IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibf/gjbres/v4y2010i4p51-70.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Opinion Leaders And Their Influence On Consumer Purchasing Behavior In Saudi Arabia

Author

Listed:
  • Hussein Abdulla El-Omari
  • H. Martin Shane

Abstract

Current thinking on opinion leaders varies with respect to key features distinguishing these individuals. Some studies emphasize influence as the crucial determinant, others stress knowledge, and still others focus primarily on information transmission. Most research, however, see a combination of knowledge or expertise and influence as characterizing the opinion leader. From a marketing perspective in some product categories, opinion leaders appear to be more knowledgeable about and involved with the product class. This study examines the existence of TV opinion leadership and the purchasing of TV sets in Saudi Arabia, and the characteristics opinion leaders and non-leaders have. In addition, the study re-examines the Two-Step Flow model to assess its validity in Saudi Arabia. The findings reported in this article indicated that the concept of TV opinion leadership exists in Saudi Arabia. And those opinion leaders were more likely to have some social characteristics than followers. In addition, those opinion leaders were found to be both information givers and seekers. The validity of the Two-Step Flow model of communication was also re-examined in Saudi Arabia. The findings support the existing literature on the inaccuracy of this model and, therefore, a multi-step model of communication would be relevant for the Saudi context.

Suggested Citation

  • Hussein Abdulla El-Omari & H. Martin Shane, 2010. "Opinion Leaders And Their Influence On Consumer Purchasing Behavior In Saudi Arabia," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(4), pages 51-70.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibf:gjbres:v:4:y:2010:i:4:p:51-70
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.theibfr2.com/RePEc/ibf/gjbres/gjbr-v4n4-2010/GJBR-V4N4-2010-6.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Atkin & Kim Neuendorf & Leo Jeffres & Paul Skalski, 2003. "Predictors of Audience Interest in Adopting Digital Television," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 159-173.
    2. Frank J. van Rijnsoever & A. Rogier T. Donders, 2009. "The effect of innovativeness on different levels of technology adoption," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(5), pages 984-996, May.
    3. Martin Schreier & Stefan Oberhauser & Reinhard Prügl, 2007. "Lead users and the adoption and diffusion of new products: Insights from two extreme sports communities," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 15-30, June.
    4. Roland Helm & Sebastian Landschulze, 2009. "Optimal stimulation level theory, exploratory consumer behaviour and product adoption: an analysis of underlying structures across product categories," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 41-73, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shen Liu & Hongyan Liu, 2021. "Tagging Items Automatically Based on Both Content Information and Browsing Behaviors," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 33(3), pages 882-897, July.
    2. Jiaxing Wang & Shigeru Matsumoto, 2022. "An economic model of home appliance replacement: application to refrigerator replacement among Japanese households," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 24(1), pages 29-48, January.
    3. Tahani Z. Aldahdouh & Petri Nokelainen & Vesa Korhonen, 2020. "Technology and Social Media Usage in Higher Education: The Influence of Individual Innovativeness," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440198, January.
    4. Tietze, Frank & Pieper, Thorsten & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2013. "To own or not to own: How ownership affects user innovation - An empirical study in the German rowing community," Working Papers 73, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    5. Divakaran, Pradeep Kumar Ponnamma & Xiong, Jie, 2022. "Eliciting brand association networks: A new method using online community data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    6. Alexander Brem & Volker Bilgram & Adele Gutstein, 2021. "Involving Lead Users in Innovation: A Structured Summary of Research on the Lead User Method," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Alexander Brem (ed.), Emerging Issues and Trends in INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT, chapter 2, pages 21-48, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Sakellariou, Evy & Karantinou, Kalipso & Goffin, Keith, 2020. "From user insights to user foresights: Applying video-based ethnographic narratives and user innovation in NPD," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    8. Fiedler, Jakob & Schorn, André & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2023. "The influence of risk classification and community affiliation on the acceptance of user-innovated medical devices," Working Papers 115, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    9. Prakash Singh & Lokesh Arora & Abdulaziz Choudhry, 2022. "Consumer Behavior in the Service Industry: An Integrative Literature Review and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-30, December.
    10. Li, Shu-Chu Sarrina & Chen, Yen-Shen, 2017. "Non-adopters of Social Media: Comparing their Lifestyles, Perceived Innovation Attributes, and Sociodemographic Attributes with All-adopters, Partial-adopters, and Minimum-adopters," 14th ITS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Kyoto 2017: Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society 168515, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    11. Raggiotto, Francesco & Scarpi, Daniele, 2020. "Living on the edge: Psychological drivers of athletes’ intention to re-patronage extreme sporting events," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 229-241.
    12. Keane, Matthew & Eastman, Jacqueline K. & Iyer, Rajesh, 2020. "Predicting adventure seeking of young adults: The role of risk, innovativeness and status consumption," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 952-963.
    13. Barbopoulos, Isak & Johansson, Lars-Olof, 2017. "The Consumer Motivation Scale: Development of a multi-dimensional and context-sensitive measure of consumption goals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 118-126.
    14. Kwon, Ohjin & Singh, Tanya & Kim, SunAh, 2023. "The competing roles of variety seeking in new brand adoption," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    15. Xiao Liao & Guangyu Ye & Juan Yu & Yunjiang Xi, 2021. "Identifying lead users in online user innovation communities based on supernetwork," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 300(2), pages 515-543, May.
    16. Schweisfurth, Tim G. & Dharmawan, Magha P., 2019. "Does lead userness foster idea implementation and diffusion? A study of internal shopfloor users," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 289-297.
    17. Joerg Koenigstorfer & Andrea Groeppel-Klein, 2012. "Consumer acceptance of the mobile Internet," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 917-928, December.
    18. Wang, Nan & Xie, Wenxuan & Tiberius, Victor & Qiu, Yong, 2023. "Accelerating new product diffusion: How lead users serve as opinion leaders in social networks," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Decker, Reinhold & Trusov, Michael, 2010. "Estimating aggregate consumer preferences from online product reviews," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 293-307.
    20. Linda Hamdi-Kidar & Cyrielle Vellera, 2012. "What drives lead users to become users entrepreneurs ? an exploratory study of motivations," Post-Print halshs-00851319, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Data collection; consumer choice; international business administration; marketing and advertising;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C80 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - General
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • M16 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - International Business Administration
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibf:gjbres:v:4:y:2010:i:4:p:51-70. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mercedes Jalbert (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.