Social TV, the act of interacting in social
media and sharing thoughts and feelings about, can increase the conversations
around brands and leads to increases in WOM (Thota, 2018). Moreover, studies have
found that customers acquired through WOM add nearly twice as much long-term
value to a firm as marketing acquired customers (Villanueva, Yoo and Hanssens,
2008) and SMIs have an impact on brand expected value (Jiménez-Castillo and
Sánchez-Fernández, 2019). Thus, WOM can be a great way to increase the visibility
of a brand, especially on social media. Even so, as social media creates a good setting
for word-of mouth which has a large impact on brand image, companies and
advertising agencies are hesitant on using it to their advantage (Pütter, 2017; Childers,
Lemon and Hoy, 2019). Even if there has been researched benefits of WOM on brand
visibility, companies are hesitant to use it to their advantage because it is as easy to
engage in negative WOM as it is in positive WOM.

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On the other hand, WOM can be very important for the visibility of less popular games.
A study observed that independent games are primarily spreading through WOM
(Johnson and Woodcock, 2019), which makes WOM significant in the visibility of such
games. Moreover, another study examined that WOM was impactful for the first game
in a series (Kimura, 2015), however, it was no longer examined to be impactful for the
second game in the series. Hence, WOM can also be an important advertising strategy
for games other than independent games. Furthermore, another study indicates video
game modding and streaming increases the value of the game experience in a way
that benefits both, the user and the game developer (Poretski, Zalmanson and Azary,
2019). Game modding and further the WOM activity done by the game streamers has
a positive impact on game consumption (ibid). To summarise, even if companies and
advertising agencies are hesitant to use WOM to its fullest, at least in the gaming
industry and community, there have been researched benefits of using WOM.

SMIs play a significant role in the reception of WOM and the further engagement in
WOM. SMI characteristics such as attractive, experienced, informative and interactive
have been researched to positively relate to consumer attitudes of the influencer as
opinion leaders (Ki and Kim, 2019). These positive attitudes impact the viewer desire
to mimic SMIs and WOM intentions (ibid). Moreover, another study also connected
SMI attractiveness, likeability and similarity to the viewer to positively predict WOM
from the viewer (Taillon et al., 2020). Similarly, the stronger the relationship between
the follower and the SMI it seems, the better the relationship can predict WOM
intentions of followers (Dhanesh and Duthler, 2019). Although, the follower needs to
feel a sense of control over the relationship to act on the behavioural intentions (ibid).
It can be concluded that when using streamers to further WOM intentions of
consumers, the SMI characteristics that can impact the intentions need to be kept in
mind.

2.7.2. Purchase intent

There are concerns in the gaming industry that watching streamers play video games
or games in general will substitute as having the game themselves, thus decreasing
purchasing intentions. Especially, if the streamer plays the whole game, the viewer
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might see the whole game being played through, feel satisfied and not have a need to
purchase the game anymore (Johnson and Woodcock, 2019). Some gaming
companies are afraid of loss of sales, but at present the number seems to be minimal
(ibid). However, another study outlines that streams, the live videos, which may
contain game “spoilers”, do not substitute actual gameplay but actually encourage it
(Poretski, Zalmanson and Azary, 2019). This would suggest that streamers and game
streams encourage gameplay which could also indicate consumers purchase
intentions, and thus the gaming companies do not need to fear loss of sales because
of gaming content being shared online.

Moreover, gaming content online seems to be helping the marketing and the life span
of games. Johnson and Woodcock (2019) suggest that streaming of games has
helped with visibility of independent games and the lifespan of older games, both
leading to purchases from larger audiences. However, there has been little research
into how video game streaming impacts consumer’s purchase intentions. On the other
hand, studies have found that user-generated content is considered a credible and
reliable source of information among consumers (Zhu and Zhang, 2010; Heinonen,
2011; Flanagin, Hocevar and Samahito, 2014). Moreover, Zhu and Zhang (2010)
research found that user-generated content has a larger impact on the sale of less
popular games than more popular games. This seems to agree with Johnson and
Woodcock (2019) research and suggest that video game streaming is especially
important for lesser known, like independent games and older games. Thus, to
increase consumer’s purchase intentions of a video game, it is advisable to have user-
generated content of the game. This could mean a streamer playing the game on their
channel which also encourages viewer gameplay and purchase intentions of the
game.

2.8. Conceptual framework

A conceptual framework was developed based on previous literature that was

explored in the prior sections (Figure 1). The framework will guide the collection of
primary data. The framework presents the characteristics that were explored,
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attractiveness, trustworthiness, similarities and authenticity, and the consumer
behaviours, word-of-mouth and purchase intent. In the framework it is suggested that
the characteristics of SMIs impact the consumer behaviours. Moreover, the framework
presents and proposes that the type of game, indie or AAA, has a moderating effect
on the relationship between characteristics and consumer behaviours.

However, only the pathways between the two main characteristics of SMIs,
attractiveness and trustworthiness, the consumer behaviours and the type of game
will be tested and collected primary data on. So, the secondary characteristics,
similarities and authenticity, will not be research further in this thesis paper.

Behavioural
Characteristics
outcomes

Attractiveness Word-of-mouth

Trustworthiness Purchase intent

Authenticity Type of game

(indie vs. AAA)

Similarities

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

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The following hypotheses are proposed based on the conceptual framework:

H1A: Perceived attractiveness of SMIs increases consumer favourable word-of-

mouth
H1B: Perceived attractiveness of SMIs increases consumer purchase intents
H2A: Perceived trustworthiness of SMIs increases consumer favourable word-of-
mouth
H2B: Perceived trustworthiness of SMIs increases consumer purchase intents
H3A: Type of game will moderate the relationship between attractiveness and
purchase intent where indie type of game will contribute to stronger relationship
between attractiveness and purchase intent than AAA type of game
H3B: Type of game will moderate the relationship between trustworthiness and
purchase intent where indie type of game will contribute to stronger relationship
between trustworthiness and purchase intent than AAA type of game
H3C: Type of game will moderate the relationship between attractiveness and
favourable WOM where indie type of game will contribute to stronger
relationship between attractiveness and WOM than AAA type of game
H3D: Type of game will moderate the relationship between trustworthiness and
favourable WOM where indie type of game will contribute to stronger
relationship between trustworthiness and WOM than AAA type of game

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1. Data collection

This thesis utilises both primary and secondary data. The secondary data consists of
previous literature discussed in the literature review section and concepts that were
used to build the conceptual framework. Secondary data was also utilized for the
scales used in the gathering of primary data. The primary research employed a
quantitative method and was used to test out the hypotheses proposed based on the
conceptual framework.

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3.2. Pre-test survey design

The survey discussed in this section can be found from Appendix A. The survey was
made to pre-test personality traits and behaviours in people that could be considered
attractive and trustworthy characteristics. The purpose was to test the characteristics
and confirm what is perceived as attractive and trustworthy. Furthermore, the most
agreed on characteristics were going to be carried out to the main study survey
scenarios that were going to presented to respondents in the main study survey.

The pre-test survey was divided into different pages and each page presented multiple
different traits or behaviours of one characteristic. When the respondent opened the
survey through the shared link, they were first presented with the survey disclosure
statement and a confirmation that if the respondent continued to the survey, they were
at least 18 years of age.

On the next page, the respondent was presented with traits and behaviours that could
be linked with attractiveness. The first four statements in the list are general
behaviours that could be considered as attractive in a streamer. Statements five
through 11 were adapted from Zhao et al. (2019) study that looked into common
characteristics in popular streamers on the platform Twitch. The attractiveness traits
and behaviours that were pre-tested and focused on in this survey, were more focused
on behavioural attractiveness rather than physical attractiveness of a streamer. The
respondents were asked to indicate the correspondent for each statement from 1 (not
at all) trough 7 (completely) on how much in their opinion a single trait or behaviour
corresponds with an attractive streamer.

Pages three through five were for traits and behaviours concerning trustworthiness,
which was divided into smaller set of characteristics based on the trustworthiness
scale created by (Ohanian, 1990). The scale includes dependable, honest, reliable,
sincere and trustworthy into the trustworthiness scale. These characteristics were
tested by presenting the respondents with statements about specific behaviour and
asking them to indicate how much the behaviour corresponds with someone being for
example dependable. Each characteristic had its own page, so respondents only saw

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one characteristic and set of statements for that characteristics. They were asked to
indicate the correspondent of each statement from 1 (not at all) through 7 (completely).

The last page of the pre-test survey was for demographic questions. The respondents
were asked for their gender, age and nationality. The nationality was asked with a
dropdown list of all the countries.

The characteristics that were carried out to the main study survey were chosen based
on the overall variable average score for the statements and the chosen statements
about specific behaviour were the once that scored above the overall average score.
The results are summarised in Table 2, and the statements that were utilised in the
main study are marked with an asterisk.

Table 2: Pre-test survey summarised results

Variable Overall Statement Score

variable
score
A streamer is charming 4.5
A streamer is entertaining 6.0*
A streamer is likeable 5.8*
A streamer is confident 4.8*
A streamer has a large following 3.5
A streamer plays the same game often 4.4
Attractiveness 4.6 A streamer is highly emotional (e.g., they are 3.5
loud)
A streamer is fully focused on the game 3.5
A streamer listens to audience feedback 5.3*
A streamer does not have a strict structure to 4.8*
their stream
A streamer is impulsive 4.2
A person is always on time 5.6
Dependable 5.6
A person follows up with their commitments 6.6*

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 A person is organised 4.6
A person is consistent 5.5
A person is straightforward 5.4
A person does not lie 6.4*
Honest 5.8
A person is truthful about their opinion 6.2*
A person is open about their opinions 5.2
A person works hard 4.8
A person behaves well 4.5
Reliable 5.1
A person does what you expect them to do 6.1*
A person has accurate information 4.9
A person means what they promise 6.1*
A person is genuine 6.2*
Sincere 5.5
A person does good thing without rewards 4.9
A person looks for the good in situations 4.6
A person is authentic 5.5*
A person is kind 4.6
A person is humble 4.5
Trustworthy 5.3 A person can be trusted with secrets or 6.4*
anything else important
Social media influencer discloses sponsored 5.3
content

3.3. Main study survey design

The survey discussed in this section can be found from Appendix B. The purpose of
the main study survey was to research if the perceived attractiveness and
trustworthiness of a streamer would impact the word-of-mouth and purchase intentions
of the respondents and if the type of game acts as a moderating variable for this
relationship. The survey is a mixed model survey, it has between-subjects and within-
subject questions. The mixed model survey was decided on because it would allow to
research the relationship between characteristics of a streamer and WOM and

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purchase intents in unbiased way, where the questions are between-subjects type of
questions. However, realistically there was going to be a problem getting enough
respondents to answer the survey, the type of game -questions are within-subjects
type of questions. The respondents might develop biases with the within-subject
questions, but it was decided as the best option in the timeframe and resource that
were available to do the thesis project.

When the respondent opened the survey linked that was shared with them, they first
saw the disclosure statement for the survey. The respondents also agreed that they
were over 18 years of age when they continued to the survey.

On the first page of the actual survey, the respondents were asked for their gender,
age and which month of the year they were born in. Some of the demographic
questions were decided to be asked in the beginning to hide the question that
randomises conditions for the rest of the survey. The “In which month of the year were
you born?” question acted as the base to randomise the conditions for the rest of the
survey. The months were divided into four groups (e.g., January, February, March
etc.) and based on the respondent answer, they were shown one of the scenarios of
the survey. The randomising question was decided because there is approximately
equal amount of people born in each month of the year (Niinimäki, 2020), so this
question should divide the sample pool into approximately four equal groups for the
four scenarios.

The four scenarios were build based on the pre-test survey answers that were
presented previously. The four scenarios tested out attractiveness and
trustworthiness. The scenarios were built to test out high and low for both of these
characteristics. The “high” attractiveness or trustworthiness was based on the pre-
tested statements and the “low” was the opposite of the tested statements. The full
scenarios can be found from Appendix B. On the next page, after the respondent had
seen one of the scenarios, they were asked where on a scale from 1 to 7 the streamer
lined up to being unattractive (1) versus attractive (7) and being untrustworthy (1) to
trustworthy (7).

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On the next page, the respondents were given a prompt saying:
“Next you will see some questions regarding the game Banda plays. Imagine that the
game is made by a SMALL independent group of game developers.”
Then after seeing the prompt the respondents went to the next page to answers
questions sets. The first question set was regarding WOM, and the questions were
adapted from Dhanesh and Duthler (2019) study. The questions are a 7-point Likert-
scale questions. The next question set regarding purchase intent are also a 7-point
Likert-scale questions that were adapted from Evans at al. (2017) study. Also, attitude
towards the streamer and attitude towards the game questions sets were added, as
these are frequent and common marketing dependent variables. Next, the respondent
was shown another prompt, asking them to imagine that the game has been
developed by a large, mainstream group of game developers. The same question sets
are repeated in the next page.

On the next page, there is a recall question, asking about the name of the streamer
from the scenario. This is to see if the respondent has paid attention to what they have
read and to assess if they paid enough attention to the scenario, so their responses
can be trusted to reflect what they read. The answers where respondents could not
recall the name of the streamers were deleted. However, where the name was only
misspelled, the answer was kept in the data set.

On the last page, there is a final demographic question asking the respondents
nationality. On the last page there is also a cue for snowball sampling, asking
respondents to share the survey link with two other people.

3.4. Sample

For the pre-test survey, convenience sampling was chosen as the method of sampling.
In total, the pre-test survey was completed by 13 respondents and all of the responses
were deemed reliable after inspection. All respondents participated in the survey
voluntarily.

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For the main study survey, convenience and snowball sampling were chosen as the
methods for sampling. These were regarded as the most viable ways to get large
enough sample size for the main study survey. The survey weblink was shared though
school email and on various social media platforms, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook.
On Facebook the survey link was shared on groups focusing on video games and
gaming.

In total, the main study survey was answered by 149 respondents, all respondents
participated in the survey voluntarily. After inspection one response was deleted
because they recorded their age under the age limit of 18, and nine responses were
removed because they failed to answer the recall question. The responses that
misspelled the streamer name or the name was close to the name in the scenario were
kept in the sample.

4. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1. Pre-test sample profile

The pre-test survey was answered by 13 respondents. The average age of a

respondent in the pre-test survey was 20.92 years, the median age being 21. More
females, 61.54 %, than males, 38.46 %, answered the survey. The survey also
included the options prefer not to say and other for gender, but none of the
respondents chose these options. Only two nationalities were represented in the pre-
test survey, Finnish and Brazilian. The breakdown of the demographic data can be
found from Table 3.

Table 3: Demographic data of pre-test survey

Gender N %
Female 8 61.5
Male 5 38.5
Age (years)
20-29 13 100
Nationality
Finland 12 92.3
Brazil 1 7.7

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4.2. Main study sample profile

After inspections, the main study survey had 139 valid responses. The average age
of a respondent for the main study survey was 22.79 and the median age of a
respondent was 21. However, this survey did have a larger range of ages represented
than in the pre-test survey. The main study survey was completed by more males,
61.9 %, than females, 37.4 %, which differs from the gender breakdown of the pre-test
survey respondents. In the main study survey a wide range of nationalities were
represented, but the two largest nationalities were Finnish by 46.0 % and American by
36.7 %. The breakdown of the demographic data for the main study survey can be
found from Table 4.

Table 4: Demographic data of main study survey

Gender N %
Female 52 37.4
Male 86 61.9
Other 1 0.7
Age (years)
-19 24 17.3
20-29 99 71.2
30-39 11 7.9
40- 5 3.6
Nationality
Finland 64 46.0
USA 51 36.7
Italy 2 1.4
Ireland 2 1.4
France 2 1.4
Vietnam 2 1.4
South Africa 2 1.4
Lebanon 1 0.7
India 1 0.7
Ghana 1 0.7
Germany 1 0.7
Czechia 1 0.7
China 1 0.7
Brazil 1 0.7
UK 1 0.7
Turkey 1 0.7
Trinidad and Tobago 1 0.7
Portugal 1 0.7
Poland 1 0.7
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 Nigeria 1 0.7
Austria 1 0.7

Based on the sample size alone, 139 subject, each between-subject experimental
condition could have had 30 subjects each. However, the spread of the birth month
was not as equal as the secondary data had suggested. The exact spread of the birth
month and thus the experimental condition group sizes can be seen from Figure 2
below.

Spread of which condition each respondent read

29
39

30

41

Condition 1 Condition 2 Condition 3 Condition 4

Figure 2: Spread of which condition each respondent read, between-subject experimental

group sizes

4.3. Reliability analysis

The WOM and purchase intent scales were from previous studies, however they were
adapted into the main study survey with a few changes to them. Also, the attitude
scales were constructed from appropriate adjectives to the survey subject. So, it was

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decided to check the reliability of the WOM, purchase intent and the two attitude
scales. Moreover, the scales were checked twice as they were used twice in different
parts of the main study survey. All of the subscales showed good internal reliability,
α>.70. The exact Cronbach’s alphas for each subscale can be found from Table 5
below. As the subscales were present in two question sets, Cronbach’s alpha 1
represents the first question set, and the Cronbach’s alpha 2 represents the second
question set from the main study survey.

Table 5: Main study subscale reliability analysis

Subscale Cronbach’s alpha 1 Cronbach’s alpha 2 Number of items

WOM .85 .90 3
Purchase
.83 .88 3
intent
Streamer
.93 .95 3
attitude
Game attitude .86 .86 3

4.4. Characteristics and consumer behaviour analysis

To look into the possible impacts the independent variables had on the dependent
variables, several 2 (high attractiveness/low attractiveness) x 2 (high
trustworthiness/low trustworthiness) between-subjects ANOVA analyses were
conducted. To run these analyses the independent variables were created into two
new variables, which contained high and low for both attractiveness and
trustworthiness based on the manipulation that were done to the scenarios.

For WOM in the case of an indie game, the results showed a significant main effect of
attractiveness, such that high attractiveness (M = 3.50, SD = 1.43) lead to significantly
greater amounts of WOM than low attractiveness (M = 2.85, SD = 1.29), F (1, 139) =
8.33, p < 0.05. Furthermore, there was a significant main effect of trustworthiness, that
high trustworthiness (M = 3.50, SD = 1.41) of a streamer lead to significantly greater

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amounts of WOM than low trustworthiness of the streamer (M = 2.96, SD = 1.35), F
(1, 139) = 5.49, p < 0.05. Also, there was no significant attractiveness*trustworthiness
interaction, F (1, 139) = 0.10, p = 0.75, suggesting that the relationship between
trustworthiness and WOM was not moderated by attractiveness (and vice versa).

For WOM in the case of a AAA game the results showed a significant main effect of
attractiveness, high attractiveness (M = 3.68, SD = 1.60) lead to significantly greater
amounts of WOM than low attractiveness (M = 2.80, SD = 1.40), F (1, 139) = 11.85, p
< 0.05. A main effect of trustworthiness was found, F (1, 139) = 4.39, p < 0.05.
Respondents reported significantly more willingness to share WOM when the streamer
was perceived as highly trustworthy (M = 3.57, SD = 1.57) than when the streamer
was perceived as having low trustworthiness (M = 3.04, SD = 1.55). There was no
significant interaction between trustworthiness and attractiveness F (1, 139) = 0.001,
p = 0.98. For both cases of WOM, the pattern was similar, that attractiveness had a
larger effect on WOM than trustworthiness. An example of the similar patterns can be
seen from Figure 3 and 4 below.

Figure 3: Effect of trustworthiness on WOM in the case of an indie game

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Figure 4: Effect of trustworthiness on WOM in the case of a AAA game

For purchase intent, in the case of an indie game, the results showed a significant
main effect of attractiveness, such that high attractiveness (M = 3.63, SD = 1.30) lead
to significantly greater purchase intent than low attractiveness (M = 3.10, SD = 1.24),
F (1, 139) = 7.05, p < 0.05. Moreover, there was a significant main effect of
trustworthiness, such that high trustworthiness (M = 3.84, SD = 1.24) lead to
significantly greater purchase intent than low trustworthiness (M = 2.97, SD = 1.21), F
(1, 139) = 18.45, p < 0.001. There was no significant interaction between
attractiveness and trustworthiness F (1, 139) = 0.000, p = 0.99. In the case of an indie
game, the impact of trustworthiness was larger than the impact of attractiveness on
purchase intent.

For purchase intent, in the case of a AAA game, the results showed a significant main
effect of attractiveness, such that high attractiveness (M = 3.78, SD = 1.51) lead to
significantly larger purchase intent than low attractiveness (M = 2.97, SD = 1.19), F (1,
139) = 13.64, p < 0.001. Furthermore, there was a significant main effect of

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trustworthiness, such that high trustworthiness (M = 3.87, SD = 1.42) lead to
significantly larger purchase intent than low trustworthiness (M = 3.01, SD = 1.33), F
(1, 139) = 14.15, p < 0.001. There was no significant interaction between
attractiveness and trustworthiness F (1, 139) = 0.58, p = 0.45. In the case of a AAA
game, the impact of trustworthiness and attractiveness were similar.

For attitude towards the streamer, in the case of an indie game, the results showed a
significant main effect of attractiveness, such that high attractiveness (M = 4.19, SD =
1.64) lead to significantly more positive attitude than low attractiveness (M = 2.84, SD
= 1.31) F (1, 139) = 47.42, p < 0.001. Furthermore, a significant main effect of
trustworthiness was found, such that high trustworthiness (M = 4.57, SD = 1.43) lead
to significantly more positive attitude towards the streamer than low trustworthiness
(M = 2.68, SD = 1.28), F (1, 139) = 87.71, p < 0.001. There was found no significant
interaction between attractiveness and trustworthiness F (1, 139) = 0.84, p = 0.36.

For attitude towards the streamer, in the case of a AAA game, the results showed a
significant main effect of attractiveness, such that high attractiveness (M = 4.30, SD =
1.65) lead to significantly more positive attitude towards the streamer than low
attractiveness (M = 2.89, SD = 1.36), F (1, 139) = 46.66, p < 0.001. Moreover, there
was a significant main effect of trustworthiness, such that high trustworthiness (M =
4.61, SD = 1.29) lead to significantly more positive attitude towards the streamer than
perceived low trustworthiness (M = 2.80, SD = 1.55) F (1, 139) = 73.75, p < 0.001.
There was found no significant interaction between attractiveness and trustworthiness
F (1, 139) = 0.07, p = 0.79. For both cases of attitude towards the streamer, the pattern
was similar, that trustworthiness had a larger impact on the attitude than
attractiveness.

For the attitude towards an indie game, the results showed a significant main effect of
attractiveness, such that high attractiveness (M = 4.59, SD = 1.24) lead to significantly
more positive attitude towards the indie game than low attractiveness of streamer (M
= 4.18, SD = 1.11), F (1, 139) = 4.67, p < 0.05. Furthermore, there was a significant
main effect of trustworthiness, such that high trustworthiness of a streamer (M = 4.75,
SD = 1.05) lead to significantly more positive attitude towards the indie game than low
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trustworthiness of the streamer (M = 4.09, SD = 1.26), F (1, 139) = 11.32, p < 0.05.
There was found no significant interaction between attractiveness and trustworthiness
F (1, 139) = 0.03, p = 0.86. In the case of an indie game, trustworthiness of the
streamer had a larger impact on the attitude towards the game than attractiveness.

For the attitude towards a AAA game, the results showed no significant main effect of
attractiveness F (1, 139) = 3.44, p = 0.06. However, there was a significant main effect
of trustworthiness, such that high perceived trustworthiness of a streamer (M = 4.72,
SD = 1.03) lead to significantly more positive attitude towards the game than perceived
low trustworthiness of the streamer (M = 4.28, SD = 1.27), F (1, 139) = 4.65, p < 0.05.
There was found no significant interaction between attractiveness and trustworthiness.

Figure 5 below summarises the pathways of attractiveness and trustworthiness main

effects on consumer behaviour.

Behavioural
outcomes
Characteristics
Word-of-mouth

+
Attractiveness
Purchase intent

Streamer attitude
+

Trustworthiness
Indie game attitude

AAA game attitude

Figure 5: Summary of main effect pathways on consumer behaviour

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4.5. Type of game moderator analysis

As can be seen already from the pattern from the previous analyses, the type of game
does not seem to act as a moderator variable in the relationship between
characteristics of streamers and consumer behaviour. However, to confirm this
dependent t-test were run on the data.

For WOM, there was found no significance in the difference between an indie game
and a AAA game WOM intentions, t (138) = -0.86, p = 0.39. Moreover, there was no
significant difference for purchase intent between an indie game and a AAA game, t
(138) = -0.39, p = 0.70. There was no significant difference for attitude towards the
streamer when the game was indie versus AAA, t (138) = -0.99, p = 0.33. Finally, there
was no significant difference for attitude towards the game between an indie game
and a AAA game, t (138) = - 0.78, p = 0.44.

The findings are summarized in Table 6, with subscale means and the significance
level of the difference between the subscale means. In the table, for subscales 1
signifies indie game and 2 signifies a AAA game.

Table 6: Means and significance levels for pairs of subscales

Pairs Subscale Mean Significance, p

Word of mouth 1 3.23
Pair 1 0.39
Word of mouth 2 3.30
Purchase intent 1 3.40
Pair 2 0.70
Purchase intent 2 3.44
Streamer attitude 1 3.62
Pair 3 0.33
Streamer attitude 2 3.70
Game attitude 1 4.42
Pair 4 0.44
Game attitude 2 4.50

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5. DISCUSSION

5.1. Impact of attractiveness of an SMI on consumer behaviour

The perceived attractiveness of a streamer impacted WOM and purchase intent of

consumers. Thus, hypotheses H1A and H1B were accepted. It seems that if the
streamer is perceived as attractive, consumers are more likely to spread WOM and
are more likely to buy the games that the streamer is seen playing. However, in this
study the focus was more on behavioural attractiveness rather than physical
attractiveness of a streamer. The results seem to support other studies as well,
attractiveness of an SMI positively predicts WOM and purchase intent (Gupta, Agarwal
and Singh, 2020; Taillon et al., 2020), however these studies focused on physical
attractiveness of the SMIs. Moreover, attractiveness also positively predicts attitudes
towards the streamer and indie games. Attractiveness did not predict attitudes towards
AAA games, but this might have been because a flaw in the survey question. However,
this might also be because the attractiveness of a streamer and the quality of a game
are not seen as connected. The streamer cannot affect the quality of a game, they can
only impact on how they react to the game and thus how they personally like the game.
The streamer reacting to a game could impact the attitude towards a game and could
be further researched.

As previous studies have discovered, attractiveness is an important part of being an

influencer as it largely impacts consumer behaviour (Ki and Kim, 2019; Lou and Yuan,
2019; Gupta, Agarwal and Singh, 2020; Taillon et al., 2020). Even if this study only
tested out the attractiveness of streamers, it can be generalised to other types of SMIs
as well based on previous findings from studies. However, this thesis focused on traits
that are found attractive in streamer, that might not hold true for other types of SMIs.
These traits were:
- A streamer is entertaining
- A streamer is likeable
- A streamer is confident
- A streamer listens to audience feedback
- And a streamer does not have a strict structure to their stream

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The three first statements are general statements that could be applied for anybody.
However, the last two statements were written based on findings from Zhao et al.
(2019) study. These traits were found to be attractive in streamers, which impacts
WOM, purchase intent and positive attitudes towards the streamer and indie games.
These traits could be what a company looks for in streamers if the company wants to
use a streamer in their marketing.

Moreover, also the SMIs should consider how they are perceived as behavioural
attractiveness seems to impact consumer attitudes towards the SMI as well.
Previously studied physical attractiveness might not be something that the SMI can
really change or impact. However, the SMI can change their behaviour to some extent,
so could become more behaviourally attractive to consumer by changing some of their
behaviours.

5.2. Impact of trustworthiness of an SMI on consumer behaviour

In line with previous research, the results found that trustworthiness of a streamer
positively predicted attitudes towards the streamer, indie and AAA games, WOM and
purchase intent (Hsu, Chuan‐Chuan Lin and Chiang, 2013; Munnukka, Uusitalo and
Toivonen, 2016; Balaban and Mustățea, 2019; Lou and Yuan, 2019). Thus, hypothesis
H2A and H2B were accepted. As the findings seem to go in line with previous
research, it can be determined that the results from this study would suggest that the
perceived trustworthiness of also other types of SMIs, not only streamers, impacts
consumer behaviour.

This thesis also tested specific statements and traits that would make an SMI or a
streamer to be perceived as more trustworthy. These traits were as follows:
- A person follows up with their commitments
- A person does not lie
- A person is truthful about their opinion
- A person does what you expect them to do
- A person means what they promise
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 - A person is genuine
- A person is authentic
- And a person can be trusted with secrets or anything else important
These statements are broad and could be applied for other SMIs other than streamers
specifically as well. These could be traits that a company looks for in a streamer or an
SMI when the company wants to work with an SMI for marketing.

Overall, trustworthiness seems to be an important characteristic in streamers that

impacts consumer behaviour. Not only should companies consider partnering with
SMIs that are perceived as trustworthy, but also SMIs should consider how they are
perceived. Trustworthiness of an SMI does not only benefit a company by increasing
the potential WOM of products and increased purchase intents, but for the SMI the
consumer attitude towards the SMI is more positive when they are perceived as
trustworthy.

5.3. Type of game as a moderating variable

The results and analysis that was run on the data would suggest that type of game,
the game either being an indie game or a AAA game, does not act as a moderating
variable in the relationship between SMI characteristics and consumer behaviour.
There was no significant difference in the results between the question sets for an
indie game and a AAA game. However, part of the results could be down to the
research design that was used in this thesis. As the type of game questions were
within-subject style questions, this could have created biases in the responses for the
second question set and thus the results might not be accurate. However, the results
from this research do not support H3A, H3B, H3C or H3D, thus hypotheses H3A, H3B,
H3C and H3D were rejected. The type of game does not seem to act as a moderating
variable.

This result would go in line with the findings from Johnson and Woodcock (2019) study
that discussed how indie games can achieve visibility in platforms like Twitch where
streamers play these new, small games, but also at the same time streaming can
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extend the life span of older games, which could be indie or AAA games. So, the type
of game does not necessarily matter as consumers are as willing to spread WOM of
both games and purchase intentions seem to be similar and the type of game does
not impact consumer attitude of the streamer or the game differently.

5.4. Limitations

There are several possible limitations to this study. Many of these limitations are
connected to the empirical research of this study. Most notable limitation to this study
was the time constraint, which impacted the design of the main study survey and the
number of respondents in both surveys. The survey design for the main study survey
was not the most ideal design, as the within-subject design can created biases in the
responses. However, the design was decided on because of the tight timeframe in
which the responses had to be gathered. Moreover, this survey design allowed for less
necessary responses, so that the experimental condition group could possibly have
30 respondents. If a between-subject design was also decided on for the type of game,
there would have been 8 experimental conditions instead of the 4 that the study had.
This would have also meant that the survey would have needed twice the number of
responses that were gathered. This did not seem realistic, so the within-subject design
was adapted for the survey. This might have created biases in the responses;
however, it was the best decision considering the timeframe and number of responses
that were needed.

Furthermore, the sample sizes for both surveys were rather small. The pre-test survey
was completed by 13 people and the main study survey was completed by 139 people.
These are not very large sample sizes, especially considering how big the community
around video games are.

The pre-test survey and the main study survey had deviating sample profiles. It does
not seem to have affected the results of the main study survey, as the respondents
seem to have had the same idea from the manipulated scenarios as expected.
However, the different sample profiles could have affected the results, as for example
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the pre-test survey only had one age group represented, while the main study survey
had a wider age range. Also, the pre-test was more female dominated, 61.5 % of
respondents were female, while the main study was more male dominated, 61.9 % of
respondents were male. This could have affected how the scenarios and the specific
statements were being understood.

Moreover, the gender distribution in the main study survey does not exactly match the
general gender distribution in the video gaming space. In this study 37.6 % of
respondents were female and 61.9 % were male. In recent years, more females have
been represented as video gamers, and last year females represented 41 % of video
gamers while 59 % of video gamers are male (Clement, 2021b). So, to more truly
represent the video game community there should have been more female
respondents in the study. Right now, the study was more male dominated.

Finally, while cleaning the main study survey data, there was a mistake noticed on one
out of the three question scales used for attitude towards AAA game. The question
scale should have been 1 (ordinary) through 7 (innovative), but what the respondents
saw was 1 (ordinary) through 7 (convenient). This could have affected how
respondents answered to this particular question and scale. Also, it might explain why
attractiveness did not impact the attitude towards a AAA game. However, despite the
mistake in the question, trustworthiness did impact the attitude towards the AAA game,
like previously mentioned. Hence, it might be that some of the respondents did notice
the mistake in the question and changed their answer based on that, but some
respondents might have not noticed it. However, after the fact, it is difficult to speculate
how or if this mistake did impact the answers to the survey.

6. CONCLUSIONS

6.1. Main Findings

The objective of this thesis was to identify characteristics of SMIs and identify the main
characteristics and traits that impact consumer behaviour, especially in the video

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game industry. Social media influencers have been the subject of research from many
points of view, but streamers from the video game industry have only recently the topic
of research. The aim of the research was to gain a comprehensive view of
characteristics of SMIs and how these characteristics impact consumer behaviour,
especially within the video game community.

The results of the research found that attractiveness and trustworthiness of streamers
positively predict consumer behaviour. The results supported hypotheses H1A, H1B,
H2A and H2B. However, hypothesis H3A-D were rejected, as the research could not
support that the type of game would act as a moderating variable between the
characteristics and consumer behaviour relationship. Moreover, the research helped
identify specific traits in streamers that are perceived as attractive and trustworthy as
discussed previously.

6.2. Implications for International Business

This thesis offers a more in-depth view of SMI characteristics and how the
characteristics impact consumer behaviour. This thesis also helped to identify some
specific traits of SMIs and streamers that could help companies in choosing SMIs to
partner with. So, this research could help gaming companies in identifying the right
influencers to partner with when advertising their products.

As marketing of video games as well as other industries is shifting more towards

focusing on influencer marketing, it is becoming vital for companies to understand how
to choose the right influencers for their companies. Previous research has identified
physical attractiveness as an important factor in impacting consumer behaviour, this
study widens this view by adding also behavioural attractiveness as an important
factor in the relationship between SMIs and consumer behaviour.

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6.3. Suggestions for Further Research

For suggestions for further research, as mentioned already the streamer cannot affect
the quality of a game, they can only impact on how they react to the game and thus
how they personally like the game. The streamer’s reaction to a game could impact
consumer behavioural outcomes like the attitude towards a game and could be further
researched.

This research was based on scenario text only, thus no pictures were shown to the
respondents. Some streamers do not show their faces at all, and instead use animated
avatars or only show gameplay. It could be further researched how only showing
gameplay versus using an animated avatar versus using a face camera impact the
relationship between the streamer and viewers.

Another suggestion for further research could be to study other SMI characteristics as
well. For example, in the literature review section of this thesis discussed authenticity
and similarities of SMIs as characteristics, however these were not further studied in
this thesis. Another interesting point of view could the gender of the influencer and
how the gender impacts the relationship between influencer and viewers. These could
be possible topics to further research.

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Appendix A: Pre-test survey
.

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Appendix B: Main study survey
.

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