Social Ties and Word-of-Mouth

Referral Behavior*
JACQUELINE JOHNSON BROWN
PETER H. REINGEN**

This article presents a network analysis of word-of-mouth referral behavior in a

natural environment. The relational properties of tie strength and homophily were
employed to examine referral behavior at micro and macro levels of inquiry. The
study demonstrates different roles played by weak and strong social ties. At the
macro level, weak ties displayed an important bridging function, allowing information
to travel from one distinct subgroup of referral actors to another subgroup in the
broader social system. At the micro level, strong and homophilous ties were more
likely to be activated for the flow of referral information. Strong ties were also
perceived as more influential than weak ties, and they were more likely to be utilized
as sources of information for related goods.

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O ne of the most widely accepted notions in con-
sumer behavior is that word-of-mouth commu-
nication (hereafter WOM) plays an important role in
shaping consumers' attitudes and behaviors. In an early
study, Whyte (1954) investigated the diffusion of air
conditioners in a Philadelphia suburb. He concluded,
on the basis of anecdotal evidence, that the pattern of
ownership could be explained only by the presence of
a vast and powerful network consisting of neighbors
exchanging product information in contexts such as
"over the clothesline" and "across backyard fences."
Subsequent investigations of the WOM phenomenon
produced more formal statistical confirmation of its
importance. In one of the first, more formal studies,
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) found that WOM was the
most important source of influence in the purchase of
household goods and food products. It was seven times
as effective as newspapers and magazines, four times as
effective as personal selling, and twice as effective as
radio advertising in influencing consumers to switch
brands.
In the years ensuing the advent of television as a ma-
jor medium of promotion, many other studies that were
conducted primarily during the 1960s and early 1970s
'This article was a finalist in the 1987 Robert Ferber Award for
Consumer Research competition for the best interdisciplinary article
based on a recent doctoral dissertation. The award is cosponsored by
the Association for Consumer Research and the Journal o/Consumer
Research.
"Jacqueline Johnson Brown is Assistant Professor, Department
of Marketing, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92110. Peter
H. Reingen is Professor, Department of Marketing, Arizona State
University, Tempe, AZ 85287. The authors thank William C. Gaidis
and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
350
demonstrated the continued importance of interper-
sonal influence. For example, Engel, Blackwell, and
Kegerreis (1969) found that almost 60 percent of the
respondents who could recall the most influential source
regarding their adoption of an automotive diagnostic
center named WOM; Feldman and Spencer (1965) de-
termined that about two-thirds of new residents in a
community relied on WOM to select a physician; and
Arndt (1967) showed that respondents who received
positive WOM about a new food product were much
more likely to purchase it compared to those who re-
ceived negative WOM. More recent published research
is rare (e.g., Richins 1983).
These studies have contributed significantly to the
cumulative understanding ofWOM behavior. However,
it appears that a considerable potential exists for en-
riched conceptualizations and new research directions
on WOM. These are essential in addressing several sig-
nificant gaps in understanding WOM phenomena that
exist at the macro level of inquiry (e.g., flows of com-
munication across groups), as well as the micro level
(e.g., flows within dyads or small groups). At the macro
level, there is a severe lack of understanding of several
important issues, including how WOM interaction in
dyads or small groups aggregates to form large-scale
patterns in the diffusion of information and influence
concerning innovations, existing products/services,
fashions, fads, rumors about products, and the forma-
tion of widely held consumer attitudes. At the micro
level, very little is known about a variety of WOM as-
pects, such as which interpersonal ties are more likely
to be activated for the flow of information and which
activated ties are more influential in consumers' deci-
sion-making.
© JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH. Vol. 14. December 1987
WORD-OF-MOUTH NETWORKS
There are several underlying reasons for these gaps
in understanding. Though WOM behavior arises from
and is constrained by consumers' social relations with
others, the typical WOM study does not undertake a
relational analysis ofWOM processes precipitating out
of interpersonal networks. This is not only characteristic
of the research on interpersonal communications in
consumer behavior. Rogers (1983), for example, posits
the lack of sociometric analysis as a major shortcoming
of the many hundreds of diffusion of innovations stud-
ies. In addition, in consumer behavior as well as dif-
fusion of innovations, there is almost never an attempt
to directly trace information flows along paths of in-
terpersonal ties, although many investigators have em-
phasized the need for such research (e.g., Reynolds and
Darden 1971; Sheth 1971). Hence, how micro-level in-
teractions in dyads or small groups aggregate into large-
scale processes eludes us in most cases (Granovetter
1973).
Another major (probably related) reason for these
gaps in understanding is that appropriate theory and
methods for addressing them were either unavailable
or not widely known at the time when most of the WOM
research in consumer behavior was conducted. Since
that time, several conceptual and methodological ad-
vances have occurred in a number of disciplines. On
the conceptual front, the notions of tie strength (i.e.,
intensity of a social relation between consumers) and
homophily (i.e., communication between similar con-
sumers) have become popular. They appear to be par-
ticularly promising for enhancing the present under-
standing of WOM behavior because these concepts ad-
dress properties of social relations from which WOM
behavior arises. Since WOM is a social phenomenon,
properties of social relations are likely to playa crucial
role in WOM behavior at micro as well as macro levels
of inquiry. In terms of methodology, network analysis
has been developed into a powerful method for inves-
tigating linkages between micro-level social phenomena
and macro-level processes (see Burt 1980; Knoke and
Kuklinski 1982; and Wellman 1983 for excellent re-
views of network analysis). Granovetter (1973, p. 1360)
argues that in one way or another, it is through inter-
personal networks "that small-scale interaction be-
comes translated into large-scale patterns, and that
these, in turn, feed back into small groups."
PURPOSE AND FOUNDATIONS
The purpose of the present study is to examine, from
an interpersonal network perspective, the roles that tie
strength and homophily may play in macro and micro
WOM processes. The specific type of WOM behavior
examined here is referral communication-a common,
yet underresearched WOM phenomenon.
Before the study is presented, however, it is beneficial
to explore by means of an example several of its con-
ceptual and methodological underpinnings. Figure A
351
FIGURE A
EXAMPLE NETWORKS
NOTE: Referral relations (directed lines) are depicted along a time dimension. Interpersonal
ties in more densely knit network segments (subgroups composed of referral actors) are
indicated by nondlrected lines. For illustrative purposes, suppose the referrals Involve a financial
planning servioo. Further suppose that referral actors A, B, and C are friends living in the
same neighborhood (strong ties), E, F, and G are also lriands employed by the same company,
and that the AD and BE ties represent acqualntanoo relations (weak ties).
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portrays hypothetical referral flows embedded in a sub-
set of a larger social system for a particular service (see
the note to Figure A for a description of the scenario).
It provides a context for the discussion of two basic
issues: (1) the distinction between a WOM relation and
the form of relation from which WOM behavior arises,
and (2) the problem of network delimitation in the kinds
of open systems that are characteristic of most consumer
behavior contexts.
Relational Content and Relational Form
The relations exhibited in Figure A have both content
and form, resulting in two networks. The first network
is the referral network based on relational content (di-
rected lines). In general, relational content refers to the
substantive type of relation represented in the connec-
tions among individuals. The content type in the ex-
ample is a communication relation by which messages
are transmitted from one consumer to another on "who-
told-whom-about-the-service" paths of referral flow.
The second network (nondirected lines) is based on re-
lational form. Relational form refers to properties of
the linkage between pairs of actors that exist indepen-
dently of specific contents (Knoke and Kuklinski 1982).
One fundamental aspect of relational form illustrated
in the example is tie strength (Burt 1982). Tie strength
is indicated by several variables such as the importance
attached to the social relation, frequency of social con-
tact, and type of social relation (e.g., close friend, ac-
quaintance; Granovetter 1973; Weimann 1983). Tie
strength is a continuous variable, but in the example
ties are shown as either strong, weak, or absent, which
is customary in the research on this topic.
Conceivably, relations may be identical or highly
similar in content but quite distinct in form. This is
illustrated in Figure A where a consumer (A) refers the
service to a weak tie (an acquaintance D) as well as a
352
strong tie (a close friend B). It is also possible that re-
lations may be identical or highly similar in form but
different in content. For example, a consumer (A) in
Figure A refers the service to a consumer (B) but not
to another individual (C), although all of these actors
are in strong-tie relations with each other. Thus, rela-
tional content (referral communication here) and re-
lational form (tie strength) have different conceptual
connotations.
Boundary Delimitation
The capacity of network analysis to isolate more
densely knit network segments (A, B, C and E, F, G in
Figure A) allows for the investigation of how small-scale
interaction aggregates to form larger-scale patterns (see
the tie between consumers Band E, which was a crucial
bridge for the diffusion of referrals from one of the seg-
ments-A, B, C-to the other-E, F, G). However,
network analysis (as any method) is not without prob-
lems. One of the most significant challenges facing the
network analyst in the study of WOM processes in the
kinds of open systems that characterize most consumer
behavior contexts is that of boundary specification:
Where does one set the limits on networks that may
have no obvious boundaries? Many network analyses
have been performed on formally bounded systems (in
consumer behavior, the Arndt (1967) study of WOM
behavior in a student housing project and the Reingen
et al. (1984) investigation of brand congruency among
sorority sisters are examples of this approach to bound-
ary specification). Though extremely useful for many
purposes, this approach to setting limits on networks
may solve the boundary problem in appearance only.
This is apparent when an investigator who examines
WOM processes in a village, for example, arbitrarily
omits WOM relations that occur outside the village and
those that assume boundary spanning roles. If these re-
lations somehow condition WOM behavior in the vil-
lage, conclusions based on within-village observations
alone may be inappropriate.
In general, delimiting network boundaries depends
to a great extent upon an analyst's purposes (Knoke
and Kuklinski 1982). Similar to previous network anal-
yses performed on essentially open systems such as elite
social circles (Alba and Moore 1978), information flow
chains in urban environments (Erickson et al. 1978;
Granovetter 1973; Reingen and Kernan 1986), and
community influentials (Laumann and Pappi 1976), the
approach to boundary specification in Figure A is based
on mutual relevance. According to this criterion, the
system in Figure A includes only those actors who are
relevant to each other because of their participation in
the same event or activity (i.e., referrals). Obviously
each actor has many more interpersonal ties than are
shown in Figure A, but individuals who are not partic-
ipants in referral behavior are excluded because they
are not directly relevant to the investigation of referral
THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
flows. This is the approach to boundary specification
taken in the present study.
The hypotheses tested in this study are presented next,
starting with an examination of the role of tie strength
in the flow of referral information across subgroups re-
siding in a broader interpersonal network composed of
referral actors. All hypotheses are based on explicit ref-
erence to WOM referral behavior as the criterion of
common relevance to the WOM participants.
HYPOTHESES
Strength of Weak Ties
Granovetter's (1973) theory on "the strength of weak
ties" provides a promising explanation of the process
by which WOM behavior at the micro level is linked
to macro-level phenomena. A consumer's social rela-
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tions with other relevant actors typically include a
spectrum of ties ranging from strong primary (such as
close friends) to weak secondary (such as seldom-con-
tacted acquaintances). The few consumer behavior
studies with a direct focus on communication flows in
interpersonal networks obtained results for only the
strong ties (Arndt 1967; Leonard-Barton 1985). This is
consistent with the general tendency of researchers to
view weak ties as trivial or to simply overlook them.
Granovetter (1973) claims, however, that weak ties play
a crucial role in clarifying and explaining a variety of
social phenomena. For WOM referrals, this "strength
of weak ties" arises from their important bridging func-
tion that allows information to travel from one densely
knit "clump" of social structure composed of referral
actors (A, B, C in Figure A) to another more cohesive
segment of the broader referral system (E, F, G in Figure
A) through a weak tie (B and E). If weak ties did not
exist, a system would consist of disjointed subgroups,
inhibiting the widespread diffusion of information.
Weak ties, therefore, are potentially important in ex-
amining how interaction at the dyadic level aggregates
to form a large-scale pattern. It is crucial to recognize,
however, that Granovetter does not argue that all or
even most weak ties serve as bridges linking closely knit
network segments: "The importance of weak ties is as-
serted to be that they are disproportionately likely to
be bridges, as compared to strong ties, which should be
underrepresented in that role" (Granovetter 1982,
p. 130).
Although the theoretical argument of the strength of
weak ties is compelling, its empirical verification is on
shakier grounds. First, there is the problem of gener-
alizability, because many studies examined the role of
weak ties in only one context, namely in individuals'
search for a new job (e.g., Granovetter 1974; Lin 1982).
Second, and more importantly, Granovetter (1982)
notes in his revisions of the theory that many studies
did not set out systematically to test the argument of
the strength of weak ties. They employed the argument
WORD-OF-MOUTH NETWORKS
to explain empirical findings that otherwise would have
been anomalous, and "furthermore, a number of the
studies. . . are mainly theoretical, proposing that, in
their subject area, weak ties can be seen as serving im-
portant functions, but not actually bringing any sub-
stantial body of empirical data to bear on this assertion"
(Granovetter 1982, p. 129). To empirically verify the
strength of weak ties, one needs to show not only that
ties bridging network segments are disproportionately
weak but also that something flows through these
bridges; they actually serve as conduits bringing infor-
mation to subgroups that they would otherwise not ob-
tain. The few studies in sociology that put the argument
to a direct test (e.g., Friedkin 1980; Weimann 1983)
provide encouraging but inconclusive evidence (Gra-
novetter 1982). In consumer behavior, direct evidence
linking the strength of weak ties to the flow of infor-
mation through WOM channels of communication ap-
pears nonexistent. Thus, the following hypothesis is
tested:
HI: Weak ties activated for a referral are more
likely than strong ties to serve as bridges
through which WOM referrals flow.
Strength of Strong Ties
Granovetter (1982, p. 113) acknowledges in his re-
visions of the theory "that strong ties can also have
some value." However, little research has focused on
the circumstances when strong ties play their unique
role. Whereas weak ties may be crucial in explaining
macro phenomena of interpersonal communication
(e.g., flows of information across groups), our general
proposition is that strong ties play a more significant
role in several aspects of micro-level referral behavior,
including tie activation, information seeking, perceived
influence, emergence of subgroups, and overlap in per-
sonal sources of information.
Tie Activation. In many consumer behavior con-
texts, it is possible that a consumer is in social relations
with several other individuals who were prior partici-
pants in WOM activity dealing with a good. In Figure
A, for example, consumer C has social access to two
such individuals (A and B). However, it is unlikely that
each tie with these potential sources of information has
an equal probability of being activated for the flow of
information. A variable potentially affecting tie acti-
vation is strength of tie. Since strong ties are typically
more readily available and result in more frequent in-
teraction through which the transfer of information may
arise, the following hypothesis emerges:
H2: When a consumer is in social relations with
both strong and weak ties who are available
as potential sources of referral, strong ties are
more likely than weak ties to be activated for
the referral flow.
353
Information Seeking. Hypothesis 2 did not in-
corporate aspects of the circumstances prompting tie
activation. Activating a tie for information flow may
be due to several reasons, including actively soliciting
information from a source or flows induced by situa-
tional or environmental cues (Belk 1971). Strong-tie
consumers will probably know much more about each
other than do weak-tie ones, including how relevant
they are to each other as sources of information about
consumer goods. This should facilitate active infor-
mation search behavior among consumers in strong-tie
relations, resulting in the following hypothesis:
H3: Active information seeking is more likely to
occur from strong-tie than weak-tie sources
of referrals.
Perceived Influence. Ties activated for the flow of
information may also vary in the degree of influence as
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perceived by receivers. Therefore, it is useful to distin-
guish between flows of information and perceived in-
fluence. As Lin (1971) has observed, the literature on
interpersonal communication has often failed to dif-
ferentiate between these types of flow. They may be
regarded as related but conceptually distinct processes,
because the flow of influence plays a more significant
role in individuals' decision-making. Research is lack-
ing, but strong-tie sources may be perceived as more
credible than weak-tie ones (Rogers 1983). This suggests
the following hypothesis:
H4: Information from strong-tie referral sources
is perceived as more influential in receivers'
decision-making than is information obtained
from weak-tie referral sources.
Subgroups. Granovetter (1973) argues that strong-
tie networks exhibit a tendency toward transitivity. (If
person A is linked to persons Band C in a strong-tie
network, there is a high probability that the B-C link
will also occur). This tendency facilitates the emergence
of subgroups of referral actors. Subgroups of this kind
have an emergent character, and they tend to be infor-
mally structured (Reingen and Kernan 1986). Never-
theless, consistent with Granovetter's (1973, 1982) no-
tions of more densely knit "clumps" of social structure,
the subgroups have members who have relatively strong
ties with each other and who have repeated interactions.
Based on the research dealing with the impact of in-
formal groups on members' brand preferences (e.g.,
Reingen et al. 1984; Stafford 1966), members in a
subgroup composed of referral actors for one good may
also have more homogeneous preferences for a variety
of other goods than do those who belong to a different
or to no subgroup. This may be so because the multiple
redundant paths of communication in a subgroup imply
that its members are generally more readily available
to each other as sources of information and influence.
Reingen et al. (1984) obtained several results that are
consistent with this notion, but their study was con-
354
ducted in a sorority setting, guaranteeing that all re-
spondents were in relations with one another. This may
have produced a ceiling effect, possibly accounting for
the many statistically insignificant results in their study.
To circumvent this potential problem, it is beneficial
to extend the Reingen et al. (1984) research to a more
open social system where many consumers have no di-
rect linkages. Therefore, the following hypothesis is
tested:
H5: Consumers with joint membership in a
subgroup of referral actors for one good are
more likely to prefer the same brand for other
goods than are those consumers who belong
to a different or to no subgroup.
Overlap. Hypothesis 5 dealt with brand congruency
among subgroup members in strong-tie networks. The
subgroup was the primary unit of analysis. At the dyadic
level of analysis in strong- as well as weak-tie interper-
sonal networks, strong ties may play another unique
role in the extent to which consumers rely upon the
same members of the information flow network for one
good for obtaining information about a related good.
Feldman and Spencer (1965) suggest such overlap in
information flow networks, but the role of tie strength
has not been previously examined in this context. Since
the greater frequency of interaction among strong-tie
consumers should enhance the likelihood of informa-
tion transfer for a variety of goods, the following hy-
pothesis is tested:
H6: Strong ties, who were activated for the flow
of referral for one good, are more likely than
weak ties to be activated as sources for a re-
lated good.
Homophily/Heterophily
The previous discussion focused on how one rela-
tional property-strength of tie-may be of value in
addressing a variety of issues related to micro-level and
macro-level WOM phenomena. Another promising
construct capable of providing a conceptually enriched
understanding of WOM behavior is homophily.
Homophily is the degree to which pairs of individuals
are similar in terms of certain attributes, such as age,
sex, education, and social status (Rogers 1983). A fun-
damental principle of human interaction is that people
tend to interact with others who are like themselves;
thus, it is also known as the like-me principle (Laumann
1966). Some scholars treat the concepts of strength of
tie and homophily as synonymous (e.g., Gatignon and
Robertson 1985; Rogers 1983), but our preference is to
employ them as separate but related constructs. A dis-
tinction between these constructs is that homophily re-
fers to the similarity in attributes individuals possess
who are in a relation (e.g., same or different social sta-
tus), whereas tie strength is a relational property that
THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
manifests itself in different types of social relations
varying in strength (e.g., close friend, acquaintance).
Granovetter (1973) suggests that the stronger the tie
connecting two individuals, the more similar they tend
to be. Direct evidence relating these two constructs to
WOM in consumer behavior does not exist as far as is
known, but since one would expect weak social ties to
be heterophilous, the special significance of hetero-
philous communication may be that it facilitates the
flow of information between diverse segments ofa social
system. This may help explain why "heterophilous
communication has a special informational potential,
even though it may be realized only rarely" (Rogers
1983, p. 175). It is hypothesized that:
H7: Weak ties activated for the WOM referral flow
of information are more heterophilous than
activated strong ties.
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Homophily may also play an important role at the
micro level of WOM behavior. Since homophilous in-
dividuals are more likely to interact with each other
than heterophilous ones, homophilous ties may have a
greater likelihood of being activated for the WOM flow
of information. Thus, it has been suggested that many
flows are homophilous (Feick, Price, and Higie 1986;
Gatignon and Robertson 1985). It is important to rec-
ognize, however, that the typical study for homophily
(e.g., Feldman and Spencer 1965) examined merely the
ties that were activated for the flow of information (e.g.,
the AB tie in Figure A) without comparing them to
those that could have been but were not activated (e.g.,
the AC tie). It is suggested that a more valid test of the
homophily argument necessitates a comparison be-
tween the ties that are activated and those that are not
activated for the flow. Finally, homophilous sources of
information may be perceived as more credible than
heterophilous ones, suggesting that homophilous
sources may be perceived as more influential (Rogers
1983). Thus, the following hypotheses emerge:
H8: Of an individual's potential personal sources
of information, the more homophilous the tie,
the more likely it is activated for the flow of
referral.
H9: As homophily of a tie increases, information
provided by an activated tie is perceived by
receivers as more influential in decision-
making.
METHOD
Research Setting
The who-told-whom networks of information flow
were traced for three piano teachers. These marketers
were located in the same suburban area of a large
Southwestern city, and they were in social relations with
each other (e.g., all belonged to the same music teacher
WORD-OF-MOUTH NETWORKS
association). Since this resulted in a connected graph
of social relations among all actors regardless of which
initial information diffusion network they belonged to,
the diffusion networks for analysis purposes were treated
as a single system. There were other similarities across
the teachers as well. Each had been teaching full-time
for many years, and at the time of the study each had
at least 20 current and/or recent-past students. None
engaged in formal marketing communication through
mass-media channels, and none actively solicited cus-
tomers. They instead relied on positive WOM to gen-
erate market transactions. Thus, this setting effectively
isolated the effect of WOM on behavior. Although the
study examined the interpersonal network used by
piano students or their parents to select a piano teacher,
it is believed that other service providers such as phy-
sicians, lawyers, CPAs, hair stylists, and so on may ob-
tain their clientele through similar processes.
Since it was initially unknown who belonged to the
referral networks, a two-phase method for collecting
the data was required. Briefly, in the first phase, cus-
tomers of a service were asked to reveal how they had
learned about its existence. When a respondent men-
tioned another person, that person was contacted and
asked the same question. The process was repeated until
a WOM path was traced back to a marketer. Respon-
dents could include both users and nonusers of the ser-
vice who had been information sources. The first phase,
then, was employed to produce data on just the WOM
referral networks. It included only those social actors
who were relevant to each other as defined by the sub-
stantive questions guiding the research, and system
"closure" was obtained through complete backward
tracing of WOM referral paths. Once the system was
identified, the second phase was conducted. This phase
generated data on the social structure among all actors
in the system. These data were necessary to examine
the flow of referrals across subgroups.
Phase 1 Subjects and Procedure
The initial population under study (n = 67) consisted
of 23 of the teachers' current and/or recent-past adult
students, 11 teenage students, and parents of 33 students
who were under 13 years of age.
These younger students were generally not inter-
viewed because careful pretesting on a similar group of
young students (n = 11) of another piano teacher clearly
indicated that the information search process as well as
the decision to enroll in piano lessons from a particular
teacher were typically parental ones (usually performed
by the mother of the child). However, in the few in-
stances (n = 3) where the initial interview with the par-
ent (most often the mother) revealed that the child was
involved in the referral process, an interview was con-
ducted with the child as well. Cross-checks between in-
formation provided by these children and their parents
showed no inconsistencies in responses.
355
The 67 initial subjects were sent a preliminary no-
tification letter bearing the endorsement of their teacher.
A few days later they were telephoned by a carefully
trained interviewer. As many callbacks as necessary
were made. The respondents were asked how they first
learned about their piano teacher. When a subject
mentioned another person, an address and telephone
number were requested, which were most often pro-
vided by the initial respondents. These mentioned in-
dividuals were then notified by mail and telephoned by
the same interviewer who conducted all of the initial
interviews. They were in turn asked how they had first
learned about the piano teacher; anyone named as a
referral source was similarly contacted. This backward
tracing process was repeated until a path could not be
further traced.
There were 145 potential actors in the system, but
13 (9 percent) could not be reached, seven (5 percent)
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mentioned an impersonal source (e.g., a press release
about a concert mentioning the teacher), four (3 per-
cent) refused to participate, and three (2 percent) actors
had no recall or did not know the source's name. Re-
maining were 118 (81 percent) actors who were on re-
ferral paths traced back to the teachers, thus qualifying
for further inclusion.
At the close of the interview, subjects were asked for
a commitment to participate in the second phase of the
study. Letters thanking them for their cooperation were
sent shortly after the first interview.
Phase 2 Subjects and Procedure
To begin the second phase of data collection, a list
of the names of those mentioned as referral participants
in the first phase was prepared. A copy of this list was
mailed to each of the 118 respondents from Phase 1,
along with a cover letter explaining the purpose of the
study. Respondents were asked to look through the list,
mark those persons that they knew, and keep the list
handy so it could be referred to when the interviewer
called.
One hundred thirteen of the 118 potential respon-
dents to this phase completed the interview for a re-
sponse rate of 96 percent. One respondent to Phase 1
refused to participate in Phase 2 and the other four in-
dividuals could not be reached after repeated attempts.
Most of the respondents were female (87 percent), be-
tween 36 and 55 years of age (66 percent), had at least
attended college (84 percent), and had lived in the met-
ropolitan area for at least 10 years prior to the start of
the study (73 percent).
At the close of this second interview, respondents
were thanked for their participation and asked if they
would like a nontechnical summary of the results.
Measures
Tie Strength. Respondents were asked to identify
the type of social relation with each of the actors they
356
knew at the time of their WOM behavior. The categories
were: friend, neighbor, relative, acquaintance, and other
(specify). Data on frequency of communication and
importance attached to the relations with those actors
were also obtained. Frequency of communication was
scaled: daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, and less than
once a month. Importance was measured on a five-point
scale with anchors "merely an acquaintance" (1), "not
THA T close, but still important" (3), and a person the
respondent "feels so close to it's hard to imagine life
without him/her" (5).
Homophily. To investigate the hypotheses for ho-
mophily, standard demographic questions were asked
in both phases about the respondents' occupation, ed-
ucation, age, and sex. Ties were classified as homo-
philous (heterophilous) when they had identical (dif-
ferent) category memberships for at least three of these
demographic measures of homophily. For example, a
dyad was categorized as homophilous (heterophilous)
when its members had the same (different) categories
for occupation, education, and age.
Potential Sources of Information. Respondents were
asked in Phase 2 to list all other actors in the system
they knew at the time of their information acquisition
behavior. Phase 1 yielded information on the time of
each respondent's WOM behavior. Only those actors
who were known to a respondent at the time of his/her
information acquisition behavior and who possessed
knowledge of the marketer at that time were considered
potential sources of information.
Information Seeking. Respondents were asked in
Phase 1 whether they had specifically asked the sender
for information (i.e., initiated the conversation to obtain
information) or whether the topic had just come up in
conversation begun for other reasons.
Perceived Influence. Respondents rated on a five-
point scale how influential the information provided
by a sender had been on the final selection of their piano
teacher (1 = very little influence; 5 = very great influ-
ence). Respondents who had several sources of infor-
mation were also asked to indicate who was the most/
least influential source.
Congruency. To examine brand congruency in
subgroups, respondents in Phase 1 were asked to name
their preferred restaurant, brand of piano, brand of
shampoo, piano tuner, and dentist. To increase the
generalizability of findings, these products and services
included related/unrelated (i.e., tuner/dentist) and typ-
ically publicly consumed/privately consumed items
(e.g., restaurant/shampoo).
Overlap. To examine overlap in information flow
networks, respondents were asked to identify the source
of information for their piano tuner.
Other. Other measures included how long the send-
ers and receivers had known each other, how long the
THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
respondents had lived in the metropolitan area, how
many piano teachers they had considered, the impor-
tance attached to selecting a good teacher, and the per-
ceived risk in making a teacher selection.
Data Cross-checks
Since we had to rely on subjects' verbal reports on
past behavior, several cross-checks on the data were
performed.
Persons who had been named as a WOM source were
asked whether or not they recalled telling anybody about
the piano teacher and, ifso, who it was (unaided recall).
If the person who had identified the sender was not
mentioned, the respondent was asked whether s/he re-
membered telling the person about the service (aided
recall).
Of the non teacher sources that were contacted and
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asked to confirm the interaction, 45 percent recalled
the interaction with no prompting (unaided) and 39
percent confirmed the conversation when asked if they
recalled talking to the other person about lessons (aided
recall). The remaining 16 percent of interactions could
not be verified. A majority of these "failures" were with
other music professionals (e.g., piano tuner, band di-
rector, choir director). These respondents noted that
they are asked quite often for recommendations from
individuals they hardly know and, therefore, do not re-
member each referral. Others could not be verified due
to refusals to participate or the fact that they were not
asked for confirmation, usually because their name was
mentioned as a source after they had already been in-
terviewed, or they were cited by several respondents as
a source and verification of each referral was not un-
dertaken.
Respondents who were receivers of WOM informa-
tion about one of the piano teachers were also asked
how certain they were of the source(s) of that infor-
mation. Ninety-five percent stated that they were either
certain or very certain of the source.
Cross-checks were also performed on what senders
and receivers said about each other for frequency of
interaction, for importance of the relationship, and for
how long they had known the other person. Correlations
for senders and receivers were as follows: frequency of
interaction = 0.78, importance of relationship = 0.69,
and years known each other = 0.93. All were significant
at p < 0.001. Overall, then, there are indications that
the data were of sufficient quality to warrant the ex-
amination of the hypotheses.
RESULTS
Overall
For the respondents who participated in both phases
of data collection, there were 130 sender-to-receiver
WOM dyads on referral paths that were traced back to
the teachers. The vast majority of these dyads involved
WORD-OF-MOUTH NETWORKS 357

nonfamily members (85 percent). Since family dyads TABLE 1

belonged to many different families, for analysis pur- SUMMARY OF RESULTS
poses they were treated as any of the other dyads rather
than collapsing them into a single unit. Hypotheses Results
Most receivers reported that they had one sender (82
percent); 15 percent indicated two senders; two percent, Weak ties activated for a referral are Supported
more likely than strong ties to
three senders; and one percent, four senders. Most of serve as bridges through which
the senders directly or indirectly linked to a piano WOM referrals flow.
teacher on referral paths informed one of the respon- 2 When a consumer is in social Supported
dents (71 percent), 20 percent told two, six percent told relations with both strong and
three, and three percent informed five of the respon- weak ties who are available as
dents. Thus, most of the respondents were senders or potential sources of referral,
strong ties are more likely than
receivers only once. Although the majority of the re- weak ties to be activated for the
spondents expressed that they considered selecting a referral flow.
good teacher as very important (84 percent), most of 3 Active information seeking is more Not supported
them considered only one teacher (62 percent). likely to occur from strong-tie than (oppOSite)
Nevertheless, the majority of respondents indicated low weak-tie sources of referrals.
risk in their final decision (68 percent).

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There were 73 referral paths originating with one of
the teachers and leading to a final actor on a path. Of
these paths, seven (10 percent) had one sender/receiver
dyad, 38 (52 percent) had two dyads, 11 (15 percent)
were composed of three dyads, seven (10 percent) had
four dyads, nine (12 percent) consisted of five dyads,
and one (one percent) had six dyads. It is noteworthy
that 38 percent of the paths involved at least four dif-
ferent individuals.
The hypotheses are examined next. The results are
summarized in Table 1. Representative case examples
of referrals will be presented at times to enrich the sta-
tistical analysis (see Figure B).
Strength of Weak Ties
Hypothesis 1. It was anticipated that weak ties would
be more likely than strong ties to serve as bridges
through which WOM referrals flow. A prerequisite to
testing this hypothesis as well as several of the others is
the determination of strong and weak ties, subgroups,
and bridges serving as conduits for the flow of infor-
mation.
First, the receivers' data on the type of relation with
the senders were dichotomized. If the sender was labeled
a relative, friend, or neighbor, the tie was classified as
"strong." If the sender was identified as merely an ac-
quaintance or a neighbor but primarily an acquain-
tance, the tie was classified as "weak." Although it is
acknowledged that an individual's social relations with
others typically include a spectrum of ties ranging from
strong to weak, this dichotomy results in a conservative
test of our hypotheses. It is also consistent with oper-
ationalization practices in this area (e.g., Lin, Dayton,
and Greenwald 1983), but to provide a formal check
on the dichotomy's validity, we also examined the fre-
quency of contact and the importance attached to the
relation across these two categories. Congruent with
Granovetter's (1973) notions of tie strength, at the time
of information acquisition behavior, strong ties inter-
4 Information from strong-tie referral Supported
sources is perceived as more
influential in receivers' decision-
making than is information
obtained from weak-tie referral
sources.
5 Consumers with joint membership in Supported
a subgroup of referral actors for
one good are more likely to prefer
the same brand for other goods
than are those consumers who
belong to a different or to no
subgroup.
6 Strong ties, who were activated for Supported
the flow of referral for one good,
are more likely than weak ties to
be activated as sources for a
related good.
7 Weak ties activated for the WOM Not supported
referral flow of information are
more heterophilous than activated
strong ties.
8 Of an individual'S potential personal Supported
sources of information, the more
homophilous the tie, the more
likely it is activated for the flow of
referral.
9 As homophily of a tie increases, Not supported
information provided by an
activated tie is perceived by
receivers as more influential in
decision-making.
acted more frequently than weak ties (x 2 = 27.46, p
< 0.001). For example, of65 sender/receiver dyads in-
teracting on a daily or weekly basis, 61 (94 percent)
were in the strong-tie category. Further support was ob-
tained when the ratings on importance attached to a tie
were examined. The ties in the strong-tie classification
were judged more important by receivers than those
grouped as weak (X = 3.46 and X = 1.23, respectively;
t = 14.35, p < 0.001).
Second, more densely knit subgroups within the
overall social structure of referral actors needed to be
358
FIGURE B
DIFFUSION OF INFORMATION AND GROUP STRUCTURE
NOTE: The who-told-whom network (directed lines) is embedded in the group structure
(nondirected lines) for one of the marketers (155). For illustrative purposes, not every group
and dyadic social relation is exhibited. Reading clockwise, the groups are 27, 146, 155; 8,
48,145; 34, 36, 42,155; 32, 118, 147, 155; 31, 51, 52; 30, 72, 155; 1, 60, 155; 60, 124,
155; and 22, 141, 148. Comembership in the same social system such as church (e.g., 8,
48,145) or neighborhood (e.g., 34, 36, 42,155) facilitated the emergenoe of these subgroups.
determined. The sociological concept of group suggests
that only the strong ties should be employed in its de-
termination. However, not every strong tie is necessarily
a relevant source of information. For example, if per-
sons A and B were in a strong-tie social relation at the
time of A's WOM behavior related to piano teachers,
but B's information acquisition behavior occurred at a
later point in time, B could not have been a potential
source of information for A. Thus, only those strong
ties were employed for subgroup determination that
existed at the time of an actor's information acquisition
behavior and that were his/her potential sources of in-
formation. The subgroups were found with an algorithm
contained in Sonet-I (Foster and Seidman 1978). It
searches for socially connected referral actors until no
other actor can be added to a subgroup of at least three
connected individuals. This algorithm was selected be-
cause it was substantively appropriate for the present
study.
Third, the information flow paths were embedded in
the resulting social structure to search for those WOM
dyads that were not in subgroups. To qualify as a bridge,
these dyads had to be the only interpersonal link be-
tween groups (Knoke and Kuklinski 1982).
Of 130 WOM dyads, only 23 (18 percent) were in a
weak-tie relation. Thus, the vast majority of ties acti-
vated for the flow of referral arose from stronger rather
than weaker social relations. To test the hypothesis,
however, it is necessary to compare the relative fre-
quency of bridges across the categories of tie strength.
Of the 23 weak-tie dyads of WOM, 22 percent (five
THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
dyads) were bridges, as compared to six percent (seven
dyads) of the 107 strong ties. The hypothesis is sup-
ported (2 = 2.29, p < 0.05).
One example of a weak tie bridging subgroups is the
link between 51 and 118 (six o'clock position of Fig-
ure B):
51/118: 51's son was taking piano lessons from an-
other teacher and needed more advanced instruc-
tion, The previous piano teacher told 51 to call 118
who is also a piano teacher. However, 118 was not
taking new students but recommended 155. Actors
118 and 155 belong to a group with actors 32 and
147. They call each other friends. These relations
emerged from comembership in the same music
teacher association. In turn, 51 passed information
about 155 to 31 and 52, all of whom belong to the
same church. Thus, the acquaintance tie between
51 and 118 served as a bridge linking two otherwise
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disconnected subgroups, thereby extending path
length.
Strength of Strong Ties
Hypothesis 2. According to this hypothesis, it was
expected that strong ties would be more likely than weak
ties to be activated for the flow when both are available
as potential sources of information. Most actors (90)
had access to both strong-tie and weak-tie potential in-
formation sources. In support of the hypothesis, 27 per-
cent (74/273) of the potential strong-tie sources were
activated, as compared to seven percent (16/211) of the
weak-tie ones (x 2 = 17.32, p < 0.001). These data in-
dicate also that only relatively few of relatively many
potential personal sources of information were activated
for information flow.
Hypothesis 3. This hypothesis predicted that infor-
mation seeking would be more likely to occur from
strong-tie sources of information. The results were in
direct contrast to expectations. Eighty-six percent of
the weak ties activated for the flow were solicited for
information, compared to 50 percent of the strong ties
(x 2 = 8.14, p < 0.01).
The dyad 51/49 at the six o'clock position of Figure
B provides an example of a weak tie that was solicited
for information:
51/49: These individuals live in the same neigh-
borhood, but they do not socialize or know each
other well. They call each other acquaintances. Their
children, however, sometimes play together and 49
knew that 51's son played piano. When 49's child
wanted to start lessons, 49 called 51 to find out who
her son's teacher was.
Although most senders in the present study were so-
licited for information (57 percent), it is noteworthy
that the remaining referral occurrences "somehow"
arose during conversation. Although no decisive evi-
dence can be offered, it appears that situational or en-
vironmental cues prompted these WOM instances. One
WORD-OF-MOUTH NETWORKS
TABLE 2
CONGRUENCY EFFECTS
Congruence Piano
Percent congruence within group 26
Percent congruence not in same group 16
Percent raw effect 10
Chi-square 3.43 8
·p<0.10 .
• p < 0.01.
example is 60/149 (a weak tie at the ten o'clock position
of Figure B).
60/149: The children of these two individuals were
taking swimming lessons. While 60 and 149 were
waiting for their children, they started to talk about
their children's activities, and 60 told 149 about 155.
Hypothesis 4. It was expected that information from
strong-tie referral sources would be perceived as more
influential than information obtained from weak-tie
referral sources in receivers' decision-making. The
WOM actors who were nonusers of the service (i.e.,
those who had not engaged in decision-making about
the service provided by any of the three piano teachers)
were omitted from the analysis, leaving data on 84 ac-
tivated strong ties and 18 activated weak ties. The mean
level of influence for the strong ties was 4.24, while the
mean level of influence for weak ties was 3.56 (t = 2.22,
p < 0.05), supporting the hypothesis.
With regard to our data on most/least influential
sources, there were only five cases where an individual
employed a strong as well as a weak tie as sources of
referral. While a formal statistical test was therefore not
performed, it is noteworthy that in four of the five in-
stances, weak ties were always ranked as least influential.
The dyads 147/5 (4 o'clock position), 32/49 (5 o'clock
position), and 8/48 (1 o'clock) provide examples for
strong ties perceived as highly influential.
147/5: 5 originally knew 147 from working with
her on a church music program. 5 also knew that
147 was a member of the state's music teacher as-
sociation. 5 asked 147 to recommend a teacher. 5
felt she "could trust" 147's opinion, especially since
147 and 155 were friends.
32/49: 32 was teaching 49's daughter, but they lived
"too far apart." 49 asked her neighbor 51 from
whom her son was taking lessons. 51 recommended
155. 49 then asked 32 about 155 and she highly
recommended 155. 49 "valued" 32's recommen-
dation, since 32 is a piano teacher and, thus, is
"knowledgeable in the music field."
8/48: 8 and 48 had been neighbors. 48 knew 8's
daughter was taking lessons. 8 was very pleased with
her daughter's progress and teacher. 48 felt the in-
formation obtained from 8 was very influential be-
cause 48 "knew nothing about the piano."
359
Restaurant Dentist Tuner Shampoo
25 17 19 10
9 2 6 3
16 15 13 7
41.41b 240.64b 50.26b 16.21b
Hypothesis 5. It was expected that consumers with
joint membership in a subgroup of referral actors for
one good would be more likely to prefer the same brand
for other goods than would those consumers who belong
to a different or to no subgroup. Of the 107 strong ties
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activated for information flow, 81 (76 percent) belonged
to subgroups as previously defined. Following the anal-
ysis format employed by Reingen et al. (1984), contin-
gency tables were generated for the various products
and services examined, with one dimension being "in
the same subgroup/not in the same subgroup" and the
other being "same brand preference/not the same brand
preference." Chi-square tests for each product or service
were then conducted.
The results are provided in Table 2. The findings for
restaurant, dentist, tuner, and shampoo were all sig-
nificant at p < 0.001, for piano at p < 0.10. The average
raw effect (i.e., percent brand congruence for actors in
the same subgroup minus percent brand congruence
for actors not in the same subgroup) was 12.1 percent,
and the range was from seven percent for shampoo to
16 percent for dentist. Overall, these findings support
the hypothesis of greater brand congruency among
subgroup members for the products and services ex-
amined in this study.
Hypothesis 6. This hypothesis predicted that strong
ties that were activated for the flow of referral for one
good would be more likely than weak ties to be activated
for the flow for a related good. Of 31 individuals men-
tioned as sources of information for a piano tuner who
were also members of the piano teacher networks, all
were in a strong-tie relation with the receiver (x 2 = 9.08,
p < 0.01).
Homophily/Heterophily
Hypothesis 7. This hypothesis predicted that weak
ties activated for the flow of referral would be more
heterophilous than activated strong ties. Contrary to
expectation, however, there was no significant relation-
ship between strong/weak ties activated for referrals and
homophily /heterophily (x 2 = 0.10, p > 0.10).
Hypothesis 8. It was expected that the more homo-
philous the tie, the more likely it would be activated
from the set of potential sources of information. Of the
360
activated ties, 37 percent were homophilous, compared
to 22 percent of the nonactivated ties. The hypothesis
is supported (x 2 = 8.93, p < 0.01).
Hypothesis 9. According to the ninth hypothesis, it
was predicted that information provided by an activated
tie would be perceived as more influential in decision-
making as the homophily of the tie increases. To test
this hypothesis, simple regression analysis was per-
formed. Perceived influence of the source was the de-
pendent variable, and the independent variable was the
dummy-coded homophily/heterophily. Individuals who
had not engaged in decision-making about the service
provided by any of the three teachers (i.e., nonusers)
were ignored in this analysis. The hypothesis did not
receive confirmation (F = 0.64, p > 0.10).
DISCUSSION
This study demonstrates the different roles played by
weak and strong social ties in macro-level and micro-
level WOM phenomena.
Strength of Weak Ties
The special significance of weak ties was found to be
their disproportionately greater frequency to be bridges
that allowed information to travel from one distinct
subgroup composed of referral actors to another in the
broader social system. Thus, the present study extends
Granovetter's (1973; 1982) claim that weak ties create
bridges by providing empirical evidence that these
bridges are indeed activated as intergroup channels of
information. By examining the function performed by
weak ties in the transmission of referrals between
subgroups, we have demonstrated that one relational
property-strength of tie-can provide a useful expla-
nation of how dyadic interactions among consumers
aggregate to form large-scale patterns. This is potentially
important in addressing a variety of topics of interest
to scholars of consumer behavior such as the diffusion
of fashions, innovations, and rumors about products as
well as the formation of widely shared consumer atti-
tudes.
Strength of Strong Ties
Whereas weak ties were found to playa crucial role
in the flow of WOM information across groups, strong
ties were shown to be important at the micro level of
referral behavior. When both strong and weak ties were
available as sources of information, strong ties were
more likely than weak ties to be activated for the flow
of information. The greater frequency of social contact
among strong-tie individuals probably accounts for this
finding. This argument may also explain the unexpected
result that strong ties were less likely to be directly so-
licited for information than weak ties. Consistent with
THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
Belk's (1971) observations, it appears that many of the
strong-tie referral instances were induced by situational
or environmental cues when the topic of piano lessons
or teacher "somehow" arose during a conversation ini-
tiated for other reasons. The likelihood of more inci-
dental WOM communication may be enhanced as
communication frequency increases. However, an im-
plication of the present findings is that Belk's (1971)
notion of this "casual" WOM may not be generalizable
to weak ties, the vast majority of which were actively
solicited for information in the current study.
Strong ties activated for the flow of information were
also perceived by receivers as more influential than weak
ties in decision-making. Consistent with the results ob-
tained by Weimann (1983), an important implication
of this finding is that the bridging function of weak ties
is more conducive to the flow of information, whereas
strong ties are more crucial to the flow of influence.
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This may be explained by source credibility. It is likely
that a strong tie may be perceived as a more credible
source of information than a weak tie. However, since
source credibility was not assessed by the study, no de-
cisive evidence can be offered at this time.
Strong ties were not only perceived as more influen-
tial, but they were also far more numerous as sources
of information than weak ties. This is in contrast to
several previous studies (e.g., Granovetter 1974) that
found weak ties to dominate the flow of information.
The inconsistency may be explained by information
availability. In the present study, information was most
often available from strong-tie sources. Thus, there was
usually no need to activate ties beyond those available
in the consumers' own social circles.
Finally, since the vast majority of strong ties were in
groups composed of potential sources of information,
strong ties may enable an individual consumer to have
direct access to an enriched information environment.
Noteworthy in this context are the study's findings that
the overlap in personal sources of information for re-
lated services was solely accounted for by strong ties,
and that there was greater brand congruency among
subgroup members for a variety of products and ser-
vices. The latter finding is especially significant because
the subgroups in the present study were generated on
the basis of only one type of event or activity (referral
behavior involved in the selection of a service).
Homophily/Heterophily
Whereas the predictions derived from tie strength
were usually confirmed, those stemming from homo-
phily received less support. A noteworthy exception is
that tie activation was found to be positively related to
homophily. This is important because the present study
extended previous analyses by comparing the ties that
were activated against those that were not activated for
the flow of information. The other hypotheses positing
positive relationships between homophily and tie
strength as well as perceived influence did not receive
WORD-OF-MOUTH NETWORKS
confirmation, but the possibility of imprecise measure-
ment should not be ignored. As has traditionally been
the case, demographic measures were employed in the
testing of the homophily hypotheses. Future research
may benefit from incorporating into the analysis atti-
tudinal/lifestyle measures of homophily and from ex-
amining effects of degrees of homophily on WOM be-
havior.
Limitations of the Study
These findings are subject to several limitations. The
research focused on who-told-whom processes related
to one service that was not formally promoted by its
marketers. On the one hand, this setting suited well the
aims of the study and facilitated the testing of its hy-
potheses. On the other, it is unknown whether the find-
ings can be generalized to formally promoted products
and services or to other facets of informal communi-
cations such as negative WOM, feedback loops, and
information exchange behavior among consumers. Al-
though different settings will likely produce variations
in network structure (e.g., with regard to the number
and length of paths, connectedness, etc.), it is not ob-
vious why they would produce strikingly different find-
ings as they relate to the impact of relational properties
on WOM communication. The latter was the focus of
the study, as opposed to an internal analysis of more
setting-specific network features. Nevertheless, more
research is clearly needed, replicating and extending the
present analysis.
With regard to methodology, a limitation is that sev-
eral WOM paths could not be completed due to non-
response or incomplete retrieval of WOM instances
from memory. Although the study does not appear to
suffer unduly from these problems, some bias may have
entered the analysis. The study also relied on individ-
uals' verbal reports on past behavior. Cross-checks per-
formed on the data suggest a high level of confirmation
of the verbal reports. However, there was no true cri-
terion against which the reports could be compared.
Future Research Directions
Three major suggestions are made regarding future
research in addition to the ones mentioned earlier.
First, although the relational perspective that guided
the present study is promising, it alone is unlikely to
yield complete understandings of social phenomena
such as WOM. It is, therefore, suggested to complement
relational measures with attribute-based data. For ex-
ample, the traditional communication variable of
source credibility is a promising candidate for comple-
menting the relational analysis of WOM behavior.
Second, there is a strong need for combining the net-
work analysis ofWOM behavior with an analysis at the
level of the individual actor. The individual consumer
has almost exclusively been the unit of analysis in recent
consumer behavior research. Dyadic or group processes
361
are relatively underresearched (Rudd and Kohout
1983). The network approach stresses the latter, but
complementing it with an analysis at the level of the
individual consumer would enhance the present un-
derstanding of several important issues, including how
WOM interaction precipitating out of social networks
has an impact on attitude formation or change and how
consumers' decision-making behavior both affects and
is affected by properties of network structure. The re-
lationship between social structure and influence es-
pecially needs to be more broadly examined than in the
present study by including more complex measurement
of the influence construct at the individual level and
by expanding the boundary of a network to include ac-
tors in addition to those involved in referral activity.
This calls for future research with a focus on obtaining
an in-depth understanding of WOM actors' social mi-
lieux, applying tools characteristic of the "social world"
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rather than the "structural" tradition of network anal-
ysis (e.g., McCallister and Fischer 1983).
Third, an enhanced understanding of social influence
processes in consumer behavior may simply be obtained
by examining which products or services consumers are
more likely to "talk about." Consistent with the results
obtained by Reingen et al. (1984), the current study
highlights the importance of verbal communication
arising from social relationships rather than the tradi-
tional notion of conspicuousness which has been so
prominent in guiding the research on influences from
others on a consumer's attitudes and behaviors (e.g.,
Bearden and Etzel 1982). Since the consumption of
piano teaching and tuning services is probably more
"private" than "public," the extensive (likely infor-
mational or expert) influence observed in the present
investigation is probably due to factors other than con-
spicuousness.
CONCLUSIONS
In summary, the study addressed several aspects of
WOM behavior that had not been examined in previous
work. These were investigated from a relational per-
spective in a natural environment. Although the study
has limitations, the initial findings are promising.
Nevertheless, it is clear that a great deal of additional
research remains to obtain a more satisfactory under-
standing ofWOM phenomena. Especially needed is re-
search that complements relational analysis with more
traditional attribute-based approaches, relates the anal-
ysis at the level of the network to one at the individual
level, and examines the cues prompting WOM behavior.
[Received March 1986. Revised December 1986.]
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