How Tie Strength Influence Consumers’ Purchase Intention: A Moderated Mediation Study

With the advance of internet technology and the prevalence of social media,electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM)is becoming an important channel for consumers to obtain product knowledge as well as an important basis for them to make the final purchase decision.Existing literature of eWOM has testedthe effects of eWOM volume,quality and valance on shaping consumers’ behavior,relatively little research has explored the effect of the source of e WOM on consumers’ purchase intention.Especially,little work has been done about how eWOM from different social tie sources affect consumers’ behavior.As a crucial attribute of e WOM,the tie strength between consumers and the sources of eWOM also play an essential role in consumers’ decision-making process.Meanwhile,as a key intermediate variable in studies of consumer behavior,perceived value has been hailed as a critical prerequisite of determining consumers’ purchasing intention.While little theoretical work has explored the association between perceived value and eWOM from different social tie sources,as well as the mechanism of these factors work on consumers’ purchase intention.Based on the tie strength between the decision makers and the sources,eWOM can be categorized into two types,which are strong-tie e WOM and weak-tie eWOM.We proposed a moderated mediation theoretical framework to explore the mechanism of the relationships among strong-tie eWOM,weak-tie e WOM and perceived value and their effects on consumers’ purchase intention.On the basis of the related literature review,we propose six corresponding hypotheses.Then,given the existing mature scale and the definitions of the constructs,we conduct the measurement model and collect 286 valid questionnaires via a field study.After an analysis of the data reliability and validity,we empirically test the hypotheses.The results show that:(1)strong-tie eWOM have both direct and indirect effects on purchase intention;(2)perceived value act as a partial mediating role between strong-tie eWOM and purchase intention;(3)weak-tie eWOM negatively moderate the direct effect of strong-tie eWOM on purchase intention,but positively moderate the direct effect of strong-tie e WOM on purchase intention,what’s more,the mediation effect of perceived value is also positively moderated by weak-tie eWOM.That is to say a high level of weak-tie WOM will attenuate the direct effect of strong-tie eWOM on purchase intention and amplify the mediation effect of perceived value;conversely,a low level of weak-tie eWOM will attenuate the mediation effect of perceived value.In summary,our findings make several contributions to the literature of how eWOM affects consumers’ behavior.And these findings may offer new insights for managers to develop and manage their intelligent online recommendation systems.