Empirical analysis of social media influencers’ effect on con-sumer purchase intentions and behavior

Social media influencers (SMIs) have become pivotal stakeholders in digital marketing. This study examines how SMIs influence consumer decision-making and investigates the role of trust in this process. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), we devel-oped a research model with testable hypotheses. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), we analyzed survey data from 232 social media users in Greater London, UK. Our results indicate that SMIs significantly enhance purchase inten-tions, yet these intentions exhibit only a weak conversion into actual purchasing behavior. Contrary to expectations, trust in SMIs demonstrated a significant negative relationship with purchase intention, suggesting that higher trust may paradoxically diminish pur-chase likelihood. This counterintuitive finding underscores the complexity of trust dy-namics in influencer marketing, where perceived commercialization or consumer skepti-cism may counteract its positive effects. Furthermore, while SMIs strongly foster trust, our analysis reveals that trust does not mediate the relationship between SMIs and actual purchases. These findings contribute to the literature by elucidating the nuanced role of trust and highlighting the intention-behavior gap in influencer marketing. Future research should explore contextual and psychological moderators to understand these trust effects better.