We investigate the formation of opinion against authority in an authoritarian society composed of agents with different levels of authority. We explore a “dissenting” opinion, held by lower-ranking, obedient, or less authoritative people, spreading in an environment of an “affirmative” opinion held by authoritative leaders. A real-world example would be a corrupt society where people revolt aga...

Recently, the impact of social networks in customer buying decision is rapidly increasing due to effectiveness in shaping public opinion. This paper helps marketers analyze social network’s members based on different characteristics and choose the best method for identifying influential people among them. Then, marketers can use these influential people as seeds to market products/services. Con...

Identifying KOLs requires broad and up-to-date experience with these individuals, something pharma companies lack. In fact, most life science companies delegate this exercise to third parties. In turn, these providers make use of “tried-andtrue” methods of engaging KOLs, including literature database search and survey methods. In an age where consumers hold sway over purchase considerations and...

Online newsgroups are still largely uncharted waters for marketers. Our goal for this study is to assess the marketing communication value of Internet newsgroups. Our basic proposition is that people exercise opinion leading and, likewise, opinion seeking differently in newsgroups and in offline communication environments. We find that newsgroup participants who are offline opinion leaders rely...