Antecedents of Chinese millennial consumers' purchase intentions via following influencers' recommendations: the sports goods industry

Abstract: Background In recent years, with the rapid development of e-commerce in China, various online media and digital social platforms have attracted more users, and online marketing has gradually replaced traditional marketing strategies. The increasing frequency of online shopping by Chinese consumers, especially millennials, presents a huge opportunity for influencer marketing. Influencers with a large number of followers have been used by many companies as online marketing tools. To deeply explore the reasons why Chinese millennial consumers buy products recommended by the influencer, the Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI) was used as the theoretical basis to form the theoretical framework of this study after a review of academic literature, and various factors such as Chinese culture, different industries, personal influence stream, environment, and social environment should be considered. Purpose The purpose of this research is to study the factors that affect Chinese millennial consumers to follow the recommendations of influencers in purchasing sports products through Taobao, Tik Tok, or Weibo. MethodIn this quantitative research, 362 Chinese respondents' data were collected through an online questionnaire. The data of the 302 sample were tested and analyzed by SPSS software since they were referring to Chinese millennials who have followed influencers and purchased sports products online. Conclusion According to the data analysis results of this study, behavior control, self-efficacy, and attitude will actively promote Chinese millennial consumers' purchase intentions of sports products recommended by influencers. Finally, social norms are related to Chinese culture, which may explain why this hypothesis does not significantly predict consumers' online purchase intentions. Therefore, this study could provide suggestions for influencers and online retailers to help them improve the online purchasing intention of Chinese millennial consumers, and thus improve the sales and profit. On the other hand, this study can help consumers understand the marketing strategies of influencers to achieve the purpose of helping them to make more rational consumption.