Innovativeness,exploratory behavior,market mavenship,and opinion leadership: An empirical examination in the Asian context

The market maven construct, developed by Feick and Price (1987), has been used in empirical studies in the USA, South Africa, Germany, Poland, and Hungary. This study extends previous research by being the first to use the general mavenship concept in an Asian country (Israel). Furthermore, the study examines market mavenship and opinion leadership as outcome concepts arising from exploratory behavior or innovativeness tendencies. Additionally, the impact of a three‐dimensional exploratory behavior concept is compared to the impact of a unidimensional innovativeness concept on opinion leadership and market mavenship. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the two nomological models based on a sample of 142 adult Israeli consumers. Although both exploratory behavior and innovativeness affect market mavenship and opinion leadership, the impact of the former is stronger. Additionally, the impact of the “new brand trial” facet of exploratory behavior on market maven was comparable to that of innovativeness, whereas its impact on opinion leadership was weaker than the impact of innovativeness. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.