The Impact of Influencer Marketing on Value Co-Creation with Customers: The Mediating Role of Brand Trust—An Analytical Study of Generation Z Online Shoppers in Baghdad

Abstract

This study aims to explain how influencer marketing contributes to enhancing customer value co-creation by examining the mediating role of brand trust among Generation Z online shoppers in Baghdad, Iraq. The study was motivated by a research gap indicating that most previous studies have focused on the impact of influencer marketing on traditional marketing outcomes, such as purchase intention and customer loyalty, while paying limited attention to the mechanism through which influencer marketing fosters customer participation in value co-creation, particularly through the potential mediating role of brand trust. To achieve the study objectives, a descriptive-analytical approach was adopted, and an online questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 413 Generation Z respondents. Data were analyzed using a range of statistical techniques, including descriptive statistics (weighted means, standard deviations, and relative importance), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to assess construct validity, McDonald's Omega coefficient to evaluate reliability, simple linear regression analysis, and Path Analysis to examine the hypothesized direct and mediating relationships, using SPSS version 28 and AMOS version 26. The findings revealed that brand trust partially mediates the relationship between influencer marketing and customer value co-creation, with the indirect effect exceeding the direct effect. This indicates that building brand trust is the primary mechanism through which influencer marketing enhances customers' participation in value co-creation.