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Research Article

Dual Credibility Pathways in Cross-Domain Influencer Endorsement

Danning ZhaoXi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Influencer marketing has a significant influence on consumers' attitudes and willingness to buy. However, when influencers endorse products outside their usual content domain, followers may doubt whether the influencers are credible enough and have the corresponding knowledge. This study examines how parasocial relationship and perceived quality of product-related arguments are related to followers' purchase intention in cross-domain influencer endorsement. Drawing upon source credibility theory, this study presents a dual-pathway model: Perceived trustworthiness plays a mediating role in the relationship between parasocial relationship and purchase intention, while perceived expertise mediates the relationship between argument quality and purchase intention. Through a scenario-based survey of 150 social media users, SPSS was used for analyzing relevant data. The findings showed that parasocial relationship was positively related to perceived trustworthiness, and perceived quality of product-related arguments was positively associated with perceived expertise. In addition, perceived trustworthiness mediated the relationship between parasocial relationship and purchase intention, while perceived expertise mediated the relationship between argument quality and purchase intention. These results suggest that cross-domain influencer endorsement can be explained through two credibility-based pathways. Followers not only rely on the relationship with the influencers, but also on the quality of product arguments to form purchase intentions.

Keywords: cross-domain influencer endorsement; parasocial relationship; argument quality; source credibility
Published: September 8, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.BJ36538
Volume: CHR Vol.119
pp. 46-55
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