Social Influence And Multiple Choices: Evidence From Virtual Products Adoption

This study examines the effect of social influence on the adoption of multiple products for the same category (basic choice and upgrade choice). Based on a unique large-scale data set from an online game community and a competing-risk model, the results show that social influence could significantly elevate users' product adoption on both products, but the effect on users' upgrade product adoption is greater than that on users' basic product adoption. Furthermore, users with middle social status are more susceptible to others' upgrade product adoption than users with low or high social status. In addition, network density positively moderates users' susceptible to the effect of social influence in upgrade product adoption decisions. These results provide pivotal theoretical and practical implications and should be considered by marketers that aim to predict and affect users' adoption of multiple products.