Leaders that bind: the role of network position and network density in opinion leaders' responsiveness to social influence

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Honghong Zhang ◽  
Xiushuang Gong
Keyword(s):  
Social Influence ◽  
New Product ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Network Density ◽  
Degree Centrality ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Product Diffusion ◽  
Diffusion Networks ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThe purpose of this present study is to investigate how opinion leaders' responsiveness to social influence varies with network positions (i.e. degree centrality and brokerage) and network density in new product diffusion networks.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected data based on a sociometric network survey. Hierarchical moderated regression and hierarchical linear modeling analyses were used to test the moderating effects of degree centrality, brokerage and density on the relationship between opinion leadership and susceptibility to social influence.FindingsThis study documents the significant moderating roles of network positions and network density in the relationship between individual influence (i.e. opinion leadership) and susceptibility to social influence. Interestingly, this study shows that the significant moderating effects of degree centrality and brokerage hold for opinion leaders' responsiveness to informational social influence, whereas that of network density holds for opinion leaders' responsiveness to normative social influence.Research limitations/implicationsThis research sheds light on the network structural characteristics under which opinion leaders would be differentially responsive to social influence (i.e. informational and normative influence) from others.Practical implicationsThis research provides marketing managers with insights into leveraging social influence by activating opinion leaders through existing network ties in new product diffusion networks.Originality/valueAlthough opinion leaders are generally less susceptible to social influence from others than nonleaders, this research finds that, under certain network conditions, opinion leaders would be equally responsive to social influence from their peers.

Consumer susceptibility to social influence in new product diffusion networks: how does network location matter?

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Honghong Zhang ◽  
Xiushuang Gong
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Betweenness Centrality ◽  
New Product ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Product Diffusion ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Product Diffusion ◽  
High Degree

Purpose This study aims to empirically investigate how susceptibility to social influence in new product adoption varies with one’s structural location in a social network. Design/methodology/approach The social network data were collected based on a sociometric network survey with 589 undergraduate students. Social network analysis and ordinary least squares regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Findings This study finds that consumers with high degree centrality (i.e. hubs) who have a large number of connections to others and consumers with high betweenness centrality (i.e. bridges) who connect otherwise distant groups in social networks are both less sensitive to informational influence from others. More importantly, the authors find evidence that consumers with moderate levels of degree/betweenness centrality are more susceptible to normative influence and status competition than those with low or high degree/betweenness centrality. The inverse-U patterns in the above relations are consistent with middle-status conformity and anxiety. Research limitations/implications This research complements social influence and new product diffusion research by documenting important contingencies (i.e. network locations) in consumer susceptibility to different types of social influence from a social network perspective. Practical implications The findings will assist marketers to leverage social influence by activating relevant social ties with effective messages in their network marketing strategies. Originality/value This research provides a better understanding of the mechanisms driving susceptibility to social influence in new product diffusion.

Can search engine data improve accuracy of demand forecasting for new products? Evidence from automotive market

2019 ◽  
Vol 119 (5) ◽  
pp. 1089-1103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongha Kim ◽  
JongRoul Woo ◽  
Jungwoo Shin ◽  
Jongsu Lee ◽  
Yongdai Kim
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Diffusion Model ◽  
New Product ◽  
Product Diffusion ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
New Product Diffusion ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between new product diffusion and consumer internet search patterns using big data and to investigate whether such data can be used in forecasting new product diffusion. Design/methodology/approach This research proposes a new product diffusion model based on the Bass diffusion model by incorporating consumer internet search behavior. Actual data from search engine queries and new vehicle sales for each vehicle class and region are used to estimate the proposed model. Statistical analyses are used to interpret the estimated results, and the prediction performance of the proposed method is compared with other methods to validate the usefulness of data for internet search engine queries in forecasting new product diffusion. Findings The estimated coefficients of the proposed model provide a clear interpretation of the relationship between new product diffusion and internet search volume. In 83.62 percent of 218 cases, analyzing the internet search pattern data are significant to explain new product diffusion and that internet search volume helps to predict new product diffusion. Therefore, marketing that seeks to increase internet search volume could positively affect vehicle sales. In addition, the demand forecasting performance of the proposed diffusion model is superior to those of other models for both long-term and short-term predictions. Research limitations/implications As search queries have only been available since 2004, comparisons with data from earlier years are not possible. The proposed model can be extended using other big data from additional sources. Originality/value This research directly demonstrates the relationship between new product diffusion and consumer internet search pattern and investigates whether internet search queries can be used to forecast new product diffusion by product type and region. Based on the estimated results, increasing internet search volume could positively affect vehicle sales across product types and regions. Because the proposed model had the best prediction power compared with the other considered models for all cases with large margins, it can be successfully utilized in forecasting demand for new products.

Improving new product development performance by risk management

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 418-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehran Salavati ◽  
Milad Tuyserkani ◽  
Seyyede Anahita Mousavi ◽  
Nafiseh Falahi ◽  
Farshid Abdi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Product Development ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
New Product ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Total Performance ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Npd Performance

Purpose The principal aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between technological, marketing, organizational and commercialization risk management on new product development (NPD) performance. Design/methodology/approach Based on questionnaire, the data were collected from a sample of general automotive industry in Iran. Based on theoretical considerations, a model was proposed and descriptive statistic and hierarchical regression were used to measure the relationship between risk management factors and NPD performance. Findings Data analysis revealed that if organization can amplify their knowledge and information about risk and main factors that affect NPD process, not only can they do their work better but can also increase their ability to predict future happenings that affect performance. Research limitations/implications First, due to the relatively small sample size, caution should be exercised when interpreting the results. Second, the data were collected from automotive producer in Iran, which may restrict to some extent generalizability of the findings. Practical implications The results suggest that managers should consider more attention to risk management. If managers spread the risk management in all aspects of the NPD project, total performance will be increased and it can develop the probability of NPD success. Also organizations should perform great market research due to best commercialization. Originality/value Past researches have presented complete information about NPD process. But identifying and considering the effect of the risk management parameters that are connected to the NPD process were the main thrusts to perform the study. In this paper, based on past research about risk management of NPD, the extra aspect of process that can improve total performance of NPD has been examined.

Effects of open innovation breadth on industrial innovation input–output relationships

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Germán Frank ◽  
Guilherme Brittes Benitez ◽  
Mateus Ferreira Lima ◽  
João Augusto Bonzanini Bernardi
Keyword(s):  
Open Innovation ◽  
Transaction Cost Economics ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Industrial Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeOpen innovation breadth (OIB) considers the diversity of external collaboration partners for innovation. The authors investigate the moderating effect of OIB on the relationship between industrial innovation activities (innovation inputs) and industrial innovation results (innovation outputs).Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on secondary data from the Brazilian innovation survey, representing more than 30,000 innovative companies across 55 industrial sectors.FindingsThis study’s results show that OIB has different moderating effects regarding the several innovation input–output relationships. While OIB benefits some relationships, others are hampered by the diversity of collaboration partners.Originality/valueFew studies have addressed OIB at the macro level. Using the perspective of transaction cost economics (TCE), the authors discuss the contributions and limitations of OIB at the industry level.

Service quality and global competitiveness: evidence from global service firms

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 1058-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenbin Sun ◽  
Jing Pang
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Competitiveness ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between service quality and firms’ global competitiveness in the service industry. A set of moderating effects is formulated to further reveal how the relationship varies under different situations. Design/methodology/approach This paper tests the model with data collected from multiple sources such as World’s Most Admired Companies and COMPUSTAT. Two types of robust regressions for panel data are employed in the empirical model estimation. Findings Service quality is found to significantly drive global competitiveness. Specifically, its impact is stronger for large service firms and when the global environment is characterized as low munificence, high dynamism, or high complexity. Practical implications The paper provides a set of implications for managers of service firms regarding global expansion and quality management. It generates useful guidelines of maximizing the power of service quality when a firm’s global competitive advantage is considered. Originality/value This paper takes the first attempt to formulate service quality’s influence on firm’s global competitiveness with a consideration of specific situational factors.

The effects of social capital on knowledge heterogeneity

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1237-1253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fu-Sheng Tsai ◽  
I-Chieh Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
New Product ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Epistemological Dimension

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influences of social capital on knowledge heterogeneity in order to advance the understanding of the effects and to reconcile existing inconsistent findings. Design/methodology/approach Survey data collected from 105 new product development (NPD) projects were analyzed with regression-based methods. Findings The results indicated that trust, centralization and shared vision as the three social capital dimensions generally have negative impacts on the domain and presentation dimensions of knowledge heterogeneity. However, the three dimensions of social capital do not exhibit consistent influences on the tacitness heterogeneity (i.e. an epistemological dimension of knowledge heterogeneity). Research limitations/implications More research is needed to explore the role of social capital dimensions in developing a range of knowledge attributes of NPD teams, among which knowledge heterogeneity is one. The various dimensions of knowledge an NPD team possesses should have performance implications and deserve future investigation. Originality/value The study is one of the first documented attempts to demonstrate contingencies in the relationship between social capital and knowledge heterogeneity. The effect of social capital on knowledge heterogeneity should be understood at the level of dimensions of the two respective constructs.

How does open innovation affect firms’ innovative performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 720-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiping Zhou ◽  
Yanhong Yao ◽  
Huanhuan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Open Innovation ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovative Performance ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Opportunistic Behaviour ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
New Finding ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This paper aims to explore the direct effects of open innovation (OI) on firms’ innovative performance, and to examine the moderating effects of knowledge attributes, including knowledge distance, knowledge embeddedness and partner opportunism on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Survey data of 247 samples from China were used to test the proposed model through hierarchical regression analysis. Findings The findings indicate that the dimensions of OI are positively related to innovative performance. The results also reveal that knowledge distance positively moderates the relationship between inbound OI and innovative performance, whereas knowledge embeddedness negatively affects that relationship. Knowledge embeddedness negatively affects the relationship between inbound OI and innovative performance, whereas knowledge distance positively moderates that relationship. Thus, a new finding is proposed that knowledge attributes could align effectively with specific OI type to achieve superior innovation outcomes. In addition, the empirical results suggest that partner opportunism plays a negative moderating role on the relationship between outbound OI and innovative performance. Originality/value The proposed view that a firm’s innovation outputs will be superior when its knowledge attributes effectively align with OI enriches studies of the OI context and expands the literature of both the resource-based view and the knowledge-based view. Furthermore, this study provides insights into how OI benefits can be influenced by external contexts from the perspective of partners’ opportunistic behaviour.

Mobile payment adoption process: a serial of multiple mediation and moderation analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanny Oentoro
Keyword(s):  
Social Influence ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Mobile Payment ◽  
Intention To Use ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Multiple Mediation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose Global digital payment transactions increase continuously. Due to the inconsistencies that occurred across the research findings, past researchers have called for further investigation to verify and empirically test the mobile payment acceptance model. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative model that is derived from the multiple technology acceptance models (TAM)’s a theoretical framework and past literature to understand how consumers decided to adopt mobile payment. By simultaneously testing mechanisms, namely, ease of use, usefulness and risk, the current study will be able to advance scholarly knowledge of the underlying consumer’s attitude and behavior that link social influence to intention to use. Design/methodology/approach A total of 370 valid responses were collected using self-administered questionnaires distributed via online platforms, a representative for Thai consumers. An ordinary least square regression and bootstrap analyzes were conducted through PROCESS Macro to analyze the moderated serial-multiple mediation model in the consecutive inducing of social influence, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived risk toward the consumer’s intention to use mobile payment. Findings Within the context of consumers evaluating a mobile payment, statistics significant were found for the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness on an intention to use. The results showed that Thai consumers’ intention to use mobile payment was significantly affected by their attitudes in terms of usefulness and the less complication in using the applications. It is confirmed that social influence indirectly affects intention to use via the increase of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The study also found a significant interaction between perceived risk and perceived usefulness toward intention to use. Practical implications It is recommended to service providers to continue improving the user-friendliness, navigation, integrity and furnish the system with more value-added activities within the mobile payment application. It is also essential for the company to deliver tutorials and clear and easy-to-follow instructions to customers. At the same time, the marketer should develop marketing strategies to promote the usefulness and simplicity of using the applications to the consumers. When consumers experienced the easiness and usefulness of the applications, these could overcome the resistance feeling to use due to the concern on any potential risk. Originality/value The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on consumer usage behavior and TAM by integrating all important variables and developed a parsimony framework to explain consumers’ usage adoption on mobile payment. Moreover, the current study was the very first that proposed and tested a serial of multiple mediations of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, moderated by perceived risk, in the relationship between social influence and consumers’ intention to use mobile payment and discovered a moderating role of perceived risk toward the relationship between perceived usefulness and mobile payment usage intention.

Strategic intelligence, organizational development and entrepreneurial behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Development ◽  
Government Agency ◽  
Underdeveloped Country ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behavior ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Intelligence ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between manager’s Strategic intelligence, organizational development and entrepreneurial behavior. Design/methodology/approach Data is gathered from the responses of 274 employees from a government agency in an underdeveloped country to three standard questionnaires. Findings The results show significant positive relationships between manager’s SI and OD and manager’s SI and EB but no significant moderating effects of demographic variables with the exception gender which had a significant effect on managers’ SI- EB relationship. Practical implications Therefore to optimize performance and gain a competitive advantage training to improve SI and EB should be provided and consideration should be given to improving internal factors within the organization to promote OD. Originality/value This paper has an original approach by using data collected in a government agency in an underdeveloped country to propose a model of manager’s SI, OD and EB.

Exploring consumers' response to text-based chatbots in e-commerce: the moderating role of task complexity and chatbot disclosure

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xusen Cheng ◽  
Ying Bao ◽  
Alex Zarifis ◽  
Wankun Gong ◽  
Jian Mou
Keyword(s):  
Task Complexity ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Identity Disclosure ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots have brought unprecedented business potential. This study aims to explore consumers' trust and response to a text-based chatbot in e-commerce, involving the moderating effects of task complexity and chatbot identity disclosure.Design/methodology/approachA survey method with 299 useable responses was conducted in this research. This study adopted the ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses.FindingsFirst, the consumers' perception of both the empathy and friendliness of the chatbot positively impacts their trust in it. Second, task complexity negatively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Third, disclosure of the text-based chatbot negatively moderates the relationship between empathy and consumers' trust, while it positively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Fourth, consumers' trust in the chatbot increases their reliance on the chatbot and decreases their resistance to the chatbot in future interactions.Research limitations/implicationsAdopting the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework, this study provides important insights on consumers' perception and response to the text-based chatbot. The findings of this research also make suggestions that can increase consumers' positive responses to text-based chatbots.Originality/valueExtant studies have investigated the effects of automated bots' attributes on consumers' perceptions. However, the boundary conditions of these effects are largely ignored. This research is one of the first attempts to provide a deep understanding of consumers' responses to a chatbot.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document