This document provides information about a proposed research study exploring the relationship between fashion leaders and their usage of social media. The goals of the research are to explore the literature on this relationship, identify factors influencing fashion leaders' use of social media, and make suggestions to new players in the fashion industry based on findings. The study will examine fashion leaders' social media behaviors quantitatively and qualitatively. Key variables include fashion opinion leaders, self-image, and social media site usage. The significance is that understanding this relationship can help fashion companies determine if adopting social media is beneficial for marketing and customer communication.

1. ADM_SNS
The Social Media Behaviors of Female Fashion Leaders
Alkharashi, N., Burns, R., Kensra, D., Naz, F.
California State University, Northridge
Fashion, SNS, Behavior
Research Description:
It has often been observed that fashion designers use traditional
modes, such as the red carpet, ramp walks and celebrity
endorsed promotional campaigns, to attract the potential fashion
customers. However, today numerous new and fresh fashion
graduates have jumped into this industry, to give tight
competition to the old and well-established ones. In this hyper-
competitive environment, fashion leaders are moving forward
and looking beyond the traditional modes of marketing to
sustain, maintain and expand their market share. Nowadays, an
extensively adopted marketing mode, by the global corporate
sector, is social media.
Research Goals:
The proposed research will explore the relationship between
fashion leaders and the usage of social media by them. The
goals of the research are as follows:
To explore literature on the proposed relationship
1. To explore the proposed relationship through quantitative
methods and tests.
2. To identify the factors that either force or hinder the
fashion leaders to use or decline social media.

2. 3. To make suggestions to the new players in the fashion
industry, on the basis of research findings.
Research questions:
Is there any relationship between fashion leaders and usage of
social media?
Significance of the study:
Social media has been widely adopted as the channel for real-
time interaction with the customers and to get them engaged
with the company. From a small retailing store to the high-
profile company, every business has jumped into the world of
social media to get closer to its customers and to better
understand their demands. Fashion industry is highly sensitive
to the newly prevailing trends and ever changing customer
needs and wants. Fashion leaders need to identify, explore and
meet the needs of their customers. Social media may be the
potential tool, of fashion leaders, for real-time communication
with the customers. This study is important as it will explain
whether new and upcoming fashion companies should adopt
social media as their marketing and customer communication
tool, to get similar success as of fashion leaders or not? The
study will also highlight hidden cons in the social media usage
by the fashion industry, to give practical suggestions to the
fashion companies’ managers and marketers.
Research Variables
Independent Variables-
Conceptual Definitions
Opinion Leaders are individuals who informally influence the

3. attitudes of others in an intended direction (Reynolds and
Wells, 1977). Fashion opinion leaders are influential in
persuading others to adopt fashions (Weisfield-Spolter &
Thakkar, 2011). They have a high level of fashion involvement,
a perceived knowledge about fashion, and spend a significant
amount of time on fashion related behaviors-time spent
shopping for clothing and spending for clothing (Goldsmith,
Flynn & Moore, 1996)
Self-Image/Self Concept refers to the perceptions an attitudes
people have of themselves as objects (Solomon, 1994). The
structure of self-concept has several dimensions including the
actual self, the ideal self and the social self (Sirgy, 1982). For
the purposes of our study we will be focusing on the actual self.
Operational Definitions
Female Fashion Opinion Leaders will essentially be self-
identified. Their social networking profiles will indicate a high
level of interest in fashion. A large portion of the the social
networking groups they belong to as well as the pages they
follow will be fashion driven. Additionally, the content they
post will also be fashion related.
Self/Image Self Concept for the purposes of our study will be
defined based on the adjectives individuals use to describe
themselves. A self-concept scale such as Malhotra’s (1981) self-
concept scale can be used to measure this variable.
Dependent Variable –
Conceptual Definitions
Social Networking Sites typically allow users and subscribers to
post to created profiles and create personal networks for the
exchanging of information with other uses (Weaver and
Morrison, 2008).

4. Operational Definitions
Social Networking Site usage refers to activity on several social
networking sites including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and
YouTube. Activity can be measured by the time spent on these
sites, the content posted on these sites, and the members in your
network.
H1- Fashion Leaders have a greater use of social networking
sites than later adopters.
H2- There is a positive relationship between fashion leadership
and self-image.
H3-There is a positive relationship between social media usage
and self-image
Research Model
Annotated References
1. Mohr, I. (2013). The impact of social media on the fashion
industry. The Journal of Applied Business and
Economics, 15(2), 17-22.
The focus of the study is to examine the relationship between
social media and fashion as it relates to fashion week;
specifically examining how fashion professionals use media
during their evaluation of fashion during fashion week. A
survey questionnaire was answered by the 74 participants and a
sample T-Test was performed which analyzed the influence of
media on fashion week. The results of this study showed a
strong positive, significant effect of fashion related media in
intensifying fashion week attendees views about fashion.

5. Our team can use this research in the literature review portion
of our own research. Its results help to support our own
hypothesis as it focuses on fashion professionals who can also
be considered fashion leaders. This study only looks at social
media in the context of usage before and after fashion week
however; our goal will be to expand on this research.
2. Kunz, M. B., Hackworth, B., Osborne, P., & High, J. D.
(2011). Fans, friends, and followers: Social media in the
retailers' marketing mix. The Journal of Applied Business and
Economics, 12(3), 61-68.
The emphasis of the study was the use and adaptation of Social
Media Marketing (SMM) by top retailers and how it would be
helpful for them to increase their business through social media.
Social media usage increased tremendously with in last years,
almost 85% of users want that companies interact with them
through it. Study showed that marketing is irrelevant for 60% of
US customers because they want to be a community for the
company. The population of social media included Facebook,
kaboodle, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. Data collection for
the study was based on the usage rate of social media from 25-
55 years old consumers who searched companies before making
decisions. Data analyzed by Team of fellows of the Society for
New Communication Research. The result showed that
companies have to focus on identifying those variables, which
convert casual relationship into loyalty. Companies must
remember the fact that social media is an open platform for the
world to see the responses or experiences from the customers,
either they were good or bad.
Our group can use this research for not only literature review,
but we can also use some of the data collection tools used as
they are closely related to data will need to collect. Some of the
same surveys and scales used may be relevant to or own

6. research.
3. Weisfeld-Spolter, S., & Thakkar, M. (2011). Is a designer
only as good as a star who wears her clothes? Examining the
roles of celebrities as opinion leaders for the diffusion of
fashion in the US teen market. Academy of Marketing Studies
Journal, 15(2), 133-144.
The focus of this research is to examine the role of celebrity
influence on diffusing fashion amongst teenagers in the United
States. The research looks at celebrities as fashion opinion
leaders who influence teens to and try and adopt new fashion
styles. For their study, the researchers conducted a personal
survey with 50 teenagers ages 14-17 (30 female and 20 male) in
the New York area. The surveys, which gaged their opinion on
the matter of celebrities and fashion, asked opened ended
questions. The questions focused on their thoughts on fashion,
which celebrities they liked, and other related questions. A
content analysis was the done on the data. The results found
various themes regarding teenager’s feelings about celebrities
as opinion leaders in the fashion market. Specifically, the
results indicated that the teenagers felt celebrities were indeed
fashion leaders, innovative in their purchases and had fashion
knowledge/fashion interest. The results also indicated that
majority of the celebrities associated being opinion leaders were
in their 20’s and 30’s and lastly seeing the celebrities outside of
paid advertisements was a more effective influence. This
research could be used to help us define a fashion leader, and
also gives insight on the best techniques to identify fashion
leaders for our own research. Our literature review will discuss
the influence of fashion leaders with the hopes of proving how
this affects fashion leader influence on social media.
4. Akrimi, Y., & Khemakhem, R. (2012). What Drive
Consumers to Spread the Word in Social Media? The Journal of
Marketing Research Studies, 1-14.

7. The focus of this study was to determine the motives behind the
spread of eWOM (Electronic Word of Mouth) on Social Media
Channels. The study surveyed 150 women who use social
networks, ranging in age from 18-35 years old with a focus on
women who were members of groups or pages of Facebook
pages specializing in fashion. The majority of the respondents
were students and the questionnaire was administered online
and face-to-face. A 5 point Likert scale was used and Nefzi’s
four-item intention of recommendation measure was used. The
scale developed by Okazaki was adopted to measure attitude
toward recommendation. The measures of interpersonal
connectivity, product involvement, intrinsic motivation, self-
esteem, and social influence were adopted from the works of
Okazaki, Debraix, and Fuller.
The results showed self-esteem positively influences the
attitude toward recommendation. There were no significant
links between social influence, the implication and the
connectivity on one hand and the attitude toward
recommendation on the other. The methodology used to explore
motivations can be helpful in our research. It will also be
helpful in our literature review.
5. Phau, I. , & Lo, C. (2004). Profiling fashion innovators.
Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An
International Journal, 8(4), 399-411.
The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of fashion
innovators on Internet buying decisions. Data was collected
through a questionnaire, 225 (95%) of them used for testing the
findings. A T-test was used to fine the self-concept differences
amongst innovators non-innovators and result showed that the
innovators had unique self-image. Bivariate correlation was
used to check the relationship between fashion innovativeness
through buying impulsiveness and DSI scale. Result showed
that impulsiveness was related to fashion innovativeness. Out
of the 225 participants, only 3% were innovators and 13% were

8. early adopters. 70% of the non-innovators didn’t want to
purchase online. Finding showed that fashion innovators were
generally exhibit impulsive behavior. Fashion innovators had no
interest to buy fashion items online. It also showed that there
was no difference in the behaviors of both innovators and non-
innovators regarding the online purchasing of items. This Study
will be helpful as it looks at online behaviors of fashion
innovators and also defines self-concept differences of fashion
innovators (fashion leaders) and fashion non-innovators. It is
similar to our study, so we may be able to use similar data
collection and research methodology as well as review their
study in on literature review.
6. Ross, C. , Orr, R. , Orr, E. , Sisic, M. , Arseneault, J. , et al.
(2009). Personality and motivations associated with facebook
use. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(2), 578-586.
The focus of the study is to examine the relationship between
Facebook usage and Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality. A
sample of 97 students of university in Southwestern Ontario was
used in which 15 were males and 82 were females. This
population was chosen through the university’s psychology
participation pool that was necessary to qualify for the
participation. The 97 participants answered an online 28-items
survey questionnaire and students also completed the CMC
Competency questionnaire and NEO-PI-R questionnaire, which
used in majority of personality and clinical research. One-way
frequency tables for the variables in the data set were used to
understand the relationship between FFM of personality and the
Facebook use.
The results of this study showed a solid optimistic, significant
effect of FFM of students in using the Facebook. The influence
of the FFM of personality recognized was vital and imperative
in evaluating the ways of using of Facebook.

9. In the conclusion of this study, it showed that FFM approach
helped to understand the personality of students in the way they
use Facebook.
This study may be helpful for literature review as it examines
Facebook usage and personality. As our research has expanded
to consider self-concept, we may be able to use some of the
personality measures from this study.
7. Goldsmith, R., Flynn, L., & Moore, M. (1996). The Self-
Concept Of Fashion Leaders. Clothing and Textiles Research
Journal, 14(4), 242-248.
The focus of this study was to understand and distinguish the
characteristics of Fashion Leadership by analyzing their self-
concept. A sample of 100 men and 276 women of two different
universities in southeast US were used. Questionnaire included
demographic, self-concept, fashion leadership, fashion opinion
leadership, fashion involvement and self-perceived fashion
knowledge. Questionnaire was divided into two parts as fashion
leadership and later adopter to analyze their differences. The
result showed that 15% of the participants are designated as
fashion leader. There was a significant but week correlation
between fashion leadership and 4 other self-concepts, which
suggested that fashion leadership, also saw themselves as more
delicate, pleasant, emotional and liberal. The specific self-
concept items contained in Malhotra’s scale also limited the
findings.
This research would be very helpful in our research project as
we can use similar instrumentation and further expand on the
self-concept of fashion leadership.
8. Summers, J. (1970). The Identity of Women's Clothing
Fashion Opinion Leaders. Journal of Marketing Research, 7(2),
178-185.
The focus of this study is to analyze the characteristics of
women’s clothing fashion opinion leaders. A random sample of

10. 1000 homemakers was used. Personal interview questionnaire
and 4 self-administered questionnaires were used. 28% of the
respondents were classified as opinion leaders. The results
showed that opinion leaders were found to be younger, more
educated, have higher incomes and higher occupational status in
terns of demographics. Involvement in women’s clothing
represented the highest of the five variable sets in determining
fashion leadership.
The study is valuable for our research project as a literature
review as it also focus on the social media characteristics of
fashion opinion leaders and help us to identify leaders in our
own study.
9. Kong, X. Song, Z. Wang. Y. (2011). Understanding the link
between consumer decision-making style and online apparel
purchasing. The Journal of Software, 6(10).
doi:10.4304/jsw.6.10.2068-2075
The focus of the study was to examine the relationship between
decision-making and online purchasing of apparel; purposely
examined how different decision styles effect on buying
decisions differently. A Sample of 245 customers was used to
get the outcomes and they are university students and working
people. 2 types of survey questionnaire answered by the
participants. The results showed that there was a significant and
solid progressive effect of consumer decision-making style on
the online purchasing of apparel. 25% of the consumer made
decision on the basis of quality, 44% showed their concerns
related to price. Result showed that discounts and sale ads,
detailed advertisement or online communication would be
helpful to increase the online buying by the customers.
The study is good for literature review in our research group
project because social media and online buying behavior is also
included in our goal to analyze.

11. 10. Ur Rahman, S., Saleem, S., Akhtar, S., Ali, T., & Khan, M.
A. (2014). Consumers' adoption of apparel fashion: The role of
innovativeness, involvement, and social values. International
Journal of Marketing Studies, 6(3), 49-64. DOI:
10.5539/ijms.v6n3p49
The focus of this study was to examine the role of
innovativeness, involvement and social values on adopting the
apparel fashion. A sample of 332 students and working
professional was used to complete the questionnaire that was
based on fashion as well as demographic information. 94% of
the respondent aged between 18-25years. Result showed that
there was no significant effect of fashion or consumer
innovativeness in adopting a new fashion in Pakistan but
fashion innovators like players; film actor or model had great
influence on fashion followers to adopt new fashionable clothes.
This study would be helpful in our research project because
social media has no boundaries. Cross cultural examine of the
east and west will be a good thing to identify the differences
between the fashion innovators and fashion followers.
11. Richard Michon, Hong Yu Donna Smith, Jean (2007) "The
shopping experience of female fashion leaders", International
Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 35 Iss: 6,
pp.488 – 501
The focus of the study was to discover the way the surrounding
to the shopping mall effects on hedonic functional experience
and also analyzes the fashion leaders behavioral approach in
addition to the followers. A sample of 300 respondents was used
to investigate the feeling regarding fashion, current moods,
value of buying and how their approach behavior relates to the
shopping mall. It clearly showed by the study that there was a
direct influence of the environment to the leaders’ of fashion
hedonic experience in addition to the approach behavior and
fashion followers shopping experience could be driven from

12. their moods.
The study was very helpful because the investigations made by
research related to the integrated shopping experience of
fashion shoppers in a shopping mall.
Partially Mediated
Self-Image
H3
H2
H1
Social Media Usage
Fashion Leadership
Question 1 (3 points)

13. A linear trend means that the time series variable changes by a
Question 1 options:
positive amount each time period
constant amount each time period
constant percentage each time period
negative amount each time period
Save
Question 2 (3 points)
The forecast error is the difference between
Question 2 options:
the actual value and the forecast
this period’s value and the next period’s value
the explanatory variable value and the response variable value
the average value and the expected value of the response
variable
Save
Question 3 (3 points)
The data below represents sales, in units, for a particular
product. If you were to use the moving average method with a
span of 4 periods, what would be your forecast for period 5?

14. Question 3 options:
110
100
105
90
Save
Question 4 (3 points)
Suppose that a simple exponential smoothing model is used
(with = 0.30) to forecast monthly sandwich sales at a local
sandwich shop. After June’s demand is observed at 1520
sandwiches, the forecasted demand for June is 1600 sandwiches.
What would be the forecasted demand for July?
Question 4 options:
1520
1544
1550
1576
Save
Question 5 (3 points)

15. Which of the following is not one of the summary measures for
forecast errors that is commonly used?
Question 5 options:
MAPE (mean absolute percentage error)
MFE (mean forecast error)
RMSE (root mean square error)
MAE (mean absolute error)
Save
Question 6 (3 points)
When using the moving average method, you must select
______ which represent(s) the number of terms in the moving
average.
Question 6 options:
a span
a smoothing constant
an alpha value
the explanatory variables
Save
Question 7 (3 points)
Holt’s model differs from simple exponential smoothing in that
it includes a term for:
Question 7 options:

16. seasonality
residuals
trend
cyclical fluctations
Save
Question 8 (2 points)
A moving average is the average of the observations in the past
few periods, where the number of terms in the average is the
span.
Question 8 options:
True
False
Save
Question 9 (2 points)
The cyclical component of a time series measures the over-all
general directional movement over a long period of time.
Question 9 options:
True
False
Save
Question 10 (2 points)

17. If the observations of a time series increase or decrease
regularly through time, we say that the time series has a random
(or noise) component.
Question 10 options:
True
False
Save
Question 11 (2 points)
A trend component of a time series is a long-term direction
exhibited by a series.
Question 11 options:
True
False
Save
Question 12 (2 points)
To calculate the five-period moving average for a time series,
we average the values in the two preceding periods, and the
values in the three following time periods.
Question 12 options:
True
False
Save

18. Question 13 (2 points)
Simple exponential smoothing is appropriate for a series
without a pronounced trend or seasonality.
Question 13 options:
True
False
Save
Question 14 (2 points)
The difference between the actual data value and the forecasted
data value is called the forecast error.
Question 14 options:
True
False
Save
Question 15 (2 points)
In the case of simple exponential smoothing, a smoothing
constant, alpha, close to 1 places more weight on the prior
forecast.
Question 15 options:
True
False

19. Save
Question 16 (2 points)
A mean absolute error value of zero means that the forecast is
exactly accurate and there is no forecast error.
Question 16 options:
True
False
Save
Question 17 (3 points)
Which of the two scatterplots below (A or B) displays the
stronger linear relationship between x and y.
Question 17 options:
A
B
Both A and B have the same strength of linear relationship.
Save
Question 18 (3 points)
The measure of forecast accuracy that is not influenced by the
measurement scale of the time series data is
Question 18 options:

20. the MAD.
the MAPE.
the RMSE.
the MSE.
Save
Question 19 (3 points)
A stationary forecasting model is appropriate for a time series
which exhibits primarily:
Question 19 options:
trend.
seasonal components.
cyclical influences.
random variation.
Save
Question 20 (5 points)
to forecast monthly Pepsi sales at a small grocery store. After
March's demand is observed, the forecasted demand for April is
5000 cans of Pepsi. Suppose that actual demands during April
and May are as follows: April 5500 cans; May 4500 cans. After
observing May's demand, what is the forecast for June's

21. demand?
Question 20 options:
Save
Question 21 (5 points)
Suppose that
used to forecast monthly wine sales at a liquor store. After
April's demand is observed, the forecasted demand for May is
4500 bottles of wine. The actual demands during May and June
are as follows: May, 5000 bottle of wine; June 4000 bottle of
wine. Note that the demands during May and June average
(5000+4000)/2 = 4500 bottle per month. This is the same as the
forecast for monthly sales before we observed the May and June
data. Yet after we observe the May and June demands for wine,
our forecast for July demand has decreased from what it was at
the end of April. (See below.) Why?
Question 21 options:
Save
Question 22 (5 points)
Given the following data about the number of wrecks that have
occurred at the intersection of Green and Main Street during the
past six-month period,
January (10)
February (15)
March (12)

22. April (20)
May (18)
June (24)
and = .20, the simple exponential smoothing forecast for July is:
(Enter the value rounded to the nearest whole number. Do not
use a decimal, words, symbols or other marks)
Question 22 options:
Save