The Influence of Opinion Leaders towards Consumer Information Adoption in the Virtual Communities of Consumption

Abstract

With the appearance and popularity of virtual communities of consumption, potential consumers begin to search for and share information with others in such kind of platforms and to be affected by the electronic word of mouth of certain products or services. Meanwhile, opinion leaders begin to exert influence on these individuals by helping them to filter, categorize and figure out the most valuable pieces of information. Consequently, how to utilize opinion leaders to affect consumer behavior by term of electronic word of mouth becomes one of the hottest topics in the relevant fields. This article utilizes the Information Adoption Model to study how opinion leaders exert influence on consumer information adoption process so as to provide implications about how to utilize opinion leaders in the virtual communities of consumption.

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“…They are either experts in a specific area of knowledge, or have a wide range of social connections [14]. Previous research has identified several characteristics of KOLs, namely that they are professionals, innovative, involved, and sociable [36]. Moreover, [37] demonstrated several characteristics in determining KOLs: they must be knowledgeable in their field, respected by their audience, have wider access to information sources than their followers, and lastly, have the ability to maintain their leadership.…”

“…Moreover, [37] demonstrated several characteristics in determining KOLs: they must be knowledgeable in their field, respected by their audience, have wider access to information sources than their followers, and lastly, have the ability to maintain their leadership. According to [36], KOLs can be generally categorized into two types: the ones who are active offline such as public figures and celebrities, and thus can easily become online opinion leaders. And those who share their opinions online exclusively.…”

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“…Penelitian pada konteks online marketing menyatakan bahwa rekomendasi dari opinion leaders dapat memengaruhi kepercayaan pada merk, meningkatkan engagement, dan niat beli konsumen atau calon konsumen potensial (Aghdam & Navimipour, 2016;Ananda, 2018;Chu & Kim, 2011;Cooley & Parks-Yancy, 2019;Gefen et al, 2003;Haron et al, 2016;Lafferty et al, 2002;H.-C. Lin et al, 2018;X. Lin et al, 2019;Listyorini, 2015;Lu et al, 2010;Nunes et al, 2018;Oestreicher-Singer & Zalmanson, 2013;Raghupathi & Fogel, 2015;Schouten et al, 2020;Wang, 2017;Wardhana, 2016). Pada situasi krisis, opinion leaders juga memiliki peran dalam memengaruhi kepercayaan orang lain terhadap suatu informasi mengenai bencana atau krisis yang sedang terjadi (Hagar, 2013;Wardyaningrum, 2018).…”

“…Menurut Turcotte et al (2015), kepercayaan dapat meningkat karena adanya peran dari opinion leaders dalam merekomendasikan atau menyebarkan informasi, konten, atau berita. Sedangkan Wang (2017) berpendapat bahwa kredibilitas sumber adalah sejauh mana orang-orang mempertimbangkan sumber informasi, yaitu opinion leaders yang kompeten dan reliabel. Maka influencers atau opinion leaders memiliki peran yang sama sebagai sumber informasi (Lou & Yuan, 2019).…”

“…Selain kredibilitas sumber, kepercayaan informasi juga ditentukan oleh kualitas atau kredibilitas informasi atau nilai pesan yang dibagikan oleh opinion leaders. Beberapa peneliti menyatakan bahwa kepercayaan informasi juga berkaitan erat dengan kualitas atau kredibilitas informasi atau nilai pesan yang dibagikan oleh opinion leaders (Cheng et al, 2016;Habibi et al, 2014;Haron et al, 2016;Lou & Yuan, 2019;Wang, 2017).…”