Distinctive roles of lead users and opinion leaders in the social networks of schoolchildren

Prior research has shown that both lead users and opinion leaders may propel the diffusion of innovation. This raises the question of whether lead users and opinion leaders are positioned similarly in social networks, which we addressed using a sample of 23 school classes consisting of 537 children. Research among children is very scarce in this particular domain. Our statistical analyses based on hierarchical linear modeling reveal two general results: First, lead users among children appear to possess a variety of links between clusters. Second, opinion leaders are locally positioned within clusters of children and have many direct links.