Editors
- Jhih-Syuan (Elaine) Lin, National Chengchi University
- Chen Lou, Nanyang Technological University
Description
This special issue examines influencer advertising as an evolving interactive system shaped by technological advances, platform algorithms, and changing consumer expectations. The field has shifted from viewing influencers as isolated persuasion sources to understanding them as components within human-machine systems where outcomes emerge from interactions among influencers, platforms, algorithms, and audiences.
The special issue addresses both opportunities and risks in influencer advertising. While new technologies enable brand engagement, influencer advertising also presents boundary conditions and unintended consequences, including concerns about deceptive practices, consumer vulnerability, and well-being impacts, particularly within increasingly AI-mediated ecosystems.
The journal invites original research that theoretically and empirically examines how and when influencer advertising succeeds or fails, with particular emphasis on work integrating contemporary technological contexts and rigorous methodology across consumer behavior, technology innovation, industry development, negative effects, and global trends.
Potential topics
- eWOM, social proof, and interactive persuasion dynamics in influencer advertising
- Persuasion processes and boundary conditions
- Emotional engagement, (trans)parasocial interaction, and relational dynamics in influencer content
- Trust, authenticity, and credibility calibration across influencer types
- Unintended and counter-persuasive effects
- AI-mediated and synthetic persuasion agents
- Immersive and extended realities in influencer advertising
- Platform affordances and algorithmic amplification of influencer content
- Interactive commerce and creator-led retail ecosystems (e.g., live streaming, social shopping, short-form video)
- Influencer advertising as a profession and creator-economy dynamics
- Disclosure, regulation, and governance as interactive design challenges
- Measurement, attribution, and performance evaluation in influencer advertising
- Brand–influencer–platform–AI relationship management and governance
- The dark side of interactive and AI-mediated influencer persuasion
- Influencer fatigue, burnout, and long-term relational consequences
- Consumer vulnerability, well-being, and societal implications
- Long-term influencer partnerships in interactive and AI-enabled media
- Influencers, activism, and social or political causes
- Diversity, representation, and inclusion in influencer advertising
- Global and non-Western contexts as theory-generating sites
- Future directions in hybrid, immersive, and automated influencer campaigns