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Power resources. --- Energy --- Energy resources --- Power supply --- Natural resources --- Energy harvesting --- Energy industries --- Electrical engineering. --- Electric engineering --- Engineering

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
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Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Social media influencers play a crucial role on social media platforms. Acting as digital opinion leaders on social media, they express their voice on multiple serious issues. In addition, because of the sizable followers that social media influencers have, their opinions and suggestions are influential and may arouse followers’ attitudes and behaviors. The real-time and immersive natures of social media platforms contribute to the increasing interaction and intimate relationship between social media influencers and followers. Therefore, the aims of the present study are twofold: 1) to explore the relationship between exposure to social media influencers and followers’ psychological activities (i.e., perceived similarity, wishful identification, and parasocial relationship) toward influencers; 2) to explain how these psychological activities toward social media influencers are associated with the followers’ behaviors that comply with influencers’ recommendations. Besides, since this study is testing cross-lagged effects, reciprocal relationships between these variables are also included. This study applies a secondary two-wave dataset (N=496) for statistical analysis. Participants of the survey are late adolescents or young adults aged from 16 to 25 years. The time interval between two waves is three months. Data screening results show no error data and outliers in the dataset. Structural equation modeling is employed in the study using lavaan in R. The first step of data analysis is testing the measurement invariance of the observed variables. Four nested models are established with increasing constraint parameters in R. Through comparing the model fit indices, the results suggest the metric invariance model is better. Next, a traditional cross-lagged panel model is used to test structural models. Applying the constraints defined in the metric model, two structural models are defined. The first one investigates the relationship between the frequency of exposure and psychological activities (i.e., perceived similarity, wishful identification, and parasocial relationship) toward social media influencers, while the second model investigates the relationship between these psychological activities and behaviors that follow influencers’ recommendations. The results of structural models support the frequency of exposure at Time 1 is positively and significantly associated with perceived similarity, wishful identification, and parasocial relationship with social media influencers at Time 2. However, the results indicate that perceived similarity, wishful identification, and parasocial relationship at Time 1 have no significant relationship with the subsequent behaviors at Time 2. Interestingly, the results find that followers who take the influencers’ advice at Time 1 are more likely to perceive similar as well as wishfully identify and build parasocial relationships with social media influencers at Time 2. This study may inspire further research for exploring the outcomes resulting from obeying social media influencers’ recommendations.