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Examining the Impact of Source-product Congruence and Sponsorship Disclosure on the Communicative Effectiveness of Instagram Influencers

Guided by the Persuasion Knowledge Model and the Attribution Theory, this study investigates the perceived source expertise-product attribute congruence and sponsorship disclosure as pertinent factors affecting the communicative effectiveness of influencers. Instagram, with an immense influencer market value projected at USD2.3 billion in 2020, was chosen as the platform context. The study utilised a 2 (source expertise) x2 (product category) x2 (sponsorship disclosure) experiment to examine the roles of source-product congruence and sponsorship disclosure in affecting consumers' perception of extrinsic and intrinsic source motives, consumer resistance and ultimately, advertising effectiveness. Results revealed that the presence of a sponsorship disclosure generated stronger perceptions of extrinsic source motives but did not impact consumer resistance and advertising effectiveness, indicating that the activation of consumers' conceptual persuasion knowledge may not necessarily affect attitudinal persuasion knowledge. Source-product congruence, on the other hand, had main impacts on intrinsic motives, consumer resistance and ad effectiveness. In addition, hierarchical multiple regressions found that source-product congruence triggers a multi-stage process where consumers' perception of intrinsic source motives mediates consumer resistance which subsequently, mediates the relationship between source-product congruence and ad effectiveness.