Influencers and Consumer Financial Decision-Making

Abstract

Influencer marketing has become a prominent strategy for promoting utilitarian products and services. In the financial sector, the demand for financial literacy has fostered the emergence of a specialized group of financial influencers. These influencers disseminate content, share personal experiences, and offer recommendations on financial decision-making via social media platforms. This research aims to evaluate when financial influencers recommend stocks and cryptocurrencies and to document the returns when individuals would have invested accordingly. The study utilizes a hand-collected dataset with 453 recommendations by 21 different Dutch financial influencers, each with more than 1000 followers, pertaining to 243 different stocks and 61 different cryptocurrencies. The investigation is the first that focuses on pre-recommendation returns and thereby considers the timing of the influencers' endorsements. Findings indicate that financial influencers tend to recommend financial assets that have demonstrated strong performance in the recent past. However, the study reveals that the returns on these recommended stocks and cryptocurrencies are typically negative post-recommendation. The research highlights a trend where financial influencers' endorsements are driven by overreliance on social heuristics, thus suggesting a potential adverse impact for investors who act on these recommendations. This underscores the risks for investors following finfluencer advice, suggesting the need for caution and stricter regulatory oversight to ensure transparency and to protect the financial well-being of consumers.