Personal Influence

BOOK REVIEWS tive structures. After this, however, practically no effort is made to apply this theoretical framework to the particular issues under discussion. For example, periodic reference is made to the fact that the industry, especially in its processing and distributive aspects, often doesn't adopt rapidly new technology and cost-saving improvements. Or again, it is stated that distributors shun price competition with the resultant increase of services. The opportunity to utilize the previously proposed economic framework to gaih insight into these problems is not used. It is recognized that such a wedding of theory and practice is very difficult. But since the dairy industry offers so many opportunities to illustrate the workings of an obviously less than perfectly competitive industry, this shortcoming helps to keep a fair book in the economics of dairy marketing from being an excellent one. In dosing, readers are warned that they will not find this book particularly easy reading. They will find themselves wishing that the authors had seen fit to replace some of the nice— but not very relevant—pictures with more helpful tables and graphs. Paragraph after paragraph loaded with statistics is indeed conducive to a wandering mind. R. L. KOHLS Purdue University

PERSONAL INFLUENCE: THE PART PLAYED BY PEOPLE IN THE FLOW OF MASS COMMUNICATIONS, by Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld. (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955. Pp. 400. |6.oo.) The traditional subjects of mass communications research have been the mass media—newspapers, magazines, radio, etc. In Personal Influence, Katz and Lazarsfeld have presented in some detail the role of the individual as a communicator "and as a relay point in the network of mass communication" (p. 1). The volume is divided into two parts—first, a review of a large number of studies which tend to indicate the importance of the role of interpersonal communications. This part is, in fact, a detailed review of "small-group" research in terms of its contributions to two areas of communications research: communications within the group and communications to the group. While the first area deals with the generation and reinforcement of attitudes and opinions within the group, the second deals withtitleway in which influences enter into the group.

129 The second part of the volume reports on the Decatur study—"our attempt to make a start in mapping the flow of influence concerning several everyday matters in a middle-sized American community" (p. 137). The first part of the volume stresses two factors of interpersonal relations which bear on communication and influence via the mass media. One is the factor of group norms—the agreement or disagreement of an individual's opinions with those of the group. The second is the pattern of communication both within the group and between the group and its environment. For the advertiser, the implications of research on these factors are that it may be possible to determine the existence of groups with particular buying habits and, if such groups exist, the definition of group norms. A second question concerns the patterns of communication which may be expected to carry the advertiser's message to all members of the group: to locate and contact the "gate keepers"—those who act as links connecting interpersonal communication networks with die group's environment, to locate and contact the "influential." The report of the Decatur study deals with an inquiry into four areas of decisions: marketing, fashions, public affairs, and movie-going. Respondents were interviewed about their own behavior, about people who influence them, and about people with respect to whom they are influential. One interesting finding stemming from the Decatur study is that, for the areas considered, the socioeconomic status of the "influential" is less important than either of the two other factors considered: a woman's "life-cycle" (whether she is married or not and, if she is married, the number of children she has) and her "gregariousness" (the extent of contact with other people). Only in the area of public affairs does socioeconomic level achieve substantial importance. The implications of a finding of this sort regarding the effectiveness of "Man of Distinction" advertisements, for example, are quite interesting, for, in summary, "the 'power' of the opinion leader in marketing, fashions, and movie-going which finds expression in informal persuasion and friendly influence, probably does not derive from wealth or high position but from casual, everyday contact with peers" (p. 325)Along with the detailed discussions of methodological procedures and problems, the review of the pertinent literature of small-group re-

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search serves to set out significant guideposts for future investigations of the role of "people influencing people." IRVING ROSHWALB Audits and Surveys Company, Inc. New York City

THE LANGUAGE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH, edited by Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Morris Rosenberg. (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955. Pp. 590. $6.75.) Much of the "Language" in this book will be foreign to marketing men and also to marketing research men and more is the pity, for the work of the social scientists continues to impinge insistently upon the marketing area. This volume, edited by two distinguished social scientists, is subtitled "A Reader in the Methodology of Social Research." As such, it has not been designed with the marketing student in mind and, because it is a reader, it is hardly susceptible to the more usual form of review. Focusing as it does on methodology as opposed to technology, it illustrates quite effectively methodological developments in the social sciences. The focus of the book is on the analysis of data. It is in this area that those of us concerned with marketing research can best hope to learn and extend our own effectiveness. The work cited will give serious pause to the critics of the social scientists, some of whom have taken the scientists to task for unscientific behavior. The authors have divided their reader into six sections, for each of which they have prepared a brief introduction. These sections follow a general introduction explaining the scheme of the entire volume. The sections and the subjects dealt with are: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Concepts and Indices Multivariate Analysis The Analysis of Change Through Time Formal Aspects of Research on Human Groups 5. The Empirical Analysis of Action 6. Toward a Philosophy of the Social Sciences

Within each of these areas, from 7 to 14 selections have been included (some 64 in all) from the work of a number of distinguished students in the field. The writings cover a span of almost 30 years, beginning with the quotation from Stuart Rice published in 1928 and coming down to the present, with some of the illus-

July 1956

trations specifically prepared for this reader. Aside from the general introduction—which would, in this reviewer's opinion, make desirable reading for all market research people—the marketing man is most likely to find section 3, "The Analysis of Change Through Time," and section 5, "The Empirical Analysis of Action/' of most immediate interest and obviously related to his own concerns. Those serious students of marketing theory and practice who desire to obtain a better overview of the work of the social scientists will find much here to stimulate their thinking and to reward their reading. HENRY WHITESIDE /. Walter Thompson Company Chicago

BRIEFLY NOTED EXPORT-IMPORT BANKING: THE DOCUMENTS AND FINANCIAL OPERATIONS OF FOREIGN TRADE, by William S. Shaterian. (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1956. Pp. 508. $6.50.) The presentation of a fully practical treatment of the documents and financial operations of foreign trade is the purpose of this book. Bills of exchange, bills of lading, and marine insurance on cargo are discussed in detail. Major attention is given to the operations of a foreign department, including the buying and selling of foreign exchange, the collection and financing of foreign bills, and the use of commercial letters of credit. The Uniform Customs and Practice for Commercial Documentary Credits and the Revised American Foreign Trade Definitions are given in the appendices. Mr. Shaterian, who is Assistant to the President of the American Institute for Foreign Trade, has written a very useful reference book of interest to both foreign traders and teachers of courses in foreign trade.

THE TERMS OF TRADE: A EUROPEAN CASE STUDY, by Charles P. Kindleberger. (New York: John 'Wiley and Sons, Inc., ig.56. Pp. 382. |8.oo.) The terms of trade of industrial Europe are analyzed in detail for periods as long as 83 years (18701952). This is the first major empirical study of the net barter terms of trade—the ratios between the prices of exports and imports—which has been undertaken for this area. Industrial Europe is considered to include the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Switzerland. One interesting feature of the book is that the

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