TY - JOUR
T1 - Social networks and new product choice
AU - Richards, Timothy
AU - Hamilton, Stephen F.
AU - Allender, William J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Timothy Richards is the Morrison Professor of Agribusiness in the Morrison School of Agribusiness and Resource Management, College of Technology and Innovation, Arizona State University. Stephen Hamilton is a professor in the Orfalea College of Business, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. William Allender is an assistant professor of marketing in the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Correspondence may be sent to: trichards@asu.edu. The authors thank two reviewers and the editor for unusually helpful comments on this article. Support from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, National Institute for Food and Agriculture, USDA grant # 2009-04140, is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - To successfully market new products in a social network it is essential to identify influential individuals whose product recommendations influence the consumption choices of their peers. In this study, we use spatial econometric methods to determine how individuals revise their preferences for product attributes when exposed to product recommendations from peers, and how different individuals who vary in their degree of network connectedness exert influence on the product choices of others. We find evidence that consumers look to others for guidance from peers in their preference for subjective, taste-specific parameters, but tend not to respond to peer price choices. Our spatial methods allow us to empirically determine the influence exerted by individual members on the consumption choices of other members of the social network. We find that connected members of the social network are not always the most influential in revising the consumption choices of others. Our estimates reveal that network proximity explains only 8.8% of influence.
AB - To successfully market new products in a social network it is essential to identify influential individuals whose product recommendations influence the consumption choices of their peers. In this study, we use spatial econometric methods to determine how individuals revise their preferences for product attributes when exposed to product recommendations from peers, and how different individuals who vary in their degree of network connectedness exert influence on the product choices of others. We find evidence that consumers look to others for guidance from peers in their preference for subjective, taste-specific parameters, but tend not to respond to peer price choices. Our spatial methods allow us to empirically determine the influence exerted by individual members on the consumption choices of other members of the social network. We find that connected members of the social network are not always the most influential in revising the consumption choices of others. Our estimates reveal that network proximity explains only 8.8% of influence.
KW - Choice-based conjoint
KW - experimental economics
KW - new product introduction
KW - social network analysis
KW - spatial econometrics
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U2 - 10.1093/ajae/aat116
DO - 10.1093/ajae/aat116
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84896979974
SN - 0002-9092
VL - 96
SP - 489
EP - 516
JO - American Journal of Agricultural Economics
JF - American Journal of Agricultural Economics
IS - 2
ER -