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The purpose of this research was to better understand consumer knowledge, its constituents, antecedents and consequences or implications for other consumer behaviours so as to assist wine marketers and marketers of other information-intensive products with their marketing strategy development.  Wine is a complex product difficult for consumers to evaluate particularly prior to purchase but it is also a difficult product for marketers.  Wine has a very large number of both intrinsic and extrinsic attributes.  As a result of the numerous attributes and the multitude of combinations of these attributes there is a plethora of wine brands available making for a highly competitive industry and a complicated product for consumers.    Consumer knowledge affects all aspects of consumer purchasing behaviour and is thus an important phenomenon for marketers to research and understand.  Consumer knowledge also affects all aspects of the marketing strategy developed to satisfy target segments.  Marketing decision makers need to understand consumers to be able to analyze and profile segments, choose target markets and develop marketing strategies that will best align with those target markets.  Calls particularly for better understanding of different segments within the wine market provide justification for this research. The research problem was divided into three components: Consumer wine knowledge constituents, Antecedents of consumer wine knowledge and the Implications of consumer wine knowledge.  The latter component of the research problem explored the implications of consumer wine knowledge for segmentation, as well as the relationships between consumer wine knowledge and exploratory purchasing behaviour, variety-seeking behaviour and opinion leadership and opinion-seeking behaviours.  This study provides evidence of the existence of two distinct constituents of consumer knowledge i.e. what consumers know (objective knowledge) and what they think they know (subjective knowledge) and these constituents in the context of wine are significantly related.  However it is also clear that these constituents are significantly different, with different antecedents and implications for other consumer behaviours.  This study provides a visual depiction of a simplistic nomological map developed for the construct of consumer knowledge based on the studies reported in this thesis in the context of an information-intensive product such as wine.  Objective knowledge is largely driven by demographic antecedents, specifically age, gender and education while subjective knowledge is mostly driven by, or affected by consumption.  On the implications side of the map, objective knowledge significantly positively correlates with exploratory acquisition, and opinion leadership while subjective knowledge is positively related to opinion leadership and negatively to opinion-seeking behaviours.  Theoretical implications as well as recommendations for wine marketers and researchers are provided. / <p>QC 20151217</p>

Cette thèse étudie le rôle du leadership d’opinion dans un contexte particulier : celui de la résistance du consommateur à la marque. Afin de répondre à cet objectif, trois études sont menées. Une étude ethnographique permet de définir les caractéristiques et les rôles des leaders d’opinion dans un groupe de résistance. Les leaders se distinguent par leur statut, à la fois formel et informel. Ils présentent des caractéristiques socio-démographiques, psychologiques et relatives à leurs habitudes de consommation. Ils endossent trois types de rôles : l’influence sur la résistance des militants et des autres consommateurs, la transmission et le maintien des normes du groupe, et les relations hors du groupe. La deuxième étude qualitative, fondée sur une approche clinique, permet de comprendre l’exercice du leadership d’opinion contre la marque. L’analyse de contenu de 15 entretiens semi-directifs fait émerger des facteurs qui l’impactent, positivement et négativement. Ils sont de trois natures : contextuelle, individuelle et relationnelle. L’étude quantitative, basée sur une quasi-expérimentation (n=260), montre que le leadership d’opinion dans une cause a un effet indirect sur l’intention du consommateur de résister à une marque qui la transgresse, via l’expertise perçue du leader dans la cause. L’homophilie perceptuelle (similarité en matière de goûts, dégoûts, valeurs et expériences) et la force des liens (proximité affective) exercent un effet modérateur dans le modèle / This Ph.D. dissertation studies the role of opinion leadership in a particular context that is consumer resistance to brand. To this end, three studies are conducted. First, an ethnographic research helps to better define the characteristics and roles of opinion leaders in a resistance group. Results show that these leaders have particular status, both formal and informal. They also possess sociodemographic and psychological characteristics, as well as characteristics related to their own consumption habits. Finally they can take on three different roles: influencing militants and other consumer’s resistance, transmitting and maintaining group norms, and managing external relations. The second study draws from a clinical approach and uses 15 in-depth interviews to understand leaders’ actions against the brand. Data analysis emphasizes contextual, individual, and relational factors which all have consequences – whether positive or negative – on the opinion leadership process. Finally, a quantitative study based on a quasi-experiment (n=260) shows that opinion leadership in a cause has an indirect effect on consumer intention to resist against a particular brand (boycott, complaints, negative word-of-mouth), via leader’s perceived expertise in the cause. Perceptual homophily (similarity of tastes, distastes, values and experiences) and ties strength (affective closeness) have moderator effects in the model

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In der Gesellschaft gibt es einige wenige Individuen, die besonders überzeugend auf andere wirken und diese daher in Bezug auf Ideen, Informationen und Produkte beeinflussen können. Sie werden Meinungsführer genannt und sind in allen Bereichen der Gesellschaft zu finden. Meinungsführer sind aber, um Einfluss nehmen zu können, auf Meinungssuchende angewiesen. Diese finden sie zumeist in sozialen Netzwerken, wie Communities (online als auch offline), in welchen sie am aktivsten sind oder welche den Interessen der Meinungsführer am ehesten entsprechen. Im Onlinemarketing werden Meinungsführer zunehmend wichtiger, da es effektiver ist, sie direkt zu informieren und zu bewerben und dadurch Informationen verbreiten zu lassen oder durch sie Produkte, wie beispielsweise mittels Produktmuster, weiter zu empfehlen. Durch diese Prozesse können Produktempfehlungen und deren Verbreitung initiiert werden. In vielen Forschungsprojekten wurden bereits Aspekte der Meinungsführerschaft sowie Identifikationsmöglichkeiten für Meinungsführer in sozialen Netzwerken erarbeitet. Bisher sind Definitionen von Online-Communities und die Definition des Einflusses oder der Eigenschaften und Kennzahlen von Meinungsführern nicht einheitlich. Besonders die Kennzahlen zur Identifikation von Meinungsführerschaft in sozialen Netzwerken überschneiden sich teilweise inhaltlich, als auch namentlich. (...)

This master's thesis named The influence of communication channels on decision making of first-time voters shown on the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic in 2017 focuses on the influence and use of the consumption of communication channels on the decision making of first-time voters. This thesis also portrays the phenomenon of contemporary opinion leaders, such as YouTubers, bloggers, and other Internet celebrities. The theoretical section of the thesis describes the organization of elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, defines the first-time voter in terms of psychological and sociological, discusses the impact of socialization within family, school, and media, presents the concept of political efficacy, and describes the electoral participation of adolescents. In addition, this thesis focuses on current trends in the consumption of communication channels by young people and opinion leaders. This section draws upon particular international studies and other relevant literature. The analytical section presents the methodology of the research, defines the research sample and its selection, and describes the results of the research. The established hypotheses are based on the results of international studies and for...

In an attempt to shed light on the further sophistication of opinion leadership in online communities, this study examined the forces and structures that affect their formation in the League of Legends subreddit. By investigating what users thought about the various types of individuals with which the communicate, the researcher hoped to begin to understand and record how those forces work bother on this particular subreddit and in mass media beyond. Opinion leadership continues to be an integral force in deciding what information is consumed by a public and under what frames and agendas it is contextualized. If researchers can operationalize formal definitions for the influences and structures that occur online, they can better navigate the deep waters that are global communication on the internet.

The news are consumed with rising frequency through the social network sites. This activity is going to be grasped with the use of two concepts: opinion leadership and framing because in the social network sites environment the active and influential users (opinion leaders) are attempting to pass certain viewpoints (frames) to other users. It is going to be evaluated to what extent can such framing be effective. An experiment was therefore conducted - it presents the subjects with an artificial news article and a Facebook "introductory" post. The experiment also lays emphasis on moderators that influence the effectiveness of passing the frames. For a realistic setting of the entire study, determining the opinion leaders and an analysis of their language means is going to be conducted. The goal of this study is thus grasping the way in which people are being informed about the public issues and the way they are forming opinions about them in the environment of social network sites. Keywords: opinion leadership, framing, Facebook, social network sites, source cues, credibility, belief importance change