Self-created or collaborative? The effects of virtual influencers' identity type and post type on purchase intentions

Purpose Considering that when endorsing the same product, virtual influencers with different identity types (self-created, collaborative) can have different impacts on consumers' purchasing behaviors, this paper aims to explore how to maximize the impact effects of the VIs' respective identities. It provides companies with new perspectives on endorsement strategies. Design/methodology/approach The interaction between VI identity type and post type (informational, storytelling) on purchase intention was analyzed in four experiments ( N = 1,007), considering informational and normative social influence as intermediate mechanisms and consumer self-construal as moderators. Findings The findings show that self-created VI is suited to informational posts and collaborative VI to storytelling posts. This identity-content match effectively triggers the social influence mechanism: informational posts of self-created VI significantly enhance informational social influence. In contrast, storytelling posts of collaborative VI primarily stimulate normative social influence. Consumer self-construal also moderates the process of influencing mechanisms. Originality/value Based on social influence theory and matching theory, this paper confirms the existence of an interaction between VI identity types, which influences consumers' purchase intention through informational and normative social influence. This finding fills the research gap in the field of VI endorsement strategy. It also emphasizes the importance of consumer self-construal and contributes new insights into the related field.