Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion
Abstract
We study how opinion leadership and social contagion within social networks affect the adoption of a new product. In contrast to earlier studies, we find evidence of contagion operating over network ties, even after controlling for marketing effort and arbitrary systemwide changes. More importantly, we also find that the amount of contagion is moderated by both the recipients' perception of their opinion leadership and the sources' volume of product usage. The other key finding is that sociometric and self-reported measures of leadership are weakly correlated and associated with different kinds of adoption-related behaviors, which suggests that they probably capture different constructs. We discuss the implications of these novel findings for diffusion theory and research and for marketing practice.
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Most programs generate their effects either directly or indirectly through interpersonal persuasion and communication.
“Most programs generate their effects either directly or indirectly through interpersonal persuasion and communication [75].”
From Social Network Analysis for Program Implementation (2015) · cites this paper as [75]
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- Authors
- Iyengar, R., Van den Bulte, C., & Valente, T. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
- University of Southern California (US)
- Venue
- Marketing Science
- Published
- 2011-03
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 195-212
- ISSN
- 0732-2399 (ISSN-L)
- 1526-548X
- OpenAlex
- W2138081378
- Cited by
- 996
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 63 · 2021: 79 · 2020: 78 · 2019: 66 · 2018: 77 · 2017: 74 · 2016: 71 · 2015: 78 · 2014: 80 · 2013: 82 · 2012: 45
- FWCI
- 79.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Marketing Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Innovation Diffusion and Forecasting
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Keywords
- opinion leadership, social contagion, new product diffusion, social networks, product adoption, diffusion of innovations, marketing activities, network ties
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