Preference For New Product Information Sources

This paper examines the preferences of advice seekers for human information sources. The authors focus on advice providers who are high in technical expertise (technical knowledge) and/or social connections (are connected to many others). Somewhat contrary to intuition, information sources who are high on social connectivity are relatively more attractive for more innovative products. Consistent with this, a meta-analysis indicates that the correlation between knowledge and opinion leadership is lower for more innovative products. Study 2 demonstrates that less innovative individuals perceive a socially connected information source has more relevant advice for them while more innovative people believe experts are more relevant.