The WiSo faculty is pleased to announce that an international team of current and former WiSo researchers led by Zeynep Karagür, from the Chair of Marketing Science and Analytics of the WiSo Faculty, has won the Best Paper Award of the International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM). The European Marketing Academy awarded Zeynep Karagür, Jan-Michael Becker (today Norwegian Business School (BI Oslo)), Kristina Klein (today Universität Bremen), and Alexander Edeling (today KU Leuven) for their paper entitled "How, why, and when disclosure type matters for influencer marketing"
The award-winning paper examines how different types of advertising disclosure in influencer marketing influence consumer behavior. The study, published in the second issue of IJRM in 2022, develops important implications for policymakers, brands, and content creators.
The research shows that the way advertising is labeled in influencer marketing has a direct impact on the perceptions of the trustworthiness of influencers and thus on consumer engagement with their content. In particular, the labeling of posts as advertising via Instagram’s platform-initiated branded content tool highly reduces consumers’ perceived trustworthiness and reinforces perceptions of monetary motives of influencers.
Based on an additional analysis within their study, Karagür and her research team emphasize that labeling commercial content as advertising can also be beneficial for influencers. Hence, they advise influencers to label their commercial posts as such, as transparency is valued by consumers and enhances perceptions of the trustworthiness of the influencer. Simultaneously, such labeling prevents negative legal actions.
We warmly congratulate the team on this well-deserved recognition.