Navigating disruptions in the health industry: how firms can leverage online opinion leadership to drive health behaviors

作者：Muhammad Waqas, Adeel Khalid, Muhammad Usman, Giampaolo Viglia, Shaker Bani‐Melhem · 发表于：European Journal of Marketing · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1108/ejm-06-2024-0513 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Digital Marketing and Social Media、Media Influence and Health、Impact of Technology on Adolescents

Purpose This study aims to investigate the disruptive impact of firm-led influencer marketing on promoting health behaviors, examining how firms can leverage online opinion leadership to drive consumer health behavior and navigate the complex and evolving health industry. Design/methodology/approach The empirical approach revolves around a sequential mixed-methods approach with 15 semistructured interviews with social media users followed by a time-lagged survey of 331 followers of an Instagram account. Findings The results reveal that online opinion leadership is positively associated with consumer health behavior via consumer parasocial relationships and health behavioral control. Moreover, this study also reveals that online opinion leader-cause congruence significantly increases the direct association of online opinion leadership with parasocial relationships and the indirect association with consumer health behavior. Research limitations/implications This work offers insights on consumer health behavior antecedents, online opinion leadership outcomes and the roles of parasocial relationships, health behavioral control and influencer-cause congruence. Exploring other social media platforms like X, YouTube and TikTok can provide additional insights. Practical implications Firms should leverage online opinion leadership for personalized engagement, build parasocial relationships through authentic influencer partnerships, develop influencer-based content through long-term co...