How Does the Fear of Missing Out Moderate the Effect of Social Media Influencers on Their Followers’ Purchase Intention?

Abstract

Social media influencers, a new type of opinion leader, are considered followers’ role models and strongly affect their attitudes and behaviors. Although their power on social media platforms is an emerging phenomenon, the studies exploring the impact of influencers’ endorsement of products on their followers’ buying intentions are still limited. By employing 272 respondents exposed to influencers, this study used PROCESS models to test hypotheses. The results demonstrate that the desire to mimic influencers and the sense of materialism mediate the effect of influencers on followers’ buying intentions. In addition, fear of missing out (FOMO) plays a moderation role in these relationships by altering the impact of influencer exposure on materialism and buying intention. These findings contribute to the current literature on social media influencers, the desire to mimic, materialism, and FOMO and also yield suggestions for influencers and marketers in their strategies.