Influencers y moda: efecto en la intención de compra en mujeres millennials en la ciudad de Cuenca (Ecuador)

The following research applies the source credibility theory to determine the effect of Instagram influencers’ characteristics on the purchase intention of millennials in the fashion industry, spe-cifically within the casual clothing category. The study involved a structured survey conducted on 346 millennial women in Cuenca, aged between 25 and 39 years, residing in urban areas. The sampling technique used was stratified random sampling with proportional allocation.The collected data was subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to select and prioritize significant variables, using maximum likelihood estimation as the estimator. Finally, structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to test the proposed hypotheses and achieve the research objectives.The results indicate that only three influencer characteristics have a significant relationship with purchase intention: similarity, experience, and familiarity. Among these, familiarity has a direct relationship with the dependent variable, and its origin is mediated through the two previously mentioned constructs. On the other hand, reliability was found to be insignificant and was therefore excluded from the model.