An exploration of celebrity business ventures and their appeal to fans and non-fans

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 54 (2020) 102004

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser

An exploration of celebrity business ventures and their appeal to fans and non-fans Weichen Teng a, Yaohua Su b, *, Tien-Tien Liao c, Cang-Liang Wei a a

Department of International Trade, Chinese Culture University, 55, Hwa-Kang Rd, Yang-Ming-Shan, Taipei City, 111, Taiwan Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Sec.1, Heping E. Rd, Taipei City, 106, Taiwan c Department of International Business Administration, Chinese Culture University, 231, Sec. 2, Jianguo S. Rd, Da-an District, Taipei, 106, Taiwan b

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Celebrity brand Celebrity business venture Celebrity entrepreneurship

Recently, an increasing number of celebrities have launched their own businesses. Although celebrity entre­ preneurs may expect their credibility to enhance customers’ purchase intentions, this study does not find this effect. Instead, it finds that customers’ purchase intentions rely mainly on customers’ attitudes toward the celebrity’s venture brand. Customers’ perceived congruence between a celebrity and the celebrity’s business significantly affects their brand attitudes. Additionally, this study finds that a celebrity’s credibility can only increase fans’ positive attitudes toward the celebrity’s venture brand; therefore, being a celebrity entrepreneur is riskier than being a brand endorser in terms of consumer attitude.

1. Introduction In today’s consumer market, at the backdrop of intensifying competition among global and local brands, the role of celebrities in the formulation of marketing strategy has gained significance. From celeb­ rity endorsements to celebrity brands, the business of celebrity mar­ keting has become prosperous, and some celebrities have successfully created economic value for an endorsed brand. Nike’s collaboration with a basketball player, Michael Jordan, to launch the Air Jordan brand is such an iconic example that capitalizes the celebrity effect. Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with artists such as Takashi Murakami, a Japa­ nese artist, to launch artists’ collections of handbag and accessories is another ideal example. In the past, it was generally understood that celebrities are in­ dividuals who are known to the public because of their accomplishments in areas such as sports, entertainment, arts, and business. However, nowadays, with messages posted on the social media, photos, video clips, and online live streaming, the phenomenal growth of social media has also led to a plethora of self-made celebrities who are called as internet, online, or cyber celebrities (Wang, 2018). Since internet celebrities become social media influencers in their specialized areas, endorsing brands has also become their main way to increase their influence and revenues (iResearch, 2018). With the boom of internet celebrities, there have never been more celebrities than there

are at the present moment. This shows that celebrity endorsement is not only a privilege for big brands but now small businesses can also afford celebrity endorsements. As the endorsement and loyalty revenue for celebrities is growing and becoming globally competitive, celebrities, including internet ce­ lebrities, are not only becoming brand endorsers but are also starting their own business, without collaborating with big brands, to increase and diversify their revenue sources. Particularly, amidst the celebritysaturated entertainment industry, the status of a celebrity is changing from an entertainer to an entrepreneur. For example, Sean Combs, an American rapper, launched his own line of clothing and perfume, opened a restaurant, and has a major eq­ uity stake in a television network. Andy Murray, a British professional tennis player, has also backed multiple start-ups in recent years, including cycle navigation and pet monitoring apps. Gisele Bundchen, a Brazilian supermodel, partnered with a shoemaker company to launch her own line of affordable flip-flops which was a success both in Brazil and abroad. Celebrity businesses, including endorsements, brands, and ventures, also play a significant role in Asia and the Chinese-speaking region. A study conducted by a global marketing research agency, the Millward Brown Company, ranked Japan, South Korea, and China as the top three countries in the world in terms of the share of companies that capitalize on the popularity and charisma of celebrities to help build their brands

* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (W. Teng), [email protected] (Y. Su), [email protected] (T.-T. Liao), [email protected] (C.-L. Wei). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.102004 Received 15 October 2018; Received in revised form 1 April 2019; Accepted 8 November 2019 0969-6989/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 54 (2020) 102004

(Waldmeir, 2011). While three South Korean K-pop artists are celebrities-turned-entrepreneurs running the nation’s biggest enter­ tainment companies with stocks worth more than 10 billion won ($9 million) as of 2018 (Choi, 2018), Chinese celebrities like popular actors/actresses, social media influencers, and others capitalize on their popularity to sell goods online (Medium, 2018). In addition to enter­ tainment and e-commerce businesses, restaurants, coffee shops, and fashion stores owned by celebrities are common sights in China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan; further, the Indian film industry’s celebrity entrepreneurs own businesses as diverse as competitive sports, fitness, and even solar projects. Concerning the success of celebrity ventures, some of them have been very profitable; some strived for their success, while some encountered a failure. For example, though Jennifer Lopez had a fair share of entrepreneurial success, her Madre’s restaurant and Sweetface fashion line closed followed by a downward revenue. Most franchised restaurants of Han Han, one of the most popular bloggers in China, also closed three years after their grand opening in 2014. Why has the celebrity business venture become a common phe­ nomenon? How do consumers perceive the celebrity business venture? What factors will determine the success of the celebrity business ven­ ture? Prior studies have examined celebrity endorsements and celebrity brands, but few studies have covered the notion of celebrity business ventures. To fill this gap, this study has attempted to discuss the celeb­ rity business venture in terms of customers’ perceptions toward the venture brand and customers’ purchase intention of its products. Since a celebrity business venture usually does not collaborate with big brands, this study also intends to investigate whether there is any difference between the celebrity’s endorsement effects for manufacturer’s brands and the celebrity’s own start-up brand. Additionally, prior studies have revealed the effect of celebrity en­ dorsements on customers, but few have investigated the effect’s differ­ ence between fans and non-fans. If the celebrity’s endorsement effect for the celebrity’s start-up brand will only have an impact on the celebrity’s fans, then the market scale will be constrained beyond a celebrity’s expectation to make the start-up business unsuccessful. Hence, it is worthwhile to employ an empirical test to explore this aspect. Moreover, according to CBNData, a commercial data company affiliated with Alibaba, the online celebrity economy in China was projected to be worth around 58 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) in 2016 (Cheang, 2018); celebrity entrepreneurship has become widespread in Chinese-speaking regions. However, few studies have discussed the ce­ lebrity entrepreneurship phenomenon and its impact. Therefore, this study aims to conduct an empirical investigation into Taiwanese as well as Chinese celebrity entrepreneurial enterprises to supplement celebrity endorsement research.

are consumers who develop a stronger emotional attachment and tight bonds with their favorite celebrities (Leets et al., 1995). When fans find others with similar preferences for a celebrity, they tend to create or join a ‘fan group; ’ this association can intake the shape of a ‘fan culture or fandom’ with identifiable customs, attitudes, and behaviors (Liang and Shen, 2016). Further, fans often create and share user-generated content in the form of text, images, and videos on social media to support their idol and appreciate their idols’ achievements (Jia et al., 2018). The growth of the fandom phenomena has led to the creation of the fan economy. The fan economy refers to the economic, incomegenerating behavior exhibited as a result of the relationship between fans and their preferred celebrities. Through individual and organized activities, fans support a celebrity directly through their consumption activities, such as attending a concert, watching a movie, and buying mementos; additionally, they support indirectly via the consumption of celebrity-endorsed products (Jia et al., 2018). On the basis of celebrity fandom and fan economy development, the concept of celebrity capital has been proposed and discussed by re­ searchers; it is defined as celebrities’ public awareness, favorability, personality, reputation, and the public’s knowledge of their past be­ haviors (Hunter, 2010). In addition, the concept that celebrities are human brands is also proposed by other researchers. They suggested that a celebrity is understood as a product, a thing that is produced and can be consumed, worshipped, and adored (Cashmore and Parker, 2003). Thus, celebrity capital is often equated with human brand marketability. When celebrities start a new business venture, what are the means by which celebrity capital can be exploited in a manner that contributes to the success of the celebrity business? Depending on the engagement level of a celebrity in a brand or business, this study categorizes the following five roles that celebrities can play in their business ventures: an endorser, influencer, executive, entrepreneur, and investor. 2.1. Celebrity endorser When celebrities start a new business venture, they can play an endorser role’s and appear in an advertisement or public relationship events, thereby revealing their association with their own businesses. McGuire (1985) defines a celebrity endorser as an individual who enjoys public recognition and uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer product by appearing in an advertisement to endorse the product. Ce­ lebrity endorsement is the most popular form of celebrity marketing. The previous studies have identified the following reasons for using celebrity endorsement: help advertisements stand out (Erdogan, 1999), make advertising believable (Kamins et al., 1989), generate publicity and attention for the brand (Biswas et al., 2009), produce better brand recall or recognition (Friedman and Friedman, 1979), influence con­ sumer perceptions of the brand (Keller, 2008), reposition an older product (Kaikati, 1987), build trust with current and potential cus­ tomers, and attract new customers (Blecken, 2009). Additionally, a previous study also revealed that celebrity endorsements are more effective than non-celebrity endorsements at increasing the consumer’s purchase intent (Petty et al., 1983).

2. Literature review Since the mid-twentieth century, globalization has been penetrating and intensifying around the world. Under the influence of globalization, popular culture is promoted by the media and Internet in shaping transnational communication and in allowing the integration of different cultures; additionally, popular culture is the powerful trans­ mitter of global cultural norms, values, and lifestyles. As every country’s popular culture has an opportunity to reach a wider audience and be accepted by a global audience, the celebrities are playing an ever-greater role in modern popular culture and consumption patterns. The shift in the notion of celebrity has been characterized by an association of taste arbiter, lifestyle influence, and key opinion leadership in the public sphere (Euromonitor International, 2014). Moreover, as the audience base is expanding across the globe, the influence and market value of celebrities are being observed by consumer brands and celebrity’s agents, particularly, in the entertainment and sports industries. In the meantime, propelled by celebrity’s agents, endorsed brands, and media, fandom is rising in the contemporary consumer culture. Fans

2.2. Celebrity influencer If celebrities not only endorse their businesses but also communicate with fans in social media to express their personal feeling and thoughts, then they would play an influencer’s role. An influencer is someone who has the power to influence perceptions of a specific target audience or medium (Sudha and Sheena, 2017). Since the emergence of social media, the form of celebrity endorsement and the influence of celebrities on fans have created a disruption. In the past, in the absence of social media, fans collected information about their idols through newspapers, magazines, and radio and television programs, among others. However, owing to social media, the idols can interact directly with their fans through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Weibo. Social media has 2

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are known for their and take part in owning and running a venture. The difference between the celebrity executive and the celebrity entrepre­ neur is that a celebrity executive does not fully engage in the business venture by providing leadership, establishing, guiding, and assessing the overall direction of the corporation, but a celebrity entrepreneur does. Some celebrity entrepreneurs choose product categories that are close to their original source of fame. For example, Oprah Winfrey, a very popular American talk show host, created the Oprah Winfrey Network and served as the chairman, chief executive, and chief creative officer of the cable television channel. There are other celebrities that have started business ventures in completely new categories; the Honest Company founded by Jessica Alba, an American actress, is an ideal example.

become a direct platform that links idols and fans, facilitating the expansion of an avid fan base, and it has an enormous impact on the celebrity-fan dynamics. The social media creates an illusion of a direct connection between idols and their fans, which makes fans engage in their idol’s life. Sub­ sequently, the fans identify themselves with the idol, accept the deeds of the idol, and nurture the same ideas and lifestyle as that of their idol; moreover, fans will feel a sense of entitlement and even possession of the idol. Lady Gaga is an ideal example of a celebrity influencer who in­ fluences her fans at all levels of the celebrity worship continuum; she named her fans as ‘Little Monsters’ and launched her own social network, which provides an online community for her fans, and another channel to build her brand (Kowalczyk and Royne, 2013). Therefore, Gaga can take the reins and stamp her indelible mark on endorsed products.

2.5. Celebrity investor Some celebrities choose to be a mere investor; they do not manage, involve, endorse the self-owned business, or adopting the celebrity branding strategy; the public lacks awareness of the celebrity’s personal investment unless it is revealed by the media. The Nobu restaurant group co-founded by Robert De Niro, an American actor, is such a case. Furthermore, in recent years, celebrities have enthusiastically invested to develop venture capital businesses. For example, Ashton Kutcher, a Hollywood movie star, collaborated with partners and found A-Grade Investments to invest in technology start-up companies; the venture capital firm bagged high return from investments on companies such as Uber and Airbnb. Nas, a famous rapper, also witnessed high returns on his investment fund, QueensBridge Venture Partners; the business saw its recent start-up investment, Ring, acquired by Amazon. On the basis of news articles regarding celebrity business ventures (e. g., Bruner, 2017; Morris, 2015; Walker, 2017), the restaurant and fashion sectors are commonly chosen by celebrities to start their ven­ tures; while there are successful cases of celebrity business ventures, there are failed cases as well. It is more challenging for a celebrity to become an entrepreneur than becoming an endorser because the celebrity’s involvement in the entrepreneurial enterprise is deeper than an endorsement and usually directly affects the positioning of a celebrity’s business. Furthermore, since a celebrity business venture is new to the market, customers may not be certain of its product’s quality. Therefore, it is important to un­ derstand how customers perceive a celebrity business venture.

2.3. Celebrity executive In recent years, many brands have invited celebrities not only to endorse their products bestowing titles like ‘spokesperson’ and ‘brand ambassador’ but also to associate their names with signature product lines to create a celebrity brand. When celebrities agree to use their names for product branding, it implies that the celebrities play an ex­ ecutive role in the brand to assure the product’s quality, performance, and style, and function as more than an endorser. It is referred to as mono-branding if a brand carries only the name of the celebrity and the manufacturer does not directly associate itself with the brand; the strategy may be adopted when the brand intends to use the celebrity image to extend its reach to a target market base in which it does not have a high brand equity and recognition (Keel and Nataraajan, 2012). An ideal example of mono-branding is Britney Spears’ collabo­ ration with Elizabeth Arden of its fragrance line. Similar to the mono-branding strategy, some celebrities also use their names as the brand names for their business ventures; the strategy has often been seen in fashion and restaurant businesses, such as Heidi Montag’s Heidiwood and Suzanne Somers’s Suzanne’s Kitchen. Co-branding is another brand alliance strategy that refers to the agreement between a celebrity and a company to position their respective brands on a single product or service to ensure that both brands may benefit from the combined efforts (Keel and Nataraajan, 2012); the collaboration of signature sneaker brand Air Jordan with Nike is a good example for co-branding. However, these days, companies are taking an extra step to use ce­ lebrities’ talent for branding initiatives. In this regard, companies give celebrities titles that are usually reserved for top executives, such as ‘creative director,’ to shape the brand’s image and the type of products that are developed by these companies. For example, Diet Coke had signed a contract with the fashion designer Marc Jacobs to design its soda cans as part of its 30th anniversary celebration campaign, for this contract, the company gave Marc Jacobs the designation of a creative director. Similarly, Puma appointed Robyn Rihanna Fenty, a singer, as a creative director for the popular Fenty x Puma collection. If celebrities not only endorse their businesses but also use their names for branding their ventures, or are given a job title in the celebrity businesses, then they can play an executive’s role.

3. Hypotheses Previous studies that have examined the celebrity endorsement function and effectiveness have focused on the celebrity’s credibility as the core construct in the research. Goldsmith et al. (2000) defined ce­ lebrity credibility as the extent to which a celebrity is ‘perceived as possessing expertise relevant to the communication topic and can be trusted to give an objective opinion on the subject’. Ohanian (1990) used attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness to develop a tri-component scale to measure source credibility. Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed: H1. A celebrity’s attractiveness. H2.

2.4. Celebrity entrepreneur

is

reflected

by

the

celebrity’s

A celebrity’s credibility is reflected by the celebrity’s expertise.

H3. A celebrity’s trustworthiness.

Today, however, celebrities are appearing as not only brand en­ dorsers or creative directors but also engaging in entrepreneurial roles as owners in the ventures. Pringle and Binet (2005) contended that the ‘most intimate of relationships between the celebrities and brands are ownership, where celebrities actually develop and market their own products’. Hunter (2010) referred to this phenomenon as celebrity entrepreneurship; he defines celebrity entrepreneurs as individuals who

credibility

credibility

is

reflected

by

the

celebrity’s

Findings from previous studies indicate that constructs of credibility have an impact on customer brand attitudes (e.g., Roy et al., 2013; Bhatt et al., 2014). Brand attitude was defined as a customer’s overall evalu­ ation of a brand—whether good or bad (Mitchell and Olson, 1981). Additionally, Muda et al. (2014) found that the credibility of a celebrity entrepreneur has a positive impact on the consumer’s attitude toward 3

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 54 (2020) 102004

the celebrity brand; this attitude mediates the impact of a customer’s perceived credibility on purchase intention. Thus, the following hy­ potheses are proposed:

4. Method and analysis 4.1. Case selection—Stayreal

H4. Higher celebrity credibility will increase customers’ positive at­ titudes toward the celebrity’s venture brand.

Stayreal is a fashion brand founded by a Taiwanese and Chinese celebrity, Ashin, the lead vocalist of the Mayday rock band that has become one of the most popular and profitable bands in the Chinesespeaking world. The number of Ashin’s fans in Weibo, the largest so­ cial media in China, is more than 20 million. Additionally, Ashin plays not only an executive role in his celebrity venture by being a fashion designer but also an entrepreneur’s role and leads the company. Stayreal has been popular ever since it was launched in 2007 with its various styles of trendy T-shirts, caps, backpacks, and others. In 2017, Ashin opened more than 30 Stayreal direct branch fashion stores and caf�es across Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Japan, in addition to contracting stores across Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Canada. Since Ashin is very famous among the global Chinese youth, and Stayreal has been a successful celebrity business venture in the Chinese-speaking region, it is selected in this study to investigate the critical factors that have influ­ enced Chinese customers to accept the celebrity business venture.

H5. Customers’ positive attitudes toward a celebrity’s venture brand will increase their purchase intentions toward products of the brand. It is hypothesized that a celebrity’s credibility can affect the con­ sumer’s purchase intention through the mediator brand attitude. How­ ever, the question arises whether a celebrity’s credibility directly increases the purchase intention, as per celebrities’ expectations. Research related to the effect of celebrity credibility on purchase intention is inconclusive. For example, Ohanian (1991) found that ce­ lebrity trustworthiness is not significantly related to a customer’s intention to buy the endorsed brand, and another study suggests that, even though physical attractiveness generates positive feelings toward advertising and products, those positive feelings do not translate into purchase intention (Till and Busler, 2000). However, Atkin and Block (1983) have found that celebrities are effective at increasing purchase intention. To explore whether a celebrity’s credibility can directly in­ crease purchase intention for the goods produced by the celebrity business, the following hypothesis is proposed:

4.2. Instrument development and sample In this study, empirical analysis is used to examine the proposed model; a questionnaire survey was conducted that adapts items from previous studies and employs a five-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (score ¼ 1) to “strongly agree” (score ¼ 5). As twoitem measures have been accepted in human behavior research (Eisinga et al., 2013) and most items in this study were adapted from previously established scales, two or three items were projected in this study to identify an underlying variable for parsimony. After a small-scale pilot test (N ¼ 50) and expert discussion, several changes in the wordings and two item reductions in the pre-test questionnaire were made; one item was removed because its skewness ( 1.85) and kurtosis (6.95) did not meet the recommended criteria of the range for skewness ( 1,1), and for kurtosis ( 2,2) (Noar, 2003); the other was removed because its content validity was unclear. Further, after the survey was conducted, one item indicating an attractiveness construct was removed in the assessment of reliability and validity of the questionnaire because the item reduction increased the Cronbach’s alpha reliability. The final questionnaire items are described in Table 1. As college students are a key target market of celebrity businesses, a convenience sample of college students was used in this study. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed to students at one of the largest universities in Taiwan and the survey was conducted in the classes of business courses at two different campuses. Students’ participation in the survey was voluntary and self-administered, and questionnaires were completed anonymously. A total of 441 responses were collected, yielding a response rate of 88%. After ignoring some questionnaires due to incompleteness, 409 valid samples were obtained; the profiles of the valid sample are shown in Table 2. The identification of respondents as

H6. A celebrity’s credibility will increase customers’ purchase in­ tentions toward products of the celebrity’s venture brand. Previous studies have examined how match-up between the celeb­ rity’s image and the endorsed brand affects advertising attitudes and brand attitudes (e.g., Till and Busler, 2000; McCormick, 2016). Misra and Beatty (1990) have revealed that the celebrity-brand congruence consists of the fact ‘that the highly relevant characteristics of the spokesperson are consistent with the highly relevant attributes of the brand’. Other studies (Kamins and Gupta, 1994; Pringle and Binet, 2005) have found that a spokesperson is effective when the congruence exists. The congruence hypothesis has been made and postulated in the context of physical attractiveness (Kamins, 1990) and expertise (Kamins and Gupta, 1994). This study also intends to explore whether the congruence perception will induce the purchase intention. Hence, the following hypotheses are proposed: H7. A customer’s perceived congruence between a celebrity and the celebrity’s business venture will increase the customer’s positive atti­ tude toward the celebrity’s venture brand. H8. A customer’s perceived congruence between a celebrity and the celebrity’s business venture will increase the customer’s purchase in­ tentions toward products of the celebrity’s venture brand. On the basis of the above hypotheses, the conceptual model is pro­ posed as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. The conceptual model *** indicates significant (p<0.0001); n.s. indicates not significant (p>0.05). 4

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 54 (2020) 102004

The results (Table 3) show that all loadings are significant (t-value > 1.96) and all factor loading values are higher than 0.6, thereby indicating a good convergent validity (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). Moreover, the AVE values were between 0.73 and 0.87 and all were above the suggested minimum of 0.5. Thus, these values provided evi­ dence of convergent validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). These AVE values can also be used to assess discriminant validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Table 4 shows that the AVE values for all constructs were higher than the largest squared pairwise correlation between each construct; this result provides evidence that discriminant validity is adequate. Although the instrument of this study presented adequate reliability and validity, the convenience sample of college students, albeit being frequently used in previous marketing studies (e.g., Ltifi, 2018; Mege­ hee, 2009), requires empirical replications to assess the reliability, val­ idity, and generalizability of the findings of this study (Peterson and Merunka, 2014).

Table 1 Constructs and corresponding items. Construct

Item

Attractiveness

I think that Ashin has a unique charisma. I think that Ashin is friendly. I think that Ashin is talented. I think that Ashin’s performance is professional. I think that Ashin has earned recognition for his outstanding performance. I think that Ashin’s image is sincere. I think that Ashin’s image is righteous. I think that Ashin’s image is trustworthy I think that Ashin’s characteristics and Stayreal’s image have congruence. I think that Ashin’s characteristics are relevant to the brand image of Stayreal. I think that it is appropriate for Ashin to be a product designer. I believe that the overall image of Stayreal is better than that of the other brands. I believe that Stayreal is a brand that is reliable and trustworthy. I believe that the product quality of Stayreal is better than that of the other brands. I will take Stayreal into consideration when shopping. I intend to buy Stayreal products. I will buy Stayreal products

Expertise

Trustworthiness Perceived congruence

Brand Attitude

Purchase intention

4.4. Analyses of the structural equation modelling Table 5 shows the results of the structural equation modelling for both the measurement and structural models. A good fit is indicated by the following: the normed-fit index (NFI) (Bentler and Bonett, 1980) and comparative-fit index (CFI) (Bentler, 1990) are > 0.9, the goodness-of-fit index (GFI) and adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI) are > 0.9, the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) is <0.8 (Hu and Bentler, 1999), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) is < 0.08 (Browne and Cudeck, 1993). Some researchers (e.g., Doll et al., 1994; Baumgartner and Homburg, 1996; Greenspoon and Saklofske, 1998) suggest that GFI and AGFI > 0.8 is acceptable. The overall fit of the proposed model was also quite satisfactory (e.g., GFI ¼ 0.92, AGFI ¼ 0.89, NFI ¼ 0.94, CFI ¼ 0.97, SRMR ¼ 0.04, and RMSEA ¼ 0.06).

Table 2 Respondents’ characteristics. Measure

Non-fan

Total

N

%

N

%

N

%

Male

65

90

110

38.5 (58.1) 61.5 (56.7)

155

Female

37.1 (41.9) 62.9 (43.3)

37.9 (100) 62.1 (100)

19<

17

15

152

22>

6

06.4 (25.0) 82.5 (45.2) 11.1 (84.6)

32

19–22

09.7 (75.0) 86.9 (54.8) 03.4 (15.4)

Has knowledge of Stayreal

Yes

138

116

37

49.6 (45.7) 50.4 (76.1)

254

No

78.9 (54.3) 21.1 (23.9)

Has bought Stay-real products

Yes

69

27

106

11.5 (28.1) 88.5 (66.1)

96

No

39.4 (71.9) 60.6 (33.9) 100 (42.8)

234

100 (57.2)

409

Gender

Age

Total

Group

Fan

175

144

193 26

118

207

254

345 32

155

313

5. Results

07.9 (100) 87.0 (100) 05.1 (100)

5.1. Independent-samples’ t-test between fans and non-fans An independent-samples’ t-test was conducted to explore whether there are significant response differences between groups of fans and non-fans, and groups of those who know and do not know Stayreal. The Levene’s F test is used to test the assumption of homogeneity of variance. The output of ‘equal variances assumed’ is reported if the test result was not significant, and the output of ‘equal variances not assumed’ is re­ ported if the test result was significant. As shown in Table 6, a large number of Ashin’s fans than non-fans perceive high expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness in Ashin. Additionally, among those who know Stayreal, Ashin’s fans perceive dimensions of credibility to a significantly greater degree, possess the brand attitude and congruence perception, and exhibit purchase inten­ tion, when compared to non-fans. Furthermore, among those who do not have knowledge of Stayreal, except for the credibility dimensions, there is little difference in other constructs of brand attitude, perceived congruence, and purchase intention possessed by fans and non-fans. Table 6 also shows that the fans who know Stayreal have a more positive brand attitude toward Stayreal and perceive a better fit between Ashin and Stayreal than fans who are unfamiliar with Stayreal. How­ ever, among non-fans—regardless of whether they are familiar with Stayreal—there are no significant differences regarding their percep­ tions, attitude, and intent. This implies that Stayreal can successfully drive Ashin’s fans to favor the brand when they gain knowledge of the brand, but it cannot significantly change non-fan’s perceptions, attitude, and intention in favor of the brand.

62.1 (100) 37.9 (100) 23.5 (100) 76.5 (100) 100 (100)

fans or non-fans was made by the respondents themselves with the question: “Are you fans of Ashin? Select Yes or No.” Respondents that answered “yes” were classified in the fan group; others were classified in the non-fan group. 4.3. Scale reliability and validity The degree of consistency among the multiple measurement items of a construct was tested with Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (CR) (Hair et al., 2010). Table 3 shows that all values of Cronbach’s alpha and CR meet the agreed minimum limit of 0.7, which indicates construct reliability. The construct validity was examined by convergent and discriminant validity tests. The convergent validity is assessed by the significance of the factor loading value for one indicator with a construct, and the average variance extracted (AVE) from the measures (Hair et al., 2010).

5.2. Hypotheses testing As shown in Table 7 and Fig. 1, a celebrity’s credibility can be 5

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 54 (2020) 102004

Table 3 Testing results of reliability and convergent validity (N ¼ 254). Item

Mean

Standard deviations

Cronbach’s alpha

CR

AVE

Standardized factor loading

Attractiveness 1 Attractiveness 2

4.29

.75

.88

.93

.87

.88a .90a

Expertise 1 Expertise 2 Expertise 3

4.41

.64

.76

.89

.73

.66a .74a .77a

Trustworthiness 1 Trustworthiness 2 Trustworthiness 3

4.25

.75

.89

.94

.84

.80a .90a .89a

Congruence perception 1 Congruence perception 2 Congruence perception 3

3.51

.79

.90

.94

.83

.87a .89a .83a

Brand attitude 1 Brand attitude 2 Brand attitude 3

3.54

.77

.85

.90

.76

.78a .79a .84a

Purchase intention 1 Purchase intention 2 Purchase intention 3

3.80

.76

.90

.94

.84

.89a .86a .83a

Note. a Significant at the 0.001 level. Table 4 Testing results of discriminant validity. Construct

Attractiveness

Expertise

Trust

Congruence

Brand attitude

Purchase

Attractiveness Expertise Trustworthiness Congruence Brand attitude Purchase

0.87 0.64 0.55 0.18 0.18 0.12

0.73 0.59 0.12 0.10 0.07

0.84 0.11 0.08 0.05

0.83 0.35 0.25

0.76 0.45

0.84

undertaken by Hollywood (Bruner, 2017; Fahey, 2015) and Chinese celebrities; according to a survey, restaurants, clubs, and fashion bou­ tiques comprise the top three businesses that attract investments from Chinese celebrities (RET, 2017). Nonetheless, the success rate for ce­ lebrities’ catering and fashion businesses is relatively low (Morris, 2015; Walker, 2017), even though celebrities have the advantages of fame and fan bases. Why do celebrities fail to turn their fame and fan base into a profit-making avenue? The findings from this empirical study can pro­ vide explanations from the customer’s perspective. First, although many studies have indicated that a celebrity’s cred­ ibility can promote a brand through endorsement, the empirical results of this study show that a celebrity’s credibility can only help induce fans’ positive brand attitudes toward a celebrity business; it does not influ­ ence non-fans. Furthermore, even though a celebrity’s credibility may influence fans to have a positive brand attitude toward the celebrity’s business, it cannot directly induce fans to purchase goods. Even fans depend on brand attitude to mediate their purchase intentions. This may be because most celebrity start-up brands are so new to the market that most people rely on the overall evaluation of quality, price, and style of the celebrity brand to form their attitude and to determine their pur­ chase intentions. The perceived congruence between a celebrity and the celebrity’s business is an important factor that affects customers’ attitudes toward a celebrity’s venture brand. If customers perceive a congruence between a celebrity and the celebrity’s business venture, they will have a more positive attitude toward the celebrity’s venture brand. Additionally, the congruence perception is important to fans and can directly induce their purchase intention if they perceive that the celebrity brand matches with the celebrity image. Congruence perception may play an important role in celebrity venture brands because celebrities are more deeply involved in their

Table 5 Fit indices for measurement and structural models. Goodness of fit

Recommended Value

Sample no. GFI AGFI NFI CFI SRMR RMSEA

>0.90 >0.90 >0.90 >0.90 <0.08 <0.08

M Know

S Know total

S Know fans

S Know non-fans

N ¼ 254

N ¼ 254

N ¼ 138

N ¼ 116

.92 .89 .94 .97 .04 .06

.92 .89 .94 .97 .05 .06

.86 .80 .86 .93 .07 .08

.86 .81 .89 .96 .06 .06

Note: M: Measurement model, S: Structural model.

reflected by the constructs of attractiveness, expertise, and trustwor­ thiness; however, credibility cannot directly induce an individual’s purchase intentions. A celebrity’s credibility is effective in enhancing customers’ brand attitudes only among fans who have previous knowl­ edge of Stayreal. Furthermore, Table 7 shows that even if an individual perceives congruence between a celebrity and the celebrity’s business, this perception can directly induce purchase intention only among fans. For non-fans, a celebrity’s credibility cannot enhance their brand attitude toward the celebrity’s venture brand, and the perceived congruence between a celebrity and the venture brand does not induce a purchase intention. In summary, H1, H2, H3, H5, and H7 are fully supported, but H4 and H8 are partly supported, and H6 is not supported. The testing results for the research model are depicted in Fig. 1. 6. Discussion Restaurants and fashion businesses are two major sectors of ventures 6

W. Teng et al.

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 54 (2020) 102004

Table 6 Independent-samples’ t-test for means of ‘know,’ ‘not know,’ ‘fan,’ and ‘non-fan’ groups. Item/Group

a

Know

Not know Fan

Non-Fan

LeveneSig.

pa

.000 .002 .000 .000 .000 .000

4.48 4.64 4.42 3.30 3.39 3.81

3.87 4.25 3.88 3.24 3.26 3.71

.210 .012 .436 .902 .185 .167

.000 .000 .000 .577 .245 .280

Levene Sig.

pa

Non-Fan Know

Not know

LeveneSig.

pa

.566 .278 .153 .003 .221 .933

.633 .101 .956 .007 .004 .045

4.00 4.30 4.05 3.31 3.34 3.57

3.87 4.25 3.88 3.24 3.26 3.71

.258 .460 .541 .568 .698 .098

.136 .559 .063 .375 .385 .135

Fan

Non-Fan

Levene Sig.

p

Attractiveness Expertise Trustworthiness Perceived congruence Brand attitude Purchase intention

4.53 4.50 4.41 3.67 3.71 3.98

4.00 4.30 4.05 3.31 3.34 3.57

.787 .080 .823 .001 .689 .001

Item/Group

Fan Know

Not know

Attractiveness Expertise Trustworthiness Perceived congruence Brand attitude Purchase intention

4.53 4.50 4.41 3.67 3.71 3.98

4.48 4.64 4.42 3.30 3.39 3.81

a

Note: p<0.025 indicates significant.

Regarding the means of purchase intentions, as shown in Table 7, among respondents who are unfamiliar with the celebrity’s venture brand, there is no significant difference between those who are fans and non-fans of the celebrity. Additionally, all the means of purchase intention are relatively higher than those of brand attitude. The findings imply that a celebrity’s fame and popularity induce curiosity in cus­ tomers to sample the celebrity brand’s products. Thus, when starting a business, a celebrity must understand that credibility can only entice fans to have a positive brand attitude toward the celebrity’s business, and that brand attitude is a key factor that de­ termines purchase intentions. However, even though the celebrity’s credibility is effective for fans, they will evaluate other factors (such as congruence perception) to form an overall brand attitude.

Table 7 Results of path testing of models. Hypotheses/Group

Know Total

Know Fans

Know Non-fans

Testing Results

H1: Credibility → Attractiveness H2: Credibility → Expertise H3: Credibility → Trustworthiness H4: Credibility → Brand attitude H5: Brand attitude → Purchase intention H6: Credibility → Purchase intention H7: Perceived congruence→ Brand attitude H8: Perceived congruence→ Purchase intention

.900c

.917c

.872c

Supported

.898c .827c

.895c .712c

.893c .883c

Supported Supported

.178a

.268b

.015

c

c

Partly supported Supported

.558

.391

c

.670

.056

.023

.042

.512c

.441c

.559c

a

a

.154

.208

.124

Not supported Supported

7. Conclusions and implications

Partly supported

7.1. Theoretical contributions

Note. a Significant at the 0.05 level. b Significant at the 0.01 level. c Significant at the 0.001 level.

Celebrities’ fame helps develop awareness of celebrities’ ventures due to the effects of celebrity endorsement for a new brand or new product. For celebrities’ ventures, this awareness does not necessarily induce customers’ purchase intentions toward the venture’ products or services; the appeal of a celebrity’s venture brand is contingent on fans’ identity, the perceived congruence of a celebrity’s abilities, and the celebrity’s business. This study is one of the few studies investigating the moderating effects of fans’ identities on celebrity endorsement (e.g., Hung et al., 2011). Prior advertising and marketing literature has indicated that celeb­ rity credibility has positive effects both on customer attitudes and pur­ chase intentions (McCormick, 2016), but for celebrity’s business ventures, our results show that celebrities’ credibility cannot directly enhance consumers’ purchase intentions toward products of a celeb­ rity’s venture brand; it can only entice fans to have a positive brand attitude. Fan identity is a moderator in the relationship between ce­ lebrity credibility and the customer’s attitude toward the celebrity’s venture brand. The reason for the absence of an enhancement effect of celebrity credibility on a celebrity’s business venture might be that a celebrity’s venture usually does not collaborate with big firms, but stands alone; hence, customers cannot count on assessing the reputation of cobranding partners to enhance their perception and evaluation of the celebrity’s venture brand. In other words, the influential scope of a celebrity’s endorsement for his/her own venture brand is smaller than one for a popular brand because the effect of the celebrity’s credibility is only limited to fans when the endorsed brand is a celebrity’s venture. Thus, in terms of

own business ventures than they are when endorsing a product for other brands. Hence, customers will assess the celebrity’s capability to run the business and to provide good products or services; they rely on this assessment because of the lack of other reference information that can form a basis for evaluating the celebrity’s venture brand. Nevertheless, if a celebrity plays an endorser role for an established brand, then cus­ tomers can find quality clues from the endorsed brand. As shown in Table 3, the mean of perceived congruence items is lower than those of other constructs’ items. This indicates that many respondents are not sure whether Ashin’s business venture matches his talent and skills. However, the results also show that fans have a better attitude and a congruence perception after they become familiar with Ashin’s brand. This implies that Ashin retains affinity and support for his brand from fans who have gained knowledge about the brand. The loyal support of fans might be one of the reasons behind the current success of Ashin’s Stayreal brand. Thus, this suggests that when a celebrity starts a new business, the celebrity must not only attract people, particularly fans, to experience the venture brand, but also focus on feedback from customers, particularly fans, after they experience the brand. Fans’ feedback is a key indicator of the success of the celebrity’s brand. In other words, fans are easily loyal customers of a celebrity brand if they have a positive brand attitude toward the celebrity’s venture. 7

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 54 (2020) 102004

consumers’ attitudes, being a celebrity entrepreneur is riskier than being a brand endorser.

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7.2. Managerial implications Celebrities’ fame is helpful in the development of brand awareness regarding the celebrity’s venture and in attracting non-fans to sample the products of the celebrity’s business owing to novelty. In addition, if a celebrity’s fans have positive brand attitudes toward the celebrity’s venture, they will easily become loyal customers of the celebrity’s brand. However, even when starting a small business such as restaurants and fashion lines or boutiques, celebrities must understand that their fame can generally only affect fans for a limited time and has no sig­ nificant effects on non-fans; the development of celebrity businesses still relies on customers’ positive brand attitudes, similar to non-celebrity brands. People do not directly intend to buy products from a celeb­ rity’s venture brand only because they like, trust, and give affirmation to the celebrity. Purchase intentions result from an overall evaluation of, for example, the quality of goods, cost, attractiveness, and style of products of the celebrity venture brand. These factors form a positive brand attitude. Additionally, although modern celebrities seem to diversify their revenue sources by simultaneously working as entrepreneurs, their business ventures should fit their talent, capability, image, and style. The celebrity’s ambition has no influence on the celebrity’s business success, but a congruence perception is an important factor that affects the customer’s attitude toward a celebrity’s venture brand. Since perceived congruence plays an important role in celebrity venture brands, some celebrities choose not to become heavily involved in their business ventures and only play an endorser’s role to help to enhance brand awareness, or are simply investors. Thus, if a celebrity establishes a business venture that is not primarily the celebrity’s field of expertise, it is recommended that they should not play an executive’s role to avoid raising consumers’ doubts. However, as perceived credibility of a celebrity has a significant ef­ fect on fans, if a celebrity’s venture business is related to the lifestyle sector such as ethical or stylish merchandise, the celebrity can be an influencer or entrepreneur more than an endorser and recommend and promote the trend as well as its related products to fans. 7.3. Limitations Certain limitations are inherent in this study. The first limitation is the study’s convenience sampling; the sample comprises only college students from a local university. Hence, there is a possibility of a sam­ pling bias. Additionally, only one celebrity’s venture has been selected and analyzed, so the findings may be constrained to this individual case. Furthermore, the findings apply to the local cultural context, and may vary across countries. Therefore, conducting cross-validation studies is recommended. Moreover, the generalization of the study’s findings might be constrained because most examples of celebrity entrepreneurs examined in this study are U.S. and Chinese cases due to the authors’ language barriers. Although the authors believe the findings have im­ plications that extend beyond this cultural context, future comparative studies are recommended to generate robust theoretical and managerial insights. Acknowledgement This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest. 8

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