The Influence of Social Power in Online Purchase Decision

Abstract

The paper aims to clarify the influence of hard and soft power in online purchase decisions. A fundamental property of online social networks is that people tend to have attributes similar to those of their friends. To understand the effects of social power on the influence of opinion leaders from the social power perspective, this study examined the relationships among social power, personal influence attempts, and influences on purchase decisions. The research data were collected from members of various online communities via the Internet. In order to target online users, a web-based survey was employed. A partial least squares (PLS) analysis was used to perform the data analysis. By integrating two types of social power, this study selects several important constructs which are closely related to hard and soft power to enhance the influence attempts in the online community. This paper confirms the importance of social power from the perspectives of influence attempts and recommends a conceptual framework for illustrating personal influence behaviour in the electronic commerce environment.