Abstract
Online consumer social networks have become an important marketing channel for product-related information diffusion in the technological landscape. This paper aims to identify the factors that drive opinion diffusion behavior in consumers on online social networks. To empirically test the theoretically driven hypotheses, the study uses firsthand survey responses from 614 respondents based in two major cities in China: Shenzhen, an eastern city, and Xi’an, a western city. A survey of online shopping consumers shows that both network heterogeneity and network influence have a positive impact on consumers’ level of online opinion leadership and online opinion seeking behavior. However, network acquaintance has an insignificant impact on the level of opinion diffusion. Furthermore, online opinion diffusion has a positive impact on behavioral consequence, which has two dimensions: online forwarding and online communication. An online opinion leader is more likely to forward and communicate information than an online opinion seeker. Multiple-group analysis indicates that gender and city moderate the effect of opinion diffusion. Theoretically, this paper makes several contributions to marketing literature, particularly from a social networking perspective. The results from this study can help online retailers and social network service providers utilize consumer networks to improve online opinion diffusion. Within social networking literature, this is a unique attempt to explore the factors driving opinion diffusion behavior in consumers’ online social networks.
Highlights
Facing the disadvantage of high listing fees and long payback periods, manufacturers have extended their marketing channels to online platforms
This study examines the effect of consumer social network characteristics on online opinion diffusion and investigates its outcomes, which include online forwarding and online communication
Network influence was measured by one item (‘‘Compared with my friends, I am usually consulted more about online shopping.’’), and network acquaintance was measured by one question (‘‘What percentage of people are you familiar with in your online social network?’’)
Summary
Facing the disadvantage of high listing fees and long payback periods, manufacturers have extended their marketing channels to online platforms. When consumers needed product-related information, they had no choice but to turn to manufacturer-generated advertisements published by traditional media. Information released by manufacturers may exaggerate the quality of a product or service, and consumers are unwilling to trust and accept the information generated by firms. Internet technology has transformed the way we search for information, interact with each other, and shop [1]. Traditional word-of-mouth behavior has become electronic word-of-mouth, and consumers are connected by online social networks [2]. Twitter, Pinterest, LivingSocial, and Kickstarter are examples
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