Park, Eunho, et al. "Social dollars in online communities: The effect of product, user, and network characteristics." Journal of Marketing 82.1 (2018): 93-114.

This study investigates the influence of online social connections on product purchases within a massively multiplayer online role-playing game community, leveraging a comprehensive data set of users' gaming activities, social ties, and in-game purchases. The research reveals that social interactions significantly boost in-game spending, with a notable distinction between hedonic (pleasure-related) and functional (utility-related) products. The findings show that social ties have a stronger impact on spending for hedonic products than for functional ones. User experience is found to have a differential moderating effect on social contagion, reducing its influence on functional product purchases while enhancing it for hedonic products. Moreover, the density of social networks affects the contagion effect differently across product types, increasing it for functional products and decreasing it for hedonic ones. Through rigorous econometric analysis and dynamic matching techniques, the study underscores the complex dynamics of social influence in online purchasing behavior and offers valuable insights for leveraging social networks to enhance user engagement and monetization in online communities.