The authentic virtual influencer: Authenticity manifestations in the metaverse
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Technological advances in developing virtual humans, such as virtual coaches, enable rich, genuine, and smooth human-like interactions with people, reducing the perception of virtual humans as merely fictitious constructions.
“Technological advances in developing virtual humans, such as virtual coaches, enable rich, genuine, and smooth human-like interactions with people, 62 reducing the perception of virtual humans as merely fictitious constructions. 63”
From Mixed reality technology for older adults: Evaluating the impact of a novel virtual humanoid coach in a community-based physical exercise program in the Philippines (2024) · cites this paper as [63]
Section 5.1 (page unavailable) reports that virtual influencers can seem more authentic when they display humanlike behaviors and emotions while interacting with others. Section 5.2 (page unavailable) discusses technologies that can make them look more humanlike. The paper concerns virtual influencers, not virtual coaches, and does not establish that technological advances enable smooth interactions or reduce perceptions of them as fictitious constructions; it also notes that openly virtual characteristics can be authentic. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Jain, R., Schuster, L., Luck, E., & Jin, H. S. (2024) · International Journal of Consumer Studies · doi:10.1111/ijcs.13105 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Navigating the uncertainty path of virtual influencers: Empirical evidence through a cultural lens
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Virtual influencers in marketing: addressing authenticity challenges through anthropomorphism
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The role of virtual influencers in environmental messaging: a case study of Noonoouri
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Leveraging Marketing Strategies to Help Consumers Make Decisions Using Metaverse Technologies
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What drives metaverse retail environments (non)usage? A behavioral reasoning theory perspective
Nadeem, W., Ashraf, A. R., & Shahid, S. (2024) · Technological Forecasting and Social Change · doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123945 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Making it real on social media: exploring authenticity strategies for sport and fitness influencers
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Xia, H., Yang, Y., & Wang, X. (2025) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104371 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Human vs. virtual influencers in Crisis: How attribution and crisis response shape brand trust
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A systematic literature review of virtual idol from the perspective of the business role ecosystem
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Do social media self-care influencers promote unsustainable consumption? A mixed methods study
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A trans-disciplinary forensic study of Lil Miquela’s virtual identity performance in Instagram
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Is it real or not? construction of meaning and identity in virtual influencer marketing
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Marketing Complexity of Smart Consumer Products to Global Millennial Segments
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Artificial yet credible: How virtual influencers overcome authenticity challenges
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The metaverse experience: A scale development study
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A Systematic Literature Review on the Negative Impacts of AI-Generated Virtual Digital Humans
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Explication of the Virtual Influencer Ecosystem
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The dawn of ‘deinfluencing’ as a vehicle for moral responsibility and anti-consumption
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Conceptualizing and measuring strategic authenticity? A reflective-formative second-order model
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Enhancing Customer Engagement Through Artificial Intelligence Authenticity
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How AI Brand Endorsers Influence Generation MZ’s Consumer Behavior in Metaverse Marketing Scenarios
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A systematic literature review of virtual influencers in marketing using bibliometric analysis
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Digital luxury: how avatar marketing drives consumer engagement for luxury brands
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The Past, Present, and Future of Virtual Influencer Marketing
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An investigation into the sexualization of human and virtual social media influencers
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- Authors
- Koles, B., Audrezet, A., Moulard, J. G., Ameen, N., & McKenna, B.
- Affiliations
- Institut français de la mode (FR)
- Louisiana Tech University (US)
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- University of East Anglia (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Business Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-01
- Volume
- 170
- Pages
- 114325
- ISSN
- 0148-2963 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4387557032
- Cited by
- 254
- References
- 77
- Citations by year
- 2026: 98 · 2025: 84 · 2024: 71 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 109.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (am, 284 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Journal of Business Research (acceptedVersion)
- UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (acceptedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
- Keywords
- virtual influencers, authenticity, metaverse, consumer perception, uncanny valley, influencer marketing
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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