Research on the Influence Mechanism of Social Media Opinion Leaders on the Purchasing Intentions of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Consumers

As e-commerce continues to evolve, online word-of-mouth plays an increasingly significant role in consumer purchasing decisions. Although existing research has explored the impact of online word-of-mouth on the purchasing intentions of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) consumers from various perspectives such as brand, product, and organizational structure, understanding how social media opinion leaders influence this process remains limited, especially with a lack of empirical studies. This paper delves into how key characteristics of social media opinion leaders affect the purchasing intentions of SME consumers by analyzing survey data on their purchasing intentions, combined with the theoretical framework of word-of-mouth effects. The study finds that the professionalism, product relevance, and interactivity of social media opinion leaders can significantly enhance the purchasing intentions of SME consumers, while their popularity and profitability have little impact on purchasing intentions. Furthermore, based on word-of-mouth theory, the influence of the platform where the opinion leader is active and the positivity of the word-of-mouth have a positive moderating effect on the purchasing intentions of SME consumers. Based on these findings, the paper also proposes targeted marketing strategies and policy recommendations.