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Opinion Leaders and Opinion Seekers Scale

OL-OSOpinion leadership (OL) refers to domain-specific behaviour where individuals try to influence the purchase behaviour of other consumers. Opinion seeking (OS) refers to domain-specific behaviour where individuals search out advice from others when making a purchase decision. Both are product/domain-specific and conceptually distinct — OL gives advice, OS asks for it.

12 items 1996 α 0.78–0.93 Free Flynn, L.R., Goldsmith, R.E. & Eastman, J.K.

What it measures

The most psychometrically rigorous measure of opinion leadership and opinion seeking available, validated across five studies and 1,128 respondents across multiple product categories (rock music, fashion, green products). Both OL and OS are confirmed as unidimensional via SEM across all studies. Alpha consistently 0.78–0.93 for OL and 0.81–0.93 for OS. Test-retest (n=127): OL r=0.82, OS r=0.75. OL and OS are correlated (r=0.15–0.35) but distinct. OL converges strongly with the King & Summers (1970) scale (r=0.72). Both scales predict perceived knowledge, innovativeness, enduring involvement, and fashion/green shopping behaviour. Strongly preferred over earlier OL measures for most research contexts.

Representative items

Other people rarely come to me for advice about choosing (PRODUCT CATEGORY). (OL — R)
I often persuade others to buy the (PRODUCT CATEGORY) that I like. (OL)
I often influence people's opinions about (PRODUCT CATEGORY). (OL)
When I consider buying a (PRODUCT CATEGORY), I ask other people for advice. (OS)
I feel more comfortable buying a (PRODUCT CATEGORY) when I have gotten other people's opinions on it. (OS)

Citation

Flynn, L.R., Goldsmith, R.E., & Eastman, J.K. (1996). Opinion leaders and opinion seekers: Two new measurement scales. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 24(2), 137–147.

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