An international investigation of opinion leadership and social media

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine innovativeness and extraversion as antecedents of perceived and social media opinion leadership in different country-level contexts and explore how these antecedents influence product adoption differently. Design/methodology/approach A survey method was used to collect data from Turkey and the USA. A total of 415 respondents participated in two studies, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings This research shows that innovativeness affects perceived opinion leadership, whereas extraversion affects social media opinion leadership, and these effects are moderated by country-level differences. Practical implications This research provides strategic information on how to identify and target influencers in social media across countries. This paper has implications for marketers who are trying to find influential consumers to increase new product adoption. Social media opinion leaders are important seeding points, because they actively initiate new product adoption for other consumers. Marketers should create strategies that are in line with the country’s cultural orientation in addition to personal/psychological traits. Social implications This research provides valuable information to better explain the consumers’ adoption of technological products and the factors affecting this process in the context of social media. Specifically, this paper identifies strategies to use cultural differences across countries (i.e. Turkey versus the USA) and personality traits (i.e., innovativeness and extraversion) in the adoption of new products. Originality/value This paper extends prior literature on opinion leadership by uncovering consumer dynamics internationally, which are known to influence social media use. Specifically, by examining the effect of innovativeness and extraversion on opinion leadership in different countries, this research contributes to the literature on new product adoption and has implications for effectively identifying influencers in social media.

New frontiers and future directions in interactive marketing: Inaugural Editorial

“…Compared with traditional celebrity endorsement by movie or athletic stars with higher social status, micro influencers or KOLs from ordinary people are more close to the life of an average consumer and capable of becoming more interactive with followers and potential consumers (Al-Emadi and Ben Yahia, 2020). Such real life influencers from the grassroots, who are product innovators and passionate about the recommended products, not only have a significant following but a relatively higher number of buying conversations because consumers are likely to trust and act on a UGC (Akdevelioglu and Kara, 2020). The buying-while-watching function in social media or live streaming platforms let viewers instantly add goods to the shopping cart in interactive live streaming.…”

The impact of Internet celebrity characteristics on followers' impulse purchase behavior: the mediation of attachment and parasocial interaction

“…Internet celebrities have been shown to affect the decisions of their social media followers (Akdevelioglu and Kara, 2020; Al-Emadi and Ben Yahia, 2020). Therefore, investigating the role of Internet celebrities in impulse purchase behavior is of great interest to Internet marketing managers.…”

“…Growing evidence shows that followers of these celebrities on Internet platforms are prone to impulse buying behavior owing to parasocial relationships (Graham and Wilder, 2020; Styvén et al , 2017; Xiang et al , 2016). Recent literature indicated that Internet celebrities attract various followers through individual characteristics via the cognitive processing mechanism (Akdevelioglu and Kara, 2020; Ferchaud et al , 2018; Vander Schee et al , 2020). Cognitive processing mechanism is when the user assesses the “scent” provided by the link's text or icon, determining whether the link will lead to desired content (Ong et al , 2017).…”

Personality Traits Affecting Opinion Leadership Propensity in Social Media: An Empirical Examination in Saudi Arabia

“…Correa et al [75] found that extraversion is positively related to social media usage. Akdevelioglu and Kara [76] found that extraversion affects social media opinion leadership. However, previous studies indicated that shy individuals are more likely to use social media platforms [10,55].…”

“…Second, and more importantly, by examining the effect of innovativeness, extraversion, and interpersonal relationship competency on opinion leadership propensity in Saudi Arabia, this research has implications for effectively identifying opinion leader dynamics in another context [77]. Examining the personality traits of consumers who engage in social media networking in different contexts is important for marketers, so they can establish segmentation based on cultural characteristics, such as uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism [13,76]. This study also highlights the importance of interpersonal relationship competency and innovativeness in the identification of opinion leaders in Saudi Arabia.…”