社交网络情境下的新产品扩散机理研究:基于同侪影响的产生过程

A study on the mechanism of new product diffusion under online social network context:Based on the process of peer influence

社交网络的普及应用在使得人际交互更加频繁、人际影响更加广泛的同时,也进一步强化了人际影响在新产品扩散中的作用,但关于社交网络情境下新产品因人际影响而扩散的内在机理的研究较为鲜见。鉴于同一社交网络的个体因具有相似的偏好或兴趣而属于同侪,信息交换多发生在相似或同质化的个体(即同侪)间是人类沟通的基本原则,同侪对个体的影响较一般人际影响更为广泛和深入,因此本研究将同侪影响这一社会心理学概念引入到创新扩散领域,以其产生过程为理论依据,运用结构方程模型的方法构建了社交网络情境下的新产品扩散模型,并对模型进行了实证检验。结果表明:信息动机和报酬动机是新产品扩散得以进行的前提,同侪沟通是新产品扩散的必要环节,感知相似性和共情构成的信任在同侪沟通和采纳意愿中起到部分中介作用,是新产品扩散的直接影响因素。

Against the background of trade protectionism becoming more serious and the trade war upgrading among countries,innovation-driven development,as a new engine promoting economic structure transformation and upgrade,has gained widespread attention in the practical and theoretical circles.However,if an innovation is not widely applied,it will be difficult to have any real impact on the social economy.So only when an innovation diffused in the social system it can realize its true value.The diffusion of new products as an embodiment of innovation is the key to realize the value of innovation.It is also a basis for the innovation to have any influence on society.With the development of the Internet and Web2.0,social networks like WeChat,blogs,online community,and e-commerce's customer reviews that are characterized by user-generated content,have become more and more widely used.Social media increases interpersonal interdependence and makes interpersonal influence deeper and wider.The new product adopters,especially imitators,who account for 97.5%of all in the system(when innovation is fully diffused)adopt a new product because of interpersonal influence.Thus,interpersonal influence plays a vital role in the diffusion of a new product.Since information exchange occurs mainly among identical or similar individuals(peers),and this is the fundamental means of interpersonal communication,put it differently,individuals are more inclined to choose peers to communicate and interact.Hence,individuals are more influenced by peers than others,especially in the context of social networks;individuals can find and interact with peers who have the same interests or preferences more conveniently and efficiently.Therefore,peer influence on new product diffusion in social networks contexts is larger and deeper than in conventional contexts.How does peer influence play a role in the user's new product adoption intention formation?That is,what is the new product diffusion mechanism based on peer influence?The discussion of this question not only helps scholars to better grasp the cause and effect of the user's new product adoption but also helps the company to better implement the promotion and marketing strategies of new products based on peer influence.However,the existing researches either explore the process of new product diffusion in a certain social system from a macro perspective,such as the Bass model and its extension model or investigate influence factors of new product diffusion from a micro perspective,such as personal characteristics,external factors,and product innovation attributes.All of those have not explored the influence mechanism.For this reason,this study introduces peer influence,a concept from social psychology,into the field of innovation diffusion.Based on the relevant literature,and combined with the use gratification theory,this paper further perfects and supplements the formation process of peer influence,which is based on the influence process theory and the homogenization theory.Motivation drives the formation of peer influence.With peer interaction,peers are unnoticeably influenced to have homogeneous behaviors or opinions,or with interaction,mutual trust is formed,which results in homogeneous behaviors or opinions ultimately.Based on this process,a model was built to study new product diffusion under peer influence in the context of the social network.Data was acquired through the delivery on the network using the snowball method to test the model empirically.The model was revised based on the results of empirical analysis at last.The results show that for the new product diffusion,the information motivation and reward motivation of adopters are the antecedents.This conclusion shows that the new model used by the paper is a further improvement of the homogenization theory and the influence process theory.It shows that user-involved peer-to-peer communication about new products is not a purposeless behavior,but driven by the motivation to obtain more information or gain internal and external compensation to reduce the risk of adopting a new product and maximize the self-interest.Peer communication is the necessary link;the trust composing perceived similarity and benevolence plays a partial mediating role in peer communication and adaption intention and is the direct influence factor of new product diffusion. This conclusion further validates the explanatory power of homogenization theory in the new era, new situation, and newproduct diffusion field. The influence process theory is only a supplement to the homogenization theory. It cannot completely replace it, because perceivedsimilarity and benevolence, as two dimensions of trust, play a partial mediating role in the new product diffusion, but not a fully mediating role. Peercommunication does not influence adoption intention by a trust. In addition, the indirect effect value of the path of the mediating effect is relatively low.However, the trust established in communication plays an active role in the promoting users' willingness to adopt, is one of the direct influencing factors of thenew product diffusion, and the higher the trust, the better the communication effect, and the greater the influence on the willingness to adopt.