Research seminar by Robert Ciuchita from Hanken School of Economics
Social media influencers strive to establish themselves as knowledgeable, desirable sources of information for consumers’ purchase decisions. However, the surge of sponsored product endorsements on social media has fueled consumer skepticism, undermining influencer trustworthiness. Arguably, deinfluencing content—organic social media posts in which influencers discourage consumers from purchasing certain products or services—might help restore trust. Drawing on influencer marketing research, attribution theory, and persuasion knowledge, the authors derive a conceptual model to predict how deinfluencing content affects consumers, influencers, and brands. With a specific focus on short, vertical videos, a pilot study and three preregistered experiments demonstrate that deinfluencing content enhances influencer trustworthiness by reducing skepticism about their motives and thereby strengthens purchase intentions toward subsequently endorsed products. However, the effectiveness of influencer recommendations diminishes if they appear in sponsored collaborations with brands whose products those influencers previously discouraged. These findings offer theoretical insights into the evolving landscape of influencer communications and provide actionable implications for influencers seeking to build trust-based relationships with online audiences, as well as for brands considering collaborations with influencers who share deinfluencing content.
Dr. Robert Ciuchita (PhD in Marketing, Maastricht University) is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. He currently serves as Head of the Marketing subject and Director of Hanken’s Bachelor's in Business programme. His research and teaching focus on digital marketing, service management, service innovation, and customer experience management, with a particular interest in digital transformation and emerging technologies.
Robert’s work has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Service Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, and several book chapters. He is Associate Editor for Innovation & Technology at the Journal of Business Research and serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Service Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, and Journal of Service Management