Effects of finance knowledge influencer qualities on investment willingness and the moderation of followers' risk tolerance

Fueled by the rise of social media, internet celebrities (or influencers) are a subgroup of public figures who have gained extreme public attention in recent years. In this study, we examined the qualities of finance knowledge influencers to elucidate the impact that investment discussions or tutorials posted by influencers have on followers' and audiences' investment willingness. We adopted attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness as the independent variables, followers' risk tolerance as the moderator, and followers' investment willingness as the dependent variable. For data collection, respondents were instructed to watch three different influencer videos and complete a questionnaire. A total of 327 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed. The questionnaire survey results showed that influencers' attractiveness expertise, and trustworthiness positively affected followers' investment willingness. Furthermore, followers' risk tolerance negatively moderates the relationship between influencer attractiveness and investment willingness, but it positively moderates the relationship between influencer trustworthiness and investment willingness. The empirical findings of this study theoretically contribute to academics and have practical implications in the real world. We propose several suggestions for future research.