Impact of tie strength and experience on the effectiveness of online service recommendations

• Effects of tie strength, experience, and their interactions on e-WOM message effectiveness were investigated.
• Tie strength and experience affect message credibility and intentions.
• Experience moderates tie strength’s effect on intentions.
• The effect of moderation on intention is mediated by message credibility.

This study investigates the effects of tie strength between the two communicators, recommender experience, and their interactions on electronic word-of-mouth message credibility and purchase intentions, and the mediated moderation on intention. Prior research has rarely addressed the fact that the effect of tie strength moderated by recommender experience is mediated by the effect of message credibility on intention. The final sample comprised 302 students who participated in a 3 (tie strength: strong vs. weak vs. no tie) by 2 (experience: high vs. low) between-subject experiment. Multivariate analysis of covariance and bias-corrected bootstrapping analysis using the PROCESS macro were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that tie strength and recommender experience positively affect message credibility and intentions. Further, recommender experience moderates the effect of tie strength on intentions, while the moderating effects on intention are mediated by message credibility. While prior research suggests that negative recommendations from people with strong ties affect message effectiveness, the results of the present study deviate from this and show that recommendations from weak ties are as persuasive as those from strong ties when the message is delivered by recommenders with experience.