Abstract

The rapid growth of Facebook has become an important channel of eWOM. Facebook users can openly illustrate their attitudes toward products to their friends, either by casually clicking a like or deliberately writing a comment on advertisements. This study explored how friends’ involvement in advertisements and tie strength affected Facebook users’ product attitudes, intentions to purchase, and intentions to click. Moreover, we investigated how product type moderates fWOM (eWOM on Facebook) effects. This study recruited 384 respondents to participate in a 2 (friends’ involvement in advertisements: high/low, between-subject) × 2 (tie strength: strong/weak, between-subject) × 2 (product type: search/experience, within-subject) experimental design. The results showed that friends’ involvement in advertisements positively influenced users’ intentions to click. Tie strength of Facebook friends also positively affected users’ product attitudes, intentions to purchase, and intentions to click. Lastly, product type moderated the effects of tie strength of Facebook friends on users’ product attitudes and intentions to click; however, it did not moderate the effects of friends’ involvement in advertisements on their attitudes and intentions.

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