ADM_SNS Social Network Usage and Self-Concept of U.S. College Female Fashion Opinion Leaders Alkharashi, N., Burns, R., Kensra, D. and Naz, F. California State University, Northridge Keywords: Fashion; SNS; Behavior Research Description, goal, question, and significance 1. The goal of this research is to discover the relationship that exist, if any, between Fashion Opinion Leadership, Social Networking Site Activity and Self-Concept. 2. In this research we ask, is there a relationship between the Fashion Opinion Leadership of U.S. College Females and their Social Networking Site Activity and Self-Concept. 3. Social media has been widely adopted as the channel for real-time interaction with customers and to get them engaged with various companies and products. This study is significant as it can possibly help fashion marketers to identify fashion opinion leaders on various SNS through their behaviors on the various sites to be studied. Fashion Opinion Leaders can act as a channel of diffusing fashion trends to the masses through the use of this widely adopted channel. Additionally, it may be helpful for fashion marketers to determine the ways in which fashion opinion leaders self-identify in order to properly identify this segment of the market. Research Variable & Definition 1. Conceptual Definition Independent Variables -Fashion Leadership 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) Social M edia Site usage refers to activity on several social networking sites including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Activity can be measured by the time spent on these sites, the content posted on these sites, and the members in their network (i.e. followers and friends). Dependent Variables -Social Networking Site Activity 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). 2. Operational Definitions Female Fashion Opinion Leaders will be those identified as those who have a high level of perceived fashion knowledge, those whose fashion behaviors indicate significant activity related to fashion and a high level of fashion involvement . Their social networking profiles will indicate a high level of interest in fashion. A large portion of the social networking groups they belong to as well as the pages they follow will be fashion driven. Additionally, a significant amount of the content they share will be fashion driven. 3. Control Variables Demographics. Research Model & Hypotheses 1. Research Model (drawing) Research Model 2. We hypothesize that 1. Fashion leadership spends more time on soci.

1. ADM_SNS
Social Network Usage and Self-Concept of U.S. College Female
Fashion Opinion Leaders
Alkharashi, N., Burns, R., Kensra, D. and Naz, F.
California State University, Northridge
Keywords: Fashion; SNS; Behavior
Research Description, goal, question, and significance
1. The goal of this research is to discover the relationship that
exist, if any, between Fashion Opinion Leadership, Social
Networking Site Activity and Self-Concept.
2. In this research we ask, is there a relationship between the
Fashion Opinion Leadership of U.S. College Females and their
Social Networking Site Activity and Self-Concept.
3. Social media has been widely adopted as the channel for real-
time interaction with customers and to get them engaged with
various companies and products. This study is significant as it
can possibly help fashion marketers to identify fashion opinion
leaders on various SNS through their behaviors on the various
sites to be studied. Fashion Opinion Leaders can act as a
channel of diffusing fashion trends to the masses through the
use of this widely adopted channel. Additionally, it may be
helpful for fashion marketers to determine the ways in which
fashion opinion leaders self-identify in order to properly
identify this segment of the market.
Research Variable & Definition
1. Conceptual Definition
Independent Variables

2. -Fashion Leadership
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)
Social M
edia Site usage refers to activity on several social networking
sites including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Activity can
be measured by the time spent on these sites, the content posted
on these sites, and the members in their network (i.e. followers
and friends).
Dependent Variables
-Social Networking Site Activity
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).
2. Operational Definitions
Female Fashion Opinion Leaders will be those identified as
those who have a high level of perceived fashion knowledge,
those whose fashion behaviors indicate significant activity
related to fashion and a high level of fashion involvement .
Their social networking profiles will indicate a high level of
interest in fashion. A large portion of the social networking
groups they belong to as well as the pages they follow will be
fashion driven. Additionally, a significant amount of the content
they share will be fashion driven.
3. Control Variables

3. Demographics.
Research Model & Hypotheses
1. Research Model (drawing)
Research Model
2. We hypothesize that
1. Fashion leadership spends more time on social media; the
fashion leadership will have a greater influence.
2. Fashion leadership’s content of the post influences shoppers.
Preliminary Outline
1- Introduction
· Background-The background of our research stemmed from a
desire to further understand fashion opinion leaders. Research
has been done to study their consumer behavior but very little
research has been done to study their social networking site
behavior and their self-concept
· Motivation- to be able to identify fashion opinion leaders
through their social networking activity as well as the self-
concept
· Significance-identifying fashion opinion leaders is significant
to fashion manufactures market new clothes
1. Summers, J. (1970). The Identity of Women's Clothing
Fashion Opinion Leaders. Journal of Marketing Research,7(2),
178-185.
2. Goldsmith, R., Flynn, L., & Moore, M. (1996). The Self-
Concept Of Fashion Leaders. Clothing and Textiles Research

4. Journal,14(4), 242-248.
2- Fashion Opinion Leader Characteristics
· Fashion Leadership
· A Fashion Opinion Leaders have influence on other’s attitudes
and behaviors towards fashion trends
· They are knowledgeable about fashion and their advice is
taken seriously
· Self-Concept
· There are many facets to self-concept (actual self, ideal-self
and social-self to name a few). Our study will focus on the
actual self, which is the way one sees themselves
· The idea that self-concept can serve as a predictor of
consumer purchasing behavior was proposed in the late 1960s
by Grubb and Grathwohl.
1. Weisfeld-Spolter, S. & M. Thakkar (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.
2. Goldsmith, R., Flynn, L., & Moore, M. (1996). The Self-
Concept Of Fashion Leaders. Clothing and Textiles Research
Journal,14(4), 242-248.
3. Abel, J., Buff, C., & O’Neill, J. (2013). Actual self-concept
versus ideal self-concept: An examination of image congruence
and consumers in the health club industry. Sport, Business and
Management: An International Journal,3(1), 78-96.
3- SNS for fashion communication
1. SNS for fashion communication:
1.1: SNS
a) Definition:

5. Social network sites, as web-based services allow individuals to
(1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded
system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share
a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections
and those made by others within the system. The nature and
nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.
Boyd, D. M. and Ellison, N. B. (2007), Social Network Sites:
Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-
Mediated Communication, 13: 210–230. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-
6101.2007.00393.x
b) SNS Categories:
Seven major categories of social media sites include social
connections (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, My Space),
multimedia sharing (YouTube, Flicker), Professional
(LinkedIn), others are informational, educational, hobbies and
academia.
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2272684/blogging-pr-
secrets-and-style-guides-whats-in-and-out
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2272684/blogging-pr-
secrets-and-style-guides-whats-in-and-out
1.1 SNS activity for fashion:
a) Time spent:
In the era of technology life, everyone wants to be the first one
to know the latest developments through social media. In
fashion, the first thing that comes to mind is clothing. Fashion
celebrities (fashion leadership) frequently use the social media
to update their followers about the latest clothing trends and the
followers take the lead from the celebrities and assist brands in
extending different fashion trends.

6. b) Content Posting:
Fashion leadership update their status related to the current
fashion on a regular basis. Usually it happens when they have
been clicked for the new collection by their brands or sometime
they update status with a single photo sharing on a daily basis.
Fashion leadership gets likes and comments, as soon as they
share the post with their followers. They must have to respond
to their fans because it helps them in increasing the number of
followers and also maintaining their interest and reliability with
them.
· Social Networking Sites allow it’s users to post to user created
profiles and create personal networks
· Most individuals make their purchasing decisions based on the
information they get from social media and therefore social
media plays an important role in consumer behavior as well as
fashion businesses.
1. Alfred C. Weaver, Benjamin B. Morrison, "Social
Networking", Computer, vol.41, no. 2, pp. 97-100, February
2008, doi:10.1109/MC.2008.61
Theory
· Two-step flow of communication theory-
· According to the two-step flow of communication theory,
there are two steps in which the influence of mass
communication flows. The first step being mass media
messages’ influence on opinion leaders, also known as the
“influential”, and the second step being the opinion leaders
relay of this mass communication to social networks close to
them.
· By using different social networks like Facebook, twitter etc.
fashion leadership update their status and they will gets like
reply and reposting of the status or message by the followers.
This two-step flow theory of communication would be helpful
for our research project to support the concept of

7. communication in between leadership and followers.
Barnett, G. (2011). Two-Step Flow of Communication Theory.
In Encyclopedia of social networks (1st ed., Vol. 2, pp. 888-
890). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Choi, S. (2014). The Two-Step Flow of Communication in
Twitter-Based Public Forums. Social Science Computer Review.
Research Model & Hypotheses
Research Model
Hypothesis
H1- Fashion leadership spends more time on social media; the
fashion leadership will have a greater influence.
H2- Fashion leadership’s content of the post influences
shoppers.
1. Phau, I. , & Lo, C. (2004). Profiling fashion innovators.
Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An
International Journal, 8(4), 399-411.
2. 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
Methodology
· Fashion opinion leadership is determined by fashion
innovativeness, fashion involvement, perceived knowledge of
fashion, and fashion related behaviors.
· The six item domain specific innovativeness scale developed
by Goldsmith and Hofacker (1991) can be used to help us

8. measure innovativeness
· Mittal and Lee’s (1989) 3 item involvement scale can be used
to measure fashion involvement
· A 4-6 item self-report can be used to measure perceived
knowledge and questions regarding the amount of time and
money spent on clothing shopping can be used to measure
fashion-related behavior.
· The top percentile of theses participants will be determined to
be fashion leaders.
· Our team will develop a scale to measure social networking
site activity.
· We will use Malhorta’s (1981) scale of self-concept to
measure self-concept
1. Goldsmith, R., Flynn, L., & Moore, M. (1996). The Self-
Concept Of Fashion Leaders. Clothing and Textiles Research
Journal,14(4), 242-248.
2. Summers, J. (1970). The Identity of Women's Clothing
Fashion Opinion Leaders. Journal of Marketing Research,7(2),
178-185.
Time Spent
H1
H2
Content Post

9. Fashion Leadership
Time Spent
H1
H2
Content Post
Fashion Leadership
Project
You are required to choose ONE main component from a way of
transportation (Car, Plane, Train, etc…) that has an important
function and create a case study on that component. You are
required to turn in one hard copy.
The case Study will focus on: (Function, Design, Material,
process and Cost)
1.

10. The Design Communication part:
Sketching
Design drawings
Detail drawings
Fabrication specifications: Including: physical Dimensions,
Material used, unusual assembly conditions, operating
conditions and parameters
2.
The Design Modeling part
Create well-defined 3D models of all parts required,
Create detail drawings of all parts using Third Angle
Projection in accordance to ANSI 14.5-2009 and ANSI14.3 -
2003 on B-size papers. Make sure the title block is completely
filled as appropriate. Add local notes to assist in the
manufacturing process,
Create an assembly drawing with an exploded view, Bill of
Materials, section views, and complete title block,
3.
Technical Report
Manufacturing section must the selected manufacturing process
(es), the reasons for choosing these processes (i.e. advantages
and disadvantages), cost of tools (if applicable), the number of
units can manufactured per cycle.
Cost analysis section must include raw materials, hardware (i.e.
springs, bolts, nuts etc.), packaging, shipping, tooling etc... For
producing 100,000unit
The final report elements:
I. Introduction
II. Generating of design
III. Design selection process
IV. Final design
a. Detailed description
b. Prototype details
V. Cost analysis

11. VI. Conclusions
VII. References
Expectations:
The report should consist at least of 15 pages, 12 font size and
1.5 spacing.
You may include SW animation of your design, but you must
create engineering drawings as discussed in the previous
sections. Hand-free sketches can also be included in your report
Complete bibliography of all resources must be included and
annotated inside the report according to MLA standards.
Hard-work, dedications, persistence, professionalism,
teamwork, and good communication are the minimum
expectation for this project.