How Virtual Celebrity Characteristics Drive Purchase Intention: Testing the Stimulus-Organism-Response Framework with Structural Equation Modeling

In recent years, firms have begun introducing virtual celebrities to promote their products and brands across various media channels. This research employs the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework to empirically investigate how virtual celebrity attractiveness factors, such as appearance, voice, and content quality, can influence consumer satisfaction, loyalty, and purchase intention. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses based on a sample of 249 participants who had engaged in virtual celebrity experiences. The findings indicate that content quality is the strongest predictor of user satisfaction and that satisfaction indirectly influences purchase intention through loyalty. Furthermore, personalization moderates the satisfaction-loyalty relationship, suggesting that personalized experiences would enhance the engagement of virtual celebrities and fans. The findings indicate that firms considering virtual celebrity campaigns should focus more on emotion-eliciting, narrative-consistent content rather than visual realism. Furthermore, investments in loyalty-building programs and personalized engagement solutions are necessary to transform consumer satisfaction into sustained behaviors.