A Psychographic View on the Influencing Chain of Fairness in Fashion ...

There has been an increasing interest in fashion social media influencers (SMI) from both the scientific and practical points of view. Individuals deciding to follow influencers on Instagram as well as developing interest in and purchasing the influencers’ recommended products, seem to reflect the daily routines of today’s young adults. A considerable amount of literature has been published on organizational justice/fairness so far. Recently, researchers have transferred concepts of perceived fairness to influencer-follower relationships. We go beyond and add the impact of two followers’ psychographic variables (loneliness, low self-esteem) on Instagram in the influencing chain explaining followers’ purchase intention. Thus, we investigate the influence of the four fairness dimensions (informational, interpersonal, procedural, distributive) on parasocial relationships and on purchase intention by adding loneliness and low self-esteem. The results derived from SEM emphasize the importance of informational and interpersonal fairness and loneliness as valuable antecedents of parasocial relations with SMI and purchase intention for recommended products. The findings have implications for theory and practice.