| dc.description.abstract | Nowadays, there is no doubt that opinion leaders are key sources of advice for
customers. And the emergence of Instagram as a photo-sharing and social network
platform has raised the awareness of many brands about the potential and effectiveness of
utilizing Instagram opinion leaders in their strategies. Tourism is among the industries
that are most likely to gain substantial benefits from such strategy. This research aims to
investigate the antecedents of Instagram opinion leadership and how opinion leaders
influence their followers' intentions in the context of tourism industry in Vietnam. Over
400 surveys were collected from Instagram users who have been following tourismrelated
opinion leaders on this platform. Scale validation, structural equation modeling
(SEM) and moderation test using multigroup analysis are conducted to examine and
confirm the adopted model in the chosen context. The result supported that the perception
of a potential opinion leader on Instagram is significantly influenced by the perceived
originality and uniqueness of the account. The level of opinion leadership recognized by
the followers will then shape their intentions, which will benefit both the account owner
(intention to interact and recommend the influencers’ account to others) and the tourism
industry (intention to follow the advice offered). Finally, multigroup analysis findings
indicate that there are no moderating effects generated by online propensity or perceived
fit on the relationship between opinion leadership and followers' intentions. Practical
recommendations are discussed to apply these interesting findings for the vacation
industry. | en_US |
