Paper Info
Title
How online social ties and product-related risks influence purchase intentions: A Facebook experiment
Abstract
Drawing on information processing theory and the stimulus-organism-response model, we developed research hypotheses about consumers' decision-making processes. Specifically, we examined the effects of online tie strength, perceived diagnosticity, and product-related risks on consumers' purchase intentions. We conducted a field experiment on Facebook to test these hypotheses. We found that the product information and recommendations provided by friends with whom consumers have strong ties are perceived as having a high level of diagnosticity. The latter increases the probability that the consumers will purchase the product in question. Product-related risks moderate the effect of tie strength on perceived diagnosticity. For high-risk products, the information and recommendations provided by strong-tie contacts have a greater effect on purchase intentions than the information and recommendations provided by weak-tie contacts. However, we did not find this effect for low-risk products. We discuss the implications of our findings for both theory and practice.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1016/j.elerap.2013.03.003
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
Keywords
Field
DocType
product-related risks influence purchase,online social tie,tie strength,product-related risk,facebook experiment,greater effect,strong tie,high-risk product,information processing theory,low-risk product,product information,online tie strength,purchase intention
Tie strength,Advertising,Computer science,Information processing theory,Interpersonal ties,Marketing
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
12
5
1567-4223
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
11
0.70
20
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jyun-Cheng Wang117415.67
Ching-Hui Chang2579.29