Abstract
Few studies have examined the personality traits that may predict opinion leadership behavior in social media. This study aims to examine the personality traits of individuals who use social media platforms and engage in social networking in Saudi Arabia. This study investigates the extent to which innovativeness, competence in interpersonal relationships, and extraversion affect the opinion leadership propensity in social media. The data were collected via an online structured questionnaire which was completed by a sample of 321 social media users. The results of this study show that people with a high level of innovativeness and interpersonal relationship competency are more likely to be opinion leaders on social media. However, the personality trait of extraversion does not affect the propensity to be an opinion leader. The results indicate that the effect of innovativeness on opinion leadership propensity is lower for Generation Y than Generation X.
Highlights
The necessity of social media has rapidly increased across the globe
This study aims to examine the personality traits of innovativeness, extraversion, and competence in interpersonal relationships on opinion leadership propensity in Saudi
This study documents that innovativeness has a significant effect on opinion leadership propensity in social media
Summary
The necessity of social media has rapidly increased across the globe. In Saudi Arabia, social media has played a decisive role in the increasingly transforming the Saudi community. According to Alkhathlan [2], the Saudi people’s interest in social media has developed and consequentially impacts their daily lives. Over the past few years, the Saudi Arabian economy has experienced tremendous growth. The Vision 2030 and National Transformation Program (NTP) have envisaged several plans to enable economic diversification and to develop the e-commerce sector that will enhance the economic development plans. In Saudi Arabia, buying through social media applications is widespread; business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce spending exceeded SAR 29.7 billion in 2016. Instagram, and Facebook are the most used social media applications for online purchasing [3]
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