Let \(0<\rho \le 2\) and let \(w_{\rho }(X)\) be the \(\rho \) -operator radius of a Hilbert space operator X. In this paper we present \(\rho \) -operator radius characterizations for the product of operators. Among other things, we prove that A is an isometry if and only if \(w_{\rho }(AXA^*) = w_{\rho }(X)\) for all X. Furthermore, for \(0<\rho \le 2\) and \(\rho \ne 1\) , we show that \(A=\lambda B\) is a multiple of a unitary operator for some unit scalar \(\lambda \) if and only if \(w_{\rho }(AX) = w_{\rho }(XB)\) for all X. Some other related results are also discussed.