The strength of no tie relationship in an online recommendation Focused on interactional effects of valence, tie strength, and type of service

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate whether the interactional effects of recommendation valence, tie strength and service type produce different effects on attitude and buying intention in a social networking context. Design/methodology/approach - A 2 x 3 x 3 between-subject experiment was carried out, involving 616 participants, and MANOVA was used to test hypotheses. Findings - The interactions of valence by tie strength and valence by service type affect attitude, but not intention. The review valence x tie strength x service type interaction influences both attitude and intention, and its effect on intention is fully mediated by attitude. Research limitations/implications - Negative recommendations for credence and experiential services communicated by individuals with no-tie relationships have a strong negative effect on attitude. However, positive recommendations from strong and weak ties for search and experience services are more influential than recommendations from no ties for credence services. Originality/value - The results are explained by using cue sufficiency theory, which suggests that a single extreme cue serves as a defining feature.