Posts tagged ‘social network’
Interesting Research at ICIS – Part 2
Here is my second pick. A paper by researchers at University of Singapore (again!) and Fudan University in China about the impact of social network on consumer loyalty in the context of an online dining community.
Online Dining Community, Social Network, and Loyalty
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of consumer loyalty decisions (e.g., going back to a restaurant) and, more specifically, to explore the roles of individual and also social preferences. In sum, this research proposes that contrary to much of prior work, consumer decision making is not solely an individual decision but also a socially constructed decision largely influenced by consumers’ online social networks.
Building on the notion of social or shared identity and on research on the social nature of consumer behavior, the authors propose that the consumption activity is somewhat an externalization of consumers’ social identity, i.e., of a group or social network’s preference, and consequently, that consumption decisions (here loyalty, i.e., re-patronage) are an outcome of both individual and social preferences.
RESULTS
The analysis of data collected from a large Chinese restaurant review portal, Dianping.com support the overall claim that loyalty behaviors are influenced by individual AND social preferences (i.e., the general opinion of one’s social network).
One – from others – interesting practical implication and avenue for future research is the proposition of a new type of recommendation agent that incorporated both individual and social preferences. Of course, when assessing contributions and implications, one should keep in mind the study’s scope, i.e., its focus on the restaurant industry in China.
Full reference:
Pear to Pear 