Social media influencers play a role in the beauty industry by making it more accessible and diverse, engaging in cultural acceptance and diversity, and making their lives public through social media. Known as ‘beauty gurus’, these influencers use their makeup skills to work with cosmetics brands, in which they earn substantial remuneration by raising brand awareness among social media audiences. While work was conducted on social media influencers, there was no clear focus on how influencers engage with young millennials regarding the choice of cosmetics products and its use. Hence, this study analysed the beauty ‘gurus’ credibility in influencing young female millennials’ cosmetics brands of choice. A survey method was used to collect data using a judgemental sampling from young females who have subscribed and observed makeup tutorials on social media platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, among many others. Additionally, a total of 271 usable questionnaires were gathered and analysed using AMOS. Credibility traits, such as knowledge, attractiveness, and relatability, were the core elements of an influencer’s capability to influence young millennials. Social media influencers were seen as a new and effective marketing tool in targeting a broad demographic and increasing brand awareness.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to understand the predictors of hijab fashion consciousness and consumption. Muslim women in developing countries have evolved from living a traditional to a modern lifestyle, as more women become more educated, work and earn their own money. As modern sophisticated Muslim women, they have transformed themselves in the way they dress and don their hijab while adhering to the Shariah-compliant dress code. As a result, hijab fashion among hijabistas “Muslim women who wear fashionable outfits with matching fashionable headscarves” is flourishing.Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using questionnaires distributed to Muslim women who visited the Kuala Lumpur International Hijab Fashion Fair 2014 using the convenience sampling method. A total of 345 final useable data were used for data analysis using SmartPLS.Findings: Results show that dressing style, fashion motivation, fashion uniqueness and sources of fashion knowledge positively influence fashion consciousness and indirectly influence hijab fashion consumption.Practical implications: Results of this paper will provide insights to the people involved in the fashion industry, such as designers, retailers and marketers, to understand the hijabista market segment. Practitioners can design proper hijab fashion products that are Shariah-compliant to capture the segment of Muslim women with proper marketing strategies.Originality/value: The fashion of Muslim women, particularly the hijab fashion, has received little attention in the fashion literature. This paper hopes to provide new insights to relevant researchers and industries.

Purpose: This study aims to determine the repurchase intention of food truck products based on perceived risks and perceived benefits by consumers within the context of Malaysia. Recently, the food truck industry has been expanding as customers begin to explore alternatives for food convenience. However, there are not many studies carried out on this topic, especially in Asian countries. This study will fill the gaps on the factors that affect repurchase intention, especially perceived risks and perceived benefits of food trucks products.Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted through Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp on consumers with prior experience in buying food truck products. The partial least square (PLS) modelling using the SmartPLS software was employed to analyse the data.Findings: The results from 294 food truck consumers showed that perceived benefit, food safety, attitude and subjective norm significantly influence food truck products' repurchase intention. On the other hand, perceived risk towards the environment and perceived behavioural control do not substantially affect food truck products' repurchase intention.Research limitations/implications: The data collected were related only to the food trucker's customer that operates in Malaysia. Thus, the results might be only applicable to similar other Asian or developing countries.Practical implications: The results provided some managerial indicators to improve the level of business efficiency among food truck operators. Besides, marketers and policymakers can develop effective strategies and policies based on this study to develop this industry further.Originality/value: The study gives a fresh overview of how the food truck business can improve its services in developing countries. The results offer a competitive advantage and how to strengthen customer retention that can improve business performance.

The fast fashion market is becoming popular, escalating and aggravating the throwaway culture phenomenon. Thus, it is valuable to understand the factors that influence sustainable fashion consumption and the clothing disposal pattern among young consumers in developing countries like Malaysia. Data were obtained from the online survey of 324 young adults aged 18 to 35 and were analysed using the Partial Least Square using SmartPLS (v.3.3.3i). The findings indicate that personal norms, social norms and environmental awareness were the key influencing factors of sustainable fashion consumption. Consequently, sustainable fashion consumption exhibited a positive and significant relationship towards philanthropic and economic reasons for clothing disposal behaviour. The insights from this study will assist practitioners, green manufacturers, business owners and policy makers in giving a clearer picture of what motivates sustainable fashion consumption and the clothing disposal behaviour of today’s young adults.

Purpose: In this twenty-first century, the emergence of social media has been integral in business-related processes, especially in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which allows businesses to interact and build a relationship with customers to improve their sustainable service quality. Concisely, this study aims to examine the benefits of social customer relationship management (s-CRM) performance from the perceptive of SMEs owned by Muslims. Design/methodology/approach: A survey method was used and the data were gathered from 135 SMEs which participated in Halfest (Halal Fiesta Malaysia) trade show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Findings: Interestingly, the results revealed that the adoption of information and communications technology (ICT) has both direct and indirect impacts on s-CRM performance. On the other hand, the perceived value of s-CRM mediates the relationship between customer information management and performance of s-CRM. In this context, the perceived value was ascertained to be an influential factor for both ICT adoption and customer information management. Research limitations/implications: With a connection to the results, this study concludes that to enhance business performance to sustain in the marketplace, the establishment of s-CRM is crucial, as it has significant implication in marketing, customer service and sales department of SMEs. Originality/value: This paper provides new insight into the importance of s-CRM to SMEs to improve interactions with the key stakeholders and convey meaningful insight to instil customer-centric practices.

Purpose: Virtual influencers (VIs) are a rising force in shaping online user engagement and consumer behavior because, unlike traditional influencers, a VI offers freedom for creativity and provides unique opportunities for brands to control their messaging and advertisements meticulously. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of VI’s attributes, including interest similarity, language similarity, physical attractiveness, social attractiveness, and attitude homophily, on their credibility perception and parasocial interaction (PSI) and, subsequently, their effect on willingness to follow recommendations and intention to purchase fashion products promoted by these digital personas on Instagram. Design/methodology/approach: This study collected primary data from 332 Indian Instagram followers of virtual influencers using a structured questionnaire. Subsequently, the analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: The perceived credibility of VIs was significantly influenced by their social attractiveness, physical attractiveness, and attitude homophily, while users’ PSI with VIs was significantly influenced by interest similarity, language similarity, physical attractiveness, and attitude homophily. Furthermore, the study found that willingness to follow VI’s recommendations is influenced by credibility and parasocial interaction, while intention to purchase fashion products is influenced by credibility alone. Originality/value: There is a dearth of studies that explore the influence of VI’s attributes and characteristics on social media users’ behavioral intentions in the context of fashion products. Therefore, this study addresses this gap by exploring the persuasive power of VIs on Instagram through the lens of the CASA framework.