Are opinion leaders more satisfied? Results of a SEM model about the relationship between opinion leadership and online customer satisfaction

Abstract

More and more research is dedicated to address the phenomenon of online word-of-mouth (WOM). Concerning electronic WOM, three major underlying motives can be differentiated: opinion seeking, opinion giving and opinion passing (Flynn et al. 1996; Sun et al. 2006). The main aim of the research is to analyse the relationship between these three dimensions and the level of customer satisfaction. The research is based on a representative sample of 1000 respondents living in Hungary. According to the hypothesized Structural Equation Model (SEM), we can conclude that online opinion seeking behaviour has a significant positive impact on levels of customer satisfaction, as well as on opinion giving and opinion passing. This implies that opinion leaders not just share, but also collect enormous amounts of information about products and services and raise their expectations according to feedback. By doing so, their prior expectations are in relation to the true customer value of online stores and products. This means that customer satisfaction — measured using the disconfirmation paradigm — will reach a higher level, so it is advisory for online retailers to encourage customers to give feedback, write reviews, because it will affect the customer satisfaction level in a positive manner.