Unpacking the concept of influencers: the moderating role of Social Media Influencers in service failure recovery strategies

Prior research has advanced several explanations for social media influencers’ (SMIs’) success in the burgeoning computer-mediated marketing environments but leaves one key topic unexplored: the moderating role of SMIs in service failure recovery strategies. This study adds to the literature by analysing the nature of influencer marketing from the credibility of source perspective to the congruence effects between SMIs’ and consumers’ perceptions, particularly on the mediating role of influencers on failure recovery processes. Building on actor–network theory, this study conceptualises four distinct pathways unifying SMIs’ efforts in the service failure recovery process. The emergent dual funnel model illustrates how the effortful processing of social media content, source credibility and message content moderate service failure severity and speed of recovery. The insights gained from our model contribute to research on the pivotal uniqueness of SMIs in service failure recovery processes and offer practical explanations of variations in the implementation of influencer marketing