Ethical Transparency, Trust, and Consumer Behavior in Influencer Marketing

This study examines ethical transparency, trust in influencers, attitudes toward influencer-promoted products, purchase intention, and self-reported purchasing behavior within Instagram-based influencer marketing. The research is positioned within the broader context of sustainable digital consumer behavior, emphasizing the importance of transparent and responsible communication in contemporary digital marketing ecosystems and sponsored influencer content. The study draws on the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine consumer awareness of influencers’ financial motives alongside perceptions, purchase intentions, and self-reported purchasing behavior. The research employed a quantitative design based on a structured online questionnaire among 491 respondents from various countries, who were professionally active young adults enrolled in business and management programs in France. The findings indicate that the respondents demonstrate high awareness of the commercial nature of influencer marketing and strong expectations regarding sponsorship disclosure. At the same time, trust in influencers remained moderate, while attitudes toward influencer-promoted products and purchase intentions were only moderately positive. Self-reported purchasing behavior was also relatively limited, while personal need received the highest mean score among the examined purchasing motivations. The results indicate that respondents in this study demonstrated high awareness of commercial persuasion and comparatively cautious responses to sponsored influencer content. The study contributes to sustainability-oriented marketing research by considering the relevance of ethical transparency, consumer awareness, and responsible communication to informed and responsible digital consumption. Sustainable consumption was not directly measured; rather, the study discusses the sustainability relevance of the observed consumer response patterns.