Global Innovativeness and Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence

Susceptibility to interpersonal influence is described as having two dimensions—normative and informational. We examined the effects of innovativeness and attention to social comparison information on these dimensions. We hypothesized that innovativeness would negatively affect both types of social influence and that attention to social comparison information would positively affect them. Data from 305 student participants were used in a structural equation model containing these hypotheses, which fit the data well. One surprise emerged from the analysis: innovativeness was positively related to informational influence. The findings suggest that innovativeness is associated with susceptibility to informational influence despite a resistance to normative influence.