Quantifying social influence in an online cultural market

Quantifying social influence in an online cultural market

We revisit experimental data from an online cultural market in which 14,000 users interact to download songs, and develop a simple model that can explain seemingly complex outcomes. Our results suggest that individual behavior is characterized by a two-step process--the decision to sample and the de...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:PloS one 2012-05, Vol.7 (5), p.e33785
Hauptverfasser: Krumme, Coco, Cebrian, Manuel, Pickard, Galen, Pentland, Sandy
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Best sellers
Business schools
Computer Science
Cues
Cultural change
Decision making
Downloading
Economic models
Experiments
Humans
Inequality
Influence
Internet
Listening
Market shares
Markets
Models, Theoretical
Privacy
Quality
Researchers
Science
Science Policy
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social Marketing
Social psychology
Socioeconomic Factors
Word of mouth advertising
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:We revisit experimental data from an online cultural market in which 14,000 users interact to download songs, and develop a simple model that can explain seemingly complex outcomes. Our results suggest that individual behavior is characterized by a two-step process--the decision to sample and the decision to download a song. Contrary to conventional wisdom, social influence is material to the first step only. The model also identifies the role of placement in mediating social signals, and suggests that in this market with anonymous feedback cues, social influence serves an informational rather than normative role.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0033785