Investigating the Impact of Social Media Influencers’ Credibility on Vegan Food Purchase Intentions: An SOR Perspective

Social media influencers play a crucial role in promoting vegan food by creating captivating content that educates and inspires a wide audience about plant-based lifestyles, fostering a culture of compassionate and sustainable living. Within the context of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) paradigm, this study attempts to examine the effects of social media influencer credibility dimensions on parasocial interaction, which further affects brand attitude, leading to purchase intention towards vegan food. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyze the 210 responses from consumers who participated in the survey. Results revealed a positive association between all the relations hypothesized; further, the parasocial interaction and brand attitude significantly mediate the relationship between social media influencers’ credibility dimensions and the purchase intention towards vegan food. The results of this study may help producers, retailers and distributors in the vegan food sector to enhance their marketing tactics for vegan food that has eco-friendly qualities.