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offering. A recommendation implies a suggestion to try the
offering. A negative opinion discourages buying. In this case of
launching a new offering, a recommendation amplifies uptake by

others as the idea spreads through the network and a poor
recommendation slows or stops growth (see Nonlinearity).

From the perspective of the product being displaced, the spread of an
unfavorable comparison with the new product amplifies the old

offering's decline. The speed of spread of the opinion depends, in part,
on the structure of the network of agent-to-agent relationships (see
Networks).

Historically, word-of-mouth spreading of an idea could be slow being

dependent on face-to-face communication or the technology of
communication extant at the time. Idea spreading by
traveling merchants and friars in the medieval period moved

slowly. Mass mail systems, then the telephone and the telegraph in
the later centuries until the 1990s were faster. Mass advertising using
newspapers and later TV sped up general communication of an
idea/offering by supplementing the word-of-mouth process. Today the

internet with email messaging and social media platforms (plus highly
targeted advertising) has dramatically sped the transfer of ideas and
opinions whether objectively true or false. On social platforms, this

opinion expression is bound up with structural elements such as
'comments' and 'likes/dislikes' mechanisms.

Legitimacy, the source of an opinion/idea lends credence to its worth
or not. The opinion of a Nobel Laureate in physics on the nature of the
universe carries more social legitimacy than that of Everyman in the

street. The clothing choices of a female supermodel have greater
weight than the fashion selections of Everywoman in the street. In
short, some people's opinions have greater social legitimacy than

others. This is the world of opinion-leading and followers, which leads
us to patterns of diffusion.

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