Opinion Leadership: Non-Work-Related Advice in a Work Setting

Journal of e-Commerce Research (JECR), Vol. 10, No. 4, 2009

University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2013-105

Posted: 23 May 2013 Last revised: 27 Jun 2013

See all articles by Viju Raghupathi

Viju Raghupathi

Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College - The City University of New York

Ofer Arazy

Independent

Nanda Kumar

CUNY Baruch College - CIS, Zicklin School of Business

Bracha Shapira

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Date Written: November 1, 2008

Abstract

Opinion leaders influence the decisions of others and play a significant role in disseminating information, specifically in the domain of e-commerce. Prior studies exploring the factors that affect a person's ability to influence others have been conducted in either a work setting (i.e. advice networks) or leisure setting (e.g. movie recommendation). However, it is common for these networks to interweave, for instance when a person asks for advice from work colleagues on a personal issue, like the purchase of a car. This suggests that there is a need to differentiate between the antecedents of opinion leadership that stem from one's position in the professional network and the antecedents that stem from personal characteristics associated with the specific non-work related advice (e.g. expertise in cars). To explore how opinion leadership is determined in such multifaceted settings, we develop a theoretical framework of opinion leadership. The results from an empirical study of a movie advice task that was conducted in a professional setting, demonstrate that both movie-related trustworthiness and work-related centrality exert distinct effects on one's ability to influence others opinions regarding movies. Implications for theory and practice of e-commerce are discussed.

Keywords: opinion leader, social network, competence, benevolence, network centrality

Suggested Citation

Raghupathi, Viju and Arazy, Ofer and Kumar, Nanda and Shapira, Bracha, Opinion Leadership: Non-Work-Related Advice in a Work Setting (November 1, 2008). Journal of e-Commerce Research (JECR), Vol. 10, No. 4, 2009 , University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2013-105, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2268708

Viju Raghupathi

Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College - The City University of New York ( email )

55 Lexington Ave., Box B13-260
New York, NY 10010
United States

Nanda Kumar

CUNY Baruch College - CIS, Zicklin School of Business ( email )

17 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10010
United States

HOME PAGE: http://cisnet.baruch.cuny.edu/kumar

Bracha Shapira

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ( email )

Beer-Sheva
Israel

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