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communications. Research and studies of opinion leadership and diffusion could be sensitive to missing data due to the inability to interview all members of a community (Valente and Davis, 1999). This could implicate advertising research in that tracing of innovation through a network of social contacts is extremely difficult.
2.3 PUBLIC INDIVUDATION
Chan and Misra (1990) argue that public individuation is an additional dimension to the identification and description of opinion leaders by using conceptual references to previous studies to support their argument. They argue that the willingness to individuate oneself is the common factor which differentiates one from the rest of the group, and leads to one to be judged by others as being more influential. This is a fair argument in that opinion leaders’ knowledge and opinions make them stand out as being “different” than other members. However, yet again there is the lack of direct empirical evidence that can support the relationship between public individuation and opinion leadership. Empirical evidence would have provided a more solid statistical comparison and study of such relationship.
2.4 PRODUCT-RELATED CHARACTERISTICS
In terms of product-related characteristics, Chan and Misra (1990) explain and state the importance of product involvement and product familiarity in establishing opinion leadership, however, no reference was given to the fact that certain product characteristics may be especially appropriate for interpersonal conversation, and these could be emphasised in mass media advertising (Turnball and Meenaghan, 1980). The comparison between opinion leaders and non-leaders’ sources of product information could have also enhance the differentiation between the two (Armstrong and Feldman, 1976).
Chan and Misra (1990) argue that opinion leaders tend to have ‘a great amount of cognitive effort to acquire and comprehend the extensive knowledge of a product or product-class’ (p.57). In another study though, Bruno (1975) pointed out that the presence of product-specific opinion leaders and innovators does not vary more widely by product category. Turnball and Meenaghan (1980) also relate this topic to advertising, stating certain product characteristics may be especially appropriate for interpersonal conversation, and these should be emphasised in mass media advertising.
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