Tie Strength

What it measures

A multiple-item Likert-type scale designed to measure the closeness of the relationship between the receiver of a service (the one responding to the scale) and the party providing the service.

Response format

7-point Likert scale

Scale items

• How close, would you say, you are to __________? (1 = not close at all, 7 = very close)
• How strong, would you say, is your tie to __________? (1 = very weak, 7 = very strong)
• How familiar do you feel with __________? (1 = not familiar at all, 7 = very familiar)
• This __________ gives me special treatment. (1 = disagree, 7 = agree).

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Convergent and discriminant validity evidence was provided by the original authors.

Citation

Mittal, Vikas, John W. Huppertz, and Adwait Khare (2008), “Customer Complaining: The Role of Tie Strength and Information Control,” Journal of Retailing, 84 (2), 195-204.

Keywords