Impact of Social Media Influencers on Consumer Brand Relationships in Branded Fashion Industry in Sri Lanka: The Moderating Role of Consumer Innovativeness

The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence for branded fashion organisations regarding the important attributes of social media influencers (SMIs) that match the brand's values, which in turn could contribute to increasing consumer-brand relationships (CBR) and optimising marketing budgets. This is a cross-sectional quantitative study that uses an online survey via a structured questionnaire implemented in the Western Province of Sri Lanka, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted using Smart PLS to delineate the hypothesised relationships. The findings of this study uncover that SMIs’ attributes such as attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise positively influence the CBR. Furthermore, consumer innovativeness (CI) did not moderate the relationship between SMIs’ attributes and CBR. This study offers fashion marketers information on key attributes that brands and customers value rather than just depending on vanity metrics.