Paper ID
3401
Paper Type
full
Description
Despite the increasing connectivity between customers enabled by digital technologies, there is an absence of research investigating how firms should redesign the promotion incentives to engage customers as both ‘purchaser’ and ‘sharer’ in this social media era. In this study, we conduct a large-scale field experiment and two lab experiments to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varied by shareability and quantity of promo codes) in driving social sharing senders’ purchase and referrals. Providing senders with one non-shareable code significantly increases their purchase likelihood. In comparison, the senders who receive one shareable code are less likely to purchase themselves, but are much more likely to make successful referrals. We further conduct two lab experiments, which replicate the field experiment findings and explore the underlying mechanisms. We find that the exclusivity perception and social motive triggered by various incentive designs mediate and explain their effect on sender’s purchase and referrals. Our study extends prior IS literature on social sharing that has focused on sharing information to the domain of sharing incentives, providing implications to firms on how to design promotional incentive that accommodates the dual role of customers as purchasers and sharers and sheds light on the motives underlying social sharing.
Recommended Citation
Sun, Tianshu; Viswanathan, Siva; Huang, Nina; and Zheleva, Elena, "Designing Promotion Incentive to Embrace Social Sharing: Evidence from Field and Lab Experiments" (2019). ICIS 2019 Proceedings. 35.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2019/crowds_social/crowds_social/35
Designing Promotion Incentive to Embrace Social Sharing: Evidence from Field and Lab Experiments
Despite the increasing connectivity between customers enabled by digital technologies, there is an absence of research investigating how firms should redesign the promotion incentives to engage customers as both ‘purchaser’ and ‘sharer’ in this social media era. In this study, we conduct a large-scale field experiment and two lab experiments to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varied by shareability and quantity of promo codes) in driving social sharing senders’ purchase and referrals. Providing senders with one non-shareable code significantly increases their purchase likelihood. In comparison, the senders who receive one shareable code are less likely to purchase themselves, but are much more likely to make successful referrals. We further conduct two lab experiments, which replicate the field experiment findings and explore the underlying mechanisms. We find that the exclusivity perception and social motive triggered by various incentive designs mediate and explain their effect on sender’s purchase and referrals. Our study extends prior IS literature on social sharing that has focused on sharing information to the domain of sharing incentives, providing implications to firms on how to design promotional incentive that accommodates the dual role of customers as purchasers and sharers and sheds light on the motives underlying social sharing.