온라인 패션커뮤니티 네트워크에서의 구전 영향력과 확산력에 관한 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of members and communities thathave significant influence in the online fashion community through their word-of-mouth activities. In order to identify the influence and the diffusion of word-of-mouth in fashion community, thestudy selected one online fashion community. Then, the study sorted the online posts and commentsmade on fashion information and put them into the matrix form to perform social networkanalysis. The result of the analysis is as follows: First, the fashion community network usedin the study has many active members that relay information very quickly. Average time for informationdiffusion is very short, taking only one or two days in most cases. Second, the influenceof word-of-mouth is led by key information produced from only a few members. The numberof influential members account for less than 20% of the total number of community members,which indicate high level of degree centrality. The diffusion of word-of-mouth is led byeven fewer members, which represent high level of betweenness centrality, compared to the caseof degree centrality. Third, component characteristic shares similar information with about 70% ofall members being linked to maximize information influence and diffusion. Fourth, a node withhigh degree centrality and betweenness centrality shares similar interests, presenting strain effectto particular information. Specially, members with high betweenness centrality show similar interestswith members of high degree centrality. The members with high betweenness centrality alsohelp expansion of related information by actively commenting on posts. The result of this researchemphasizes the necessity of creation and management of network to efficiently convey fashioninformation by identifying key members with high level of information influence and diffusionto enhance the outcome of online word-of-mouth.