IES Management College And Research Centre

Image from Google Jackets

Are Online Opinion Leaders and Seekers Distinct? A Study on Consumer Electronics Industry in India

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextDescription: 813–825 pSubject(s): In: BANIK, ARINDAM GLOBAL BUSINESS REVIEWSummary: On various social media platforms, such as brand communities and brand pages, one segment of consumers shares product knowledge and another seeks product knowledge. Consumers sharing product knowledge are called online opinion leaders and those seeking product knowledge are called online opinion seekers. Given the importance of opinion leaders as low-cost marketing tools for marketers, there is an impending need to determine whether opinion leaders and opinion seekers are distinct constructs in the online context. The present study addressed this issue by analysing a relatively large sample of 1432 respondents from India. The study adopted a novel approach to collect data. Data has been collected from select e-commerce sites’ brand pages on Facebook social media platform through Google forms. The study focuses on three consumer electronic product categories, namely, smartphone, laptop and tablet. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to examine the unidimensionality of the variables and confirmatory factor analysis was performed to validate the variable scales. In all the three product categories, online opinion leader and online opinion seeker scales turned out to be unidimensional. Further, the results of the analyses prove that online opinion leaders and online opinion seekers are distinct. This study provides evidence that in the context of an emerging online market, namely, India, online opinion leaders and online opinion seekers are distinct.
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.
Star ratings
    Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Vol info Status Notes Date due Barcode Item holds
Journal Article Journal Article Main Library Vol 20, No 3/ 55510583JA14 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 55510583JA14
Journals and Periodicals Journals and Periodicals Main Library On Display JP/GEN/Vol 20, No 3/55510583 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Vol 20, No 3 (10/05/2019) Not for loan June, 2019 55510583
Total holds: 0

On various social media platforms, such as brand communities and brand pages, one segment of consumers shares product knowledge and another seeks product knowledge. Consumers sharing product knowledge are called online opinion leaders and those seeking product knowledge are called online opinion seekers. Given the importance of opinion leaders as low-cost marketing tools for marketers, there is an impending need to determine whether opinion leaders and opinion seekers are distinct constructs in the online context. The present study addressed this issue by analysing a relatively large sample of 1432 respondents from India. The study adopted a novel approach to collect data. Data has been collected from select e-commerce sites’ brand pages on Facebook social media platform through Google forms. The study focuses on three consumer electronic product categories, namely, smartphone, laptop and tablet. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to examine the unidimensionality of the variables and confirmatory factor analysis was performed to validate the variable scales. In all the three product categories, online opinion leader and online opinion seeker scales turned out to be unidimensional. Further, the results of the analyses prove that online opinion leaders and online opinion seekers are distinct. This study provides evidence that in the context of an emerging online market, namely, India, online opinion leaders and online opinion seekers are distinct.

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.

Circulation Timings: Monday to Saturday: 8:30 AM to 9:30 PM | Sundays/Bank Holiday during Examination Period: 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM