NUK Sustainability Report

   
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2026-09-14

When social media influencers appear alongside their pets, does a more intimate interaction necessarily lead to greater advertising effectiveness? The answer may be the opposite. Yi-Hsun Lin, a master's student in the Department of Information Management at the National University of Kaohsiung (NUK), investigated "human–pet interaction" in influencer-sponsored posts and found that overly intimate interactions may make audiences perceive the advertising as deliberately staged, thereby reducing their willingness to engage. His research stood out among 986 papers submitted to the competition and received an Honorable Mention in the Marketing Management category of the 2026 Fubon Life Management Master's and Doctoral Thesis Awards.

Through five experiments, Lin classified interactions between influencers and pets into three levels: no interaction, low interaction, and high interaction. The results showed that, in sponsored-post settings, low-level human–pet interaction was the most effective in increasing audience engagement intention. The key finding was not simply that "less interaction is better," but rather that interactions that appear natural and uncontrived are more likely to convey authenticity and warmth. Conversely, highly intimate interactions may weaken these effects when audiences perceive them as deliberately arranged for advertising purposes.

Also examining the phenomenon of "influencers and pets" on social media, master's student Chia-Fu Chang collected publicly available Instagram posts published over one year by the top 1,000 most-followed human influencers. His research analyzed how human–pet intimacy, influencer gender, and sponsored-post contexts affect audience engagement. The study found that simply featuring a pet does not necessarily generate more likes or engagement. Highly intimate human–pet interactions increased engagement in ordinary posts, but their effects could reverse when the posts were presented in a sponsored-advertising context. Chang received the Best Master's Thesis Award at the 2026 Taiwan Society for Social Network Studies Master's and Doctoral Thesis Awards for this research.

Although the two studies approached the same phenomenon from different methodological perspectives, both reflect the research training provided by Distinguished Professor Ying-Feng Kuo of NUK's Department of Information Management. Kuo has long encouraged students to identify research questions from everyday experiences and phenomena emerging in digital society. Among graduates from the 2024 and 2026 cohorts, all five master's students supervised by Kuo received thesis awards, collectively earning seven major awards in nationwide thesis competitions. This reflects the continued accumulation of achievements through sustained research training and academic presentation.

This talent-development pathway has also continued beyond graduation. Chien-Jen Hou, an outstanding alumnus of NUK's Department of Information Management and now an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial and Information Management at National Cheng Kung University, received research training and guidance from Kuo from his undergraduate capstone project through his master's studies. After completing his master's degree, Hou pursued a doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Arlington in the United States with a scholarship. After returning to Taiwan, he began his academic career and was awarded the 2026 Wu Ta-You Memorial Award by Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council. His journey—from NUK undergraduate and graduate student to university faculty member—demonstrates how the outcomes of talent development can extend beyond student research and competitions into long-term academic and professional development.

The relationship between faculty and students also continues beyond graduation. Kuo jokingly describes his approach as providing students with "a lifetime of free service." Even after graduation, entering the workforce, or starting families, many former students continue to seek his advice when they encounter questions related to research, work, or different stages of life. Kuo emphasizes that teaching is not merely about delivering course content; more importantly, it involves providing students with direction and support when they need it. Watching students gradually discover their own professional interests and paths of development, he says, is one of the most rewarding aspects of being an educator.

Hsing-Tzu Lin, Chair of NUK's Department of Information Management, noted that the department continuously encourages students—from undergraduate capstone projects and innovative practice to master's-level research—to participate in research projects, competitions, and academic activities, enabling them to accumulate research and practical experience beyond the classroom. Students have continued to demonstrate achievements at different stages of their academic development in recent years, reflecting NUK Information Management's educational emphasis on integrating theory and practice while cultivating research capabilities and professional talent over the long term.

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@Department of Information Management | Research & Teaching