Social Influencer Factors that Affect Young Adult Buying Behaviour

With the aid of social media, influencer marketing has grown to become one of the best tools available today for reaching out to new audiences. There has been a rising question whether influencer marketing could be trusted or not. The stakeholder of the marketing manager must extinguish which influencers could reach new consumers for their branding. Therefore, the number of social media followers that plays its roles as stakeholder assumes the more the followers the highest potential customer, they will gain. Due to that notion, many people want to grab that opportunity by obtaining fake followers on social media platforms. This fraudulent action might harm the influencer marketing and customers due to trustworthy issues. Due to that, the study's goal is to investigate the social influences on young adults' purchasing. The questionnaire is used as a tool for gathering data. The objectives of this study is to examine the factors, such as source legitimacy, source attractiveness, and fit between social influencer and product endorsement, that affect young adults' purchasing decisions in Malaysia. To gather primary data, a sample of 388 respondents among the young adult were distributed survey questionnaires. In observing the independent variables of the study (source credibility, source of attractiveness and the fit between social influencer and product endorsement) Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis is conducted. All of the variables have a substantial impact on the purchasing behaviour of young adults. The study concludes with a discussion of the summary findings, research implications, limitations, and recommendations for further research.


Introduction
The usage of today's social media platforms cannot be isolated from the advancement of technology or from the use of smartphones and other devices. The way people use social media has changed along with the world. People utilised social media as a platform to publish their personal information, including news, images, and videos. According Emily and Richard (2021), the online interactions also made it easier for users to communicate with one another, which can be affected or changed by other people's thoughts. It is a fact where, it has changed the way people spend their daily lives more on mobile technology and internet on a social media. Social networking has become an integral component of their everyday routine especially by the young people. They could spend for hours in social media as part of their mandatory routine. People have taken advantage of this digital world and further leverage it on marketing and advertising. The influencer marketing has become one of a new marketing approach by many companies especially by the marketing managers, where they are forced to react on changes of lifestyle and consumer behaviors (Stefan & Maria, 2020). In fact, young people nowadays are all aware of social influencer and identify themselves as a part of key influencer.
The influencer marketing can be defined as an influence of the marketing procedure towards the purchasing behaviors of people in terms of products and services (Stefan & Maria, 2020). As the market condition is constantly changing, the existence of a new role such as social influencer as an integral part of marketing is more important nowadays. It has become a crucial approach for marketing and companies as social media influencer, can be considered as figurehead or key opinion leader (KOL) that followed and loves by many people, especially the young adults. Most influencer are come from ordinary person, some of them are actors, blogger, a mother of a child, as well as youtubers which then leads to a fame as well as reputations.
In Malaysia, influencer marketing in this country can be considered as growing fast as the technology progress. Developing country like Malaysia will stress more on the technology development. Therefore, it will indirectly encourage the growth of influencer marketing, especially for the business purposes. Subsequently, detailed research on the conceivable influencer ascribes that can possibly impact Malaysian young adults buying behavior should be planned (Zarith et al., 2019). Social influencer in Malaysia consists of celebrity like Siti Nurhaliza, YouTuber like Cupcake Aisyah and BellaKhan Instafamous like Caprice.

Problem Statement
The number of social media followers that plays its roles as stakeholder assumes the more the followers the highest potential customer, they will gain (Connor, 2019). Due to that notion, many people want to grab that opportunity by obtaining fake followers on social media platforms (Stefan & Maria, 2020). This fraudulent action might harm the influencer marketing and customers due to trustworthy issues that caused people to not believe and refer to influencer opinion anymore. Consequently, a total of USD 102 million was wasted due to the fake followers (Gavin, 2019). As everything such as followers, likes and comments could be monetized in social media through "bots." An Instagram bot would like, follow, comment on your own page with a price as low as $6.99 with an extra 500 followers (Stewart, 2020). Besides, there are also social influencers that do not alert about the products same goes with the regulation required. Every influencer should experience the products to encourage customers, especially young adults to consume their goods and services. However, social influencers nowadays are not concerned about this issue. Most of them just mind about the payment rather than to help stakeholders expand the market of the products.
Basically, consumers will value the influencers expertise through the information and details presented by them (Nuwairah et al., 2015). Thus, the customers will believe all the statements announced by the influencer although it might contain false information. Especially medicines and drugs products, any posting needs to pass the requirement set up by authorized bodies. To illustrate, Kim Kardashian had shared a post through Instagram medium to promote Diclegis drug known as 'morning sickness,' is a type of nausea and vomiting that occurs during pregnancy back in 2015 (Kroll, 2015). Based on CBC news, promoting drugs with incomplete information can be called a violation according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Kim Kardashian promoted this pharmaceutical product with an absence of information like harmful side effects (Ryan, 2020). Therefore, it can cause the advertisement to lack transparency and accuracy potentially suffering the customer.
The consumer will catch up actively the ads because they had a positive view of influencer (Khong & Wu, 2013). Nevertheless, some people assume that social influencers who have attractive personalities can discourage customers towards the products and brands. There is research showing that by assigning a celebrity with an attractive figure image to endorse a company's brand can lessen customers' self-esteem. Thus, it can result a negative impact on buying intentions (Maria et al., 2016). This is because the customer might feel those brands only matched up if they also have attractive looking celebrities. Meanwhile, negative impressions towards the influencers or celebrities also affected the product and services they promote. The customers might look only at the endorser rather than the items as they focus too much on the personality. Therefore, it can cause a problem if the physical appearance of the influencers is not parallel with the endorsed products.
Argument also stated that for influencer to endorse the product, it has to be "fit". As a matter of fact, it challenges an organization or advertising company as to search a celebrity who have pursuance of ideals towards consumer and "ideal fit" for their product-brand (Madhusanka, 2017). It has become an issue whereby company, and an organization to regulate the consumer personal interest which associate with the product-brand in order to choose the best influencer for a right fit of social influencer endorsement concept. Thus, a negative perception and opinion of a consumer towards a product-brands might be affected because of the mismatch between influencer and product endorsements. This study's main objective is • To identify the social influencer factors that affect young adult purchasing behavior in Seremban. • To investigate the source credibility factor that contribute to the young adults buying behavior. • To study the relationship between source attractiveness with young adult buying behavior. • To examine the fit between social influencer and product endorsement contribute to young adults buying behavior. • To determine the most influential factors that contribute to young adults buying behavior.

Social Media Influencer
Social Media Influencer (SMIs) can be defined as an independent third party who endorsed a product and shaping consumers behaviour through social media (Karen et al., 2011). People who have a large number of followers on social media networking platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are known as social media influencers (Smith, 2018). These alleged 'influencers' are a different type of '3rd party' who marketers hire for brand or product endorsements through a range of internet media sources, usually in exchange for money, free or restricted things, or services (Nur Amalina & Nor Fadzlina, 2020). These 'endorsements' are a select group of people who, because of their position, celebrity, or connection with their followers, can sway a consumer's purchasing decision (Smith, 2018). Social media influencer has strong connection with the consumer as they also known as key opinion leader (KOL).
They also recognize as business marketing who developed trends and make a lot of profits with their reputations and fame including sponsored content by brands. Some of them are paid for their post to give a review on the brand that they join hand with. As advancement of technology and media, businesses company nowadays can choose many ways to promote their products. Through several alternatives it then led to the evolvement of social media influencer in the industry of marketing. In addition, the growth of the social media itself than had opened numerous channels for brand and company to connect with consumer and audience more directly and the success of the brands depends on social media influencer itself as to expand, track and identify the relevance of a brand or company. The goal of social media influencer can be seen as to obtain several followers as well as brand recognitions.
Individuals who have created a social media profile is designed to persuade consumer behaviour are known as social media influencers (Laura, 2019). Social media influencer also known as a form of marketing. These types of marketing industry also called 'the electronic or digital word of mouth marketing' as it interacts with an individual, or a 'social media influencer,' for the intention of marketing items or services via web-based media platforms (Amalina & Fadzlina, 2020). In fact, social influencer does have stronger connection with consumer and product-brand such as through the digital word of mouth (Emad, 2018). According to Karla (2016), most in the marketing agree that ads are becoming more engaging when they are using social influencer or celebrity. Interestingly, it was found that social influencer is more open, more practical, and more related with audience since they share their personal lives. Thus, roles that they hold are important in influencing consumer buying behaviour especially in marketing industry.

Source Credibility
The theory's concept was developed by Aristotle in his text work The Rhetoric, which divided the meaning of persuasion (Bonachristus, 2012). Expertise and trustworthiness are the most obvious dimensions categorized. The degree to which a communicator is perceived to be fair is defined as expertise in claiming the information about the product, while trustworthiness is alluded to as the level of buyer's trust in the communicators as purpose to convey the information and consider which most legitimate. This theory could be defined as a theory that brings about various studies in a positivity characteristics of a social media influencer, celebrity, or endorser towards the impact of receiver attitude, perception, and related behavioral intention (Ashleigh, 2020). Credibility can be classified into three significant classes, which are validity of the source, the medium, and the channel or message. All this three significant classes, had shown positive impact towards overall credibility impression and qualities in a single dimension which is messages as well may change the view of credibility into another measurement (Kristin et al., 2017). This theory plays pivotal roles in persuading a recipient message. The study also confirmed that these presumptions that credible sources created do affect the consumer decision-making (Bonachristus, 2012). Kristin et al (2017) mention that influencer who is seen as exceptionally trustworthy and expertise in endorsing a product-brand would prompt purchasers' lack of interest towards the publicizing message, then bringing more acknowledgment of the conveyed message. In general, social influencers with a high level of trustworthiness and knowledge are perceived as more persuasive and influential on the actions of their supporters. Several researchers had discovered that expertise and trustworthiness is one of dimension of source credibility and it does bring a huge factor towards the impact of consumer buying behavior .

Source of Attractiveness
The attractiveness of source can also be explained as the appearance visual of the influencer itself. Consumer might change their decision-making buying behavior towards physical attractive influencer compared to unattractive social influencer (Darel, 2017). Which can be proven when the consumer itself develop affection for their attractive influencer and through this positivity attitudes it does brings to the acceptance of products or brands that they endorsed. Studies also shown that most of the young adult nowadays are pursuing fame and beauty, they worry and care more about their appearances with curiosity of changing and following the trend (Li, 2013).
Another study also has been proven where most celebrities or influencer who are attractive are more fit in endorsing a product-brand as they might change a consumer buying decision on the products. As the increase of the usage in social media, the young adults often interact with social influencers and refer their character as well as lifestyle to resemble like them. It also proves that physical attractiveness in advertising and communication considerable research is pivotal in an opinion of an individual towards another person (Ohanian, 1990). Darel (2017), stated that if the product-brand related to the physical attractiveness of the influencer, the audience tend to be more persuaded and make changes on their decision-making towards the products. The appearance of the influencer could enhance persuading behavior in its likeability, familiarity, or similarity towards its targeted audience (Michael, 2016).

The Fit Between the Social Influencer and Product Endorsement
The fit or better known as match, likeness, pertinence, and congruency alludes to the level of comparability between the social influencer and the product-brand (Yadvinder et al., 2019). This explains its ingenuity in developing a matching procedure between the social influencer and the product-brand they backed, as it will give impact towards the advertisement. In other words, social influencer has to must appropriately match themselves with the product they endorsed. The fit between the influencer and the product-brand is also known as the match-up hypothesis (Priska et al., 2019). Early researchers also believe that match-up hypothesis model must be practically ideal or match between the influencer qualities of the character and the highlights of the product-brand. A match of an influencer and product-brand will automatically increase the strength of an advertising market. Previous study stated that young adults would be more preferred to purchase a product when its fits with the influencer itself (Karla, 2016). This revealed that association between the influencer and product personality could influence the consumer buying behavior.
It also stated how important and how they can achieve a positive outcome and relationships with consumer if both influencer itself and product they endorsed are fit or match-up together. Choosing a significant product-brand to match with influencer is also difficult, as if an influencer decides to choose an incongruent of product to endorsed, their reputations, and credibility might be damaged. It is also more effective if the product is wellmatched with the influencer. On the other hand, this form of marketing which fit both influencer and product endorsement could encounter a regular communication without intent to convinced (Priska et al., 2019). However, using an endorser in a notice, on the other hand, does not automatically guarantee a successful advertisement.
Previous research has revealed that the adequacy or the important determinants to have a successful endorsed advertisement is indistinguishably attached to the degree where the picture, attributes or character of the influencer fits the product-brand (Ana, 2022). Other than product-brand which is the main idea in marketing, and there should be a fit between the influencer and the product endorsement based on the legitimacy and attractiveness of the influencer featured in the marketing. The match and a fit between the influencer and product endorsement should be coherent to sustain a credibility of an influencer as well as to maintain a favourable effect on the product-brand (Priska et al., 2019).

Methodology
A quantitative research strategy will be utilized in this examination and essential information will be utilized where a review will be led including the youth aged 19-30 years old that lived in Seremban. Additionally, the cross-sectional study is being utilized on the grounds that the information assortment will be gathered at a specific time to answer the entirety of the examination destinations and the examination questions. Other than that, the researchers also use questionnaires and surveys to acquire responses from respondents and to identify the factors that influence young adult buying behaviour.
The sample size according to to Department of Statistic Malaysia (2020), the number of young adults populated in Seremban is about 222,000. Researcher refers to the Krejcie & Morgan table by Krejcie & Morgan (1970) for deciding the sample size from the population. Hence, researchers of this study will distribute 384 sets of questionnaires to represent the whole population. Researchers decide to produce data that represent 95 percent confidence interval with 5 percent margin of error.
In this study, convenience sampling was used as a sample technique. The convenience strategy will be used in this inquiry to separate the respondents from the general population. This sampling approach is the easiest way to use since maybe it is the most effortless strategy for researching, in light of the fact that embers are selected based on their capacity to participate and accessibility (Dominik, 2014). Before being picked as respondents in this study, the respondents must meet one requirement. They must be the youth or young adult who lives Seremban. A legitimate selection of respondent is significant for the research to accomplish the targets and goals while run this research.

Findings and Discussion
In this case study, the actual data was collected to obtain responses from the young adult in Seremban. researchers managed to get 388 respondents which contribute to 100% of response rate were confirmed to be error-free and no incomplete data.
As for whether the respondent's follow the influencer in social media platform or not, most of the respondents answer Yes which are 351 (90.5%) and followed by No with 37 (9.5%) respondents. As for the social media platform, most of the respondents are using the Instagram with 353 (91.2%), followed by YouTube with 269 (69.1%), Twitter with 219 (56.4%) and Facebook with 187 (48.2%) as well as others which is TikTok 32 (8.4%), Snapchat 3 (0.8%) and Reddit with 1 (0.3%) as mentioned by the respondents. Continue to the reasons to follow influencer, most of the respondents are following the influencer to enjoy content for entertainment with 178 (45.9%), to get inspiration 118 (30.4%) respondents, followed by the reasons which is to follow the latest trend with 46 (11.9%) respondents, and last but not least, to learn about new product brands with 36 (9.3%) respondents and other reasons with 10 (2.6%). Lastly, most of the respondents took their time spend on social influencer profile daily with 141 (36.3%) respondents, followed by only when needed with 119 (30.7%) respondents, continue with 1-2 times a week with 56 (14.4%) respondents, 3-4 times a week with 52 (13.4%) respondents and once a month with 20 (5.2%) from overall respondents. To learn about new products brand 36 9.3 To enjoy content for entertainment 178 45.9 Others 10 2.6

Main Findings
Simultaneously, parametric assumption testing and normality test were also conducted to ensure data accuracy.
i. To investigate the source credibility factor that contribute to the young adults buying behavior.
The first research objective is to to investigate the source credibility factor that contribute to the young adults buying behavior. The following hypotheses were developed to execute the objective.
H0: There is no significant relationship between the source credibility and young adult buying behaviour.
H1: There is significant relationship between the source credibility and young adult buying behaviour. Table 2 shows the correlation between the source credibility and young adult buying behaviour is 0.830 with p-value of 0.000 < 0.01. Hence, the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected. Thus, there is positive relationship between the source credibility and young adult buying behaviour. ii. To study the relationship between source attractiveness with young adult behavior. This case study's second objective is to study the relationship between source attractiveness with young adult behavior. The hypotheses are as follows: H0: There is no significant relationship between the source attractiveness and young adult buying behaviour. H1: There is significant relationship between the source attractiveness and young adult buying behaviour. The Table 3 below has shown the correlation coefficient between the Source Attractiveness and Young Adult buying behaviour is 0.804 with p-value of 0.000 < 0.01. Hence, the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected. Thus, there is positive relationship between the source attractiveness and young adult buying behaviour. iii.
To examine the fit between social influencer and product endorsement contribute to young adults buying behaviour. This case study's third objective is to examine the fit between social influencer and product endorsement contribute to young adults buying behaviour. The hypotheses are as follows: H0: There is no significant relationship between the the fit between social influencer and product endorsement and young adult buying behaviour. H1: There is significant relationship between the fit between social influencer and product endorsement and young adult buying behaviour. Table 4 has shown the correlation coefficient between the fit between social influencer and product endorsement and young adult buying behaviour is 0.804 with p-value of 0.000 < 0.01. Hence, the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected. Thus, there is positive relationship between the fit between social influencer and product endorsement and young adult buying behaviour. iv.
To determine the most influential factors that contribute to young adults buying behavior.
Concerning the fourth research objective, to determine the most influential factors that contribute to young adults buying behavior, the multiple regression analysis was carried out. Based on the table 5, the R Square for the model is 0.747 which indicate 74.7% of the dependent variables which is young adult buying behavior can be explained by all the independent variables which is Source Credibility, Source Attractiveness and the fit between social influencer and product endorsement. As indicated in the table 6, the F value is 377.801 with a significant level of 0.000. Therefore, the regression model of the three predictors as mentioned above which are source credibility, source attractiveness, the fit between social influencer and product endorsement has significantly explained the variation in young adult buying behaviour. Based on Table 7, the most influential factors that contribute to young adults buying behavior is Source of Credibility. This study aims to determine the most influential factors that contribute to young adults buying behavior.The result shows three independent variables are tested to determine the most influential factors that contribute to young adults buying behavior. The three factors are source credibility, source attractiveness, The fit between social influencer and product endorsement. The multiple regression analysis test shows that the main factor influencing the young adult buying behaviour are the Source of Credibility. Thus, in answering the fourth research objective, source for credibility contributes the most influential factors that contribute to young adults buying behavior. As indicated to the equation above, source credibility, source attractiveness, the fit between social influencer and product endorsement has a positive relationship with young adult buying behaviour. Hence, the Source Credibility is the highest predictor variables of Young Adult buying behaviour thus, when every unit increase in Source Credibility it will increase a total of 0.521 unit of Young Adult buying behaviour. The second highest predictor is Source Attractiveness which are 0.295 followed by the The fit between social influencer and product endorsement with 0.108.
The findings discussion have reached the conclusion of hypothesis for all of the research's objectives.
Objectives 1: To investigate the source credibility factor that contribute to the young adults buying behaviour.
Based on the finding, the correlation coefficient between the Source Credibility and Young Adult buying behaviour is 0.830 with p-value of 0.000 < 0.01. Thus, there is positive relationship between the Source Credibility and Young Adult buying behaviour. The result of the study is accordant to the past studies of (Kristin et al., 2017;Bonachristus, 2012;and Ashleigh, 2020) which demonstrated the significance of the relationship of the credibility and young adult buying behaviour. It explained that the young adult buying behaviour is affected by the credibility of the influencers. As opposed to, if the influencer is lack of credibility, it may also affect the purchase intention of the young adult. Thus, because this study considered young adults as group norms, customer purchase intention is influenced more by an influencer's credibility.
Objectives 2: To study the relationship between source attractiveness with young adult buying behavior.
Indicated to the finding, the correlation coefficient between the Source Attractiveness and Young Adult buying behaviour is 0.804 with p-value of 0.000 < 0.01. Thus, there is positive relationship between the Source Attractiveness and Young Adult buying behaviour. These findings also significance to the past study of (Ohanian, 1990;Darel, 2017;and Michael, 2016) which showed that source of attractiveness has a significance relationship with the young adult buying behaviour. Accordance to the Michael (2016), the attractiveness was futher characterized as similarity, familiarity and likeability of an influencer. In addition, the social influencer should utilize this factor as it could help them in their future.
Objectives 3: To examine the fit between social influencer and product endorsement contribute to young adults buying behavior.
The correlation coefficient between the The fit between social influencer and product endorsement and Young Adult buying behaviour is 0.804 with p-value of 0.000 < 0.01. Thus, there is positive relationship between the The fit between social influencer and product endorsement and young adult buying behaviour. These findings also significance to the past study of (Yadvinder et al., 2019;Priska et al., 2019;and Karla, 2016) which showed that the fit between social influencer and product endorsement has a significance relationship with the young adult buying behaviour. Thus, according to Ana (2022) a few research also has prove that a strong similarity between the influencer's image and the product, can enhance the purchase intention of the consumer.
Objectives 4: To determine the most influential factors that contribute to young adults buying behavior.
As indicated to the studies before, Source Credibility, Source Attractiveness, The fit between social influencer and product endorsement has a positive relationship with young adult buying behaviour. Hence, the Source Credibility is the highest predictor variables of Young Adult buying behaviour thus, when every unit increase in Source Credibility it will increase a total of 0.521 unit of young adult buying behaviour. The second highest predictor is Source Attractiveness which are 0.295 followed by the The fit between social influencer and product endorsement with 0.108. The findings of this study will allow us to better understand an endorser's perceived trustworthiness, source of attractiveness, and fit between social influencer and product endorsement, as well as what should be the focus of an endorsement marketing. This enables for better decision-making when choosing endorsers to promoted products and services. The study also shown that the most influential factors that contribute to young adult buying behaviour would be source of credibility of the influencer itself. The more credibile the influencer, the higher they perceived the trust from the consumer. As indicated in the results, it is proved that the young adult prefers if the influencer have strong credibility rather than, just attractiveness and the fit of the social influencer and the product endorsement.

Conclusion
Consequently, this research provides insight into the variables (source credibility, source of attractiveness and the fit between social influencer and product endorsement) that affect the young adult buying behaviour in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. The study's main objectives are met when all of the hypotheses indicate a substantial association between the examined parameters and young adult purchasing behaviour. Limitations and suggestions for future researchers are included in this chapter. Future research with comprehensive understanding on this topic is critical, as young adults play a vital role in developing and advancing a country. Researchers anticipate this research will help university students with useful information in understanding what is the reasons behind the purchase intention of young adults buying behaviour towards social influencer.