Abstract
Opinion leaders constitute a central consumer segment for targeted marketing strategies. By separating opinion leadership into a generalized and domain-specific component this study examines the psychological profile of N = 417 consumers from Germany and incorporates opinion leadership into a hierarchical framework of human personality. Results emphasize two major sources of domain-specific opinion leadership: personality in the form of a general, domain-independent influencer trait and competencies in terms of product-specific knowledge. Moreover, the study highlights a number of traits including the Big Five of personality, typical intellectual engagement, and general self-efficacy that form a distinct personality profile of domain-specific opinion leadership. The effects of these personality traits on domain-specific opinion leadership are partially mediated by generalized opinion leadership and objective knowledge.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 606-621 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Psychology and Marketing |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Fields of science
- 501001 General psychology
- 501003 Occupational psychology
- 501004 Differential psychology
- 501 Psychology
- 501016 Educational psychology
- 501021 Social psychology
- 501020 Legal psychology
- 508007 Communication science
- 508009 Media research
JKU Focus areas
- Management and Innovation
- Social Systems, Markets and Welfare States
- Social and Economic Sciences (in general)