The effect of connectedness to social media influencers on online compulsive buying

The fact that influencers have become decision-makers for their followers and that the impact of traditional promotional activities is gradually diminishing has enabled influencer marketing to be widely used by brands. Similarly, the attachment individuals feel towards influencers increases the influencers' impact even further. The main motivation of this research is to examine how this attachment evolves into shopping addiction through the influence of influencers. The primary aim of this study is to understand whether attachment to social media influencers has any effect on compulsive buying and whether demographic differences trigger this condition. The study was conducted with the participation of 387 individuals to investigate the impact of influencers on shopping addiction among those who are attached to social media influencers. Demographic variables were also included in the study to better understand the phenomenon. Validity and reliability analysis, explanatory factor analysis, and finally, regression analysis were performed on the collected data. Within the scope of this study, it was found that the attachment of social media users to influencers has a positive and significant effect on online compulsive buying behaviors in the sub-dimensions of "escape, imitation, modeling, desire, and owning special items," but no significant effect was found when the demographic characteristics of the users were taken into account. The findings of the study have important implications for both academic literature and practical applications. Keywords: Social Media, Influencer Marketing, Online Compulsive Buying, Connectedness