Voters' voting intention: The salience of celebrity endorsement—Evidence from Ghana

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Vincent Ekow Arkorful,Benjamin Kweku Lugu,Evans Tetteh,Vincent Ansah Arkorful
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2803

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Voters' voting intention: The salience of celebrity

endorsement—Evidence from Ghana

Vincent Ekow Arkorful

1

| Benjamin Kweku Lugu

2

| Evans Tetteh

1

|

Vincent Ansah Arkorful

3

1

Department of Government and International

Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University,

Kowloon, Hong Kong

2

School of Management, University of Science

and Technology of China, Hefei, China

3

Department of Geography and Rural

Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Correspondence

Vincent Ekow Arkorful, Department of

Government and International Studies, Hong

Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong,

Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Email: 20481047@life.hkbu.edu.hk/

saintvincentino@gmail.com

Partly spurred by the notion that celebrities wield potentials leverageable for political gains,

the phenomenon of celebrity endorsement has become emblematic of political campaigns.

While the use of celebrities in politics is on the ascendancy, its impact on electoral fortunes

in bourgeoning democracies like Ghana where the concept is nascent, has received little

research focus. Considering the anticipated gains, an empirical investigation in this regard

will be imperative to the politics of transitioning polities. Against this backdrop, our study

investigates the salience of celebrity endorsement to voters' voting intention. Employing a

questionnaire-drawn data via the survey method, with a sample of 745, results of data

analysis anchored on the structural equation modeling technique revealed a significant

positive relationship between endorser credibility and political brand credibility. Similarly,

study results confirmed the significant positive relationship between political brand credi-

bility and voting intention. Finally, the significant positive relationship between endorser

credibility and voting intention was affirmed. Overall, the study outcomes verify the use-

fulness and appropriateness of the proposed model. Based on the results, implications for

political strategy and suggestions for further research are subsequently delineated.

KEYWORDS

brand credibility, celebrity endorsement, democracy, Ghana, voters and voting intention

1|INTRODUCTION

The transition from colonial, through military adventurism to a democ-

racy is one that ostensibly highlights Ghana's checkered historical tra-

jectory. Though these transitions have dealt a significant debilitating

impact on the strive towards development and democratic experimen-

tation, Ghana eventually witnessed a paradigm shift on the socio-

political landscape in 1992, by overwhelmingly voting for constitu-

tional transformation through a referendum—thereby opening up the

political space for democratization. Significantly marked by the pro-

mulgation of the 1992 constitution, the gains thereof have contrib-

uted to consolidating a multi-party system of democratic governance

in Ghana. As a consequence, it has become a convention that general

elections are held to elect members of the legislature and a Chief

Executive President every 4 years. These elections predominantly

fiercely contested by candidates of political parties have ensuingly

occasioned a myriad of election-related innovations targeted at win-

ning votes. Uniquely characterizing these innovations is the use of

celebrities from across the creative arts industries—largely composed

of actors and musicians. Though the phenomenon of celebrities'

involvement in political campaigns is familiar, more especially in the

western political space, prior to the general elections of the year

2008, it was somewhat novel in Ghana. In the aftermath of the elec-

tions, the phenomenon, in addition to gaining an entrenched position,

has become an integral component of political campaigns in Ghana's

body politics. Evidence to this is the involvement of celebrities in the

political campaigns preceding the year 2012 and 2016 general elec-

tions respectively (Agyepong, 2017).

The deep-seated and almost inextricably interlocked relationship

between celebrities (i.e., musicians, movie actors and actresses, etc.)

and politics (as repeatedly witnessed in the January 2020 elections),

apparently suggests that the phenomenon has not only come to stay,

Received: 8 March 2021 Revised: 19 October 2021 Accepted: 5 December 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2803

J Public Affairs. 2022;22(Suppl. 1):e2803. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of14

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2803