![\"\"](\"http:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/seminars\/files\/2019\/09\/ViswanathanSiva.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSiva Viswanathan<\/a><\/h2>\nDean’s Professor of Information Systems and Digital Innovation & Co-Director of DIGITS
\nUniversity of Maryland
\nRobert H. Smith School of Business<\/p>\n
Friday, September 13<\/strong><\/h2>\n10:30 \u2013 12:00 pm | Speakman 200<\/strong><\/h2>\nAbstact:<\/strong><\/p>\nDespite the increasing connectivity between customers and the large volume of social shares supported by digital technologies, there is an absence of research systematically investigating how firms can design the promotional incentives that jointly consider their customers as both purchaser and sharer. In this study, we examine whether and how firms can take advantage of customers\u2019 social connections and sharing motives to design novel incentives to engage customers in this social sharing era. In collaboration with a leading online deal platform, we conduct a large-scale randomized field experiment and two lab experiments to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varied by shareability and scarcity of promotion codes) in driving social sharing senders\u2019 purchase and referrals. We find that different incentive designs have distinct impacts on senders\u2019 purchases and further successful referrals. Specifically, providing senders with one non-shareable promo code significantly increases their purchase likelihood, but does not influence their referrals. In contrast, the senders who receive one shareable code are less likely to purchase themselves yet are more likely to make successful referrals. Surprisingly, the incentive design with two codes that has one non-shareable code and one shareable code increases neither the senders\u2019 purchase nor their successful referrals. Very interestingly, we estimate that the one non-shareable promo code group derives the highest net revenue for the current experiment period, whereas the one shareable promo code group will derive the highest lifetime value from the new customers the incentive lures in. We further conduct two lab experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk that replicate the field experiment\u2019s findings and explore the underlying mechanisms of the observed relationships. We find that the exclusivity perception and social motives triggered by one promo code incentive designs mediate and explain their effect on sender\u2019s purchase and successful referrals, respectively. 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.<\/p>\n
\nUniversity of Maryland
\nRobert H. Smith School of Business<\/p>\n
10:30 \u2013 12:00 pm | Speakman 200<\/strong><\/h2>\nAbstact:<\/strong><\/p>\nDespite the increasing connectivity between customers and the large volume of social shares supported by digital technologies, there is an absence of research systematically investigating how firms can design the promotional incentives that jointly consider their customers as both purchaser and sharer. In this study, we examine whether and how firms can take advantage of customers\u2019 social connections and sharing motives to design novel incentives to engage customers in this social sharing era. In collaboration with a leading online deal platform, we conduct a large-scale randomized field experiment and two lab experiments to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varied by shareability and scarcity of promotion codes) in driving social sharing senders\u2019 purchase and referrals. We find that different incentive designs have distinct impacts on senders\u2019 purchases and further successful referrals. Specifically, providing senders with one non-shareable promo code significantly increases their purchase likelihood, but does not influence their referrals. In contrast, the senders who receive one shareable code are less likely to purchase themselves yet are more likely to make successful referrals. Surprisingly, the incentive design with two codes that has one non-shareable code and one shareable code increases neither the senders\u2019 purchase nor their successful referrals. Very interestingly, we estimate that the one non-shareable promo code group derives the highest net revenue for the current experiment period, whereas the one shareable promo code group will derive the highest lifetime value from the new customers the incentive lures in. We further conduct two lab experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk that replicate the field experiment\u2019s findings and explore the underlying mechanisms of the observed relationships. We find that the exclusivity perception and social motives triggered by one promo code incentive designs mediate and explain their effect on sender\u2019s purchase and successful referrals, respectively. 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.<\/p>\n
Despite the increasing connectivity between customers and the large volume of social shares supported by digital technologies, there is an absence of research systematically investigating how firms can design the promotional incentives that jointly consider their customers as both purchaser and sharer. In this study, we examine whether and how firms can take advantage of customers\u2019 social connections and sharing motives to design novel incentives to engage customers in this social sharing era. In collaboration with a leading online deal platform, we conduct a large-scale randomized field experiment and two lab experiments to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varied by shareability and scarcity of promotion codes) in driving social sharing senders\u2019 purchase and referrals. We find that different incentive designs have distinct impacts on senders\u2019 purchases and further successful referrals. Specifically, providing senders with one non-shareable promo code significantly increases their purchase likelihood, but does not influence their referrals. In contrast, the senders who receive one shareable code are less likely to purchase themselves yet are more likely to make successful referrals. Surprisingly, the incentive design with two codes that has one non-shareable code and one shareable code increases neither the senders\u2019 purchase nor their successful referrals. Very interestingly, we estimate that the one non-shareable promo code group derives the highest net revenue for the current experiment period, whereas the one shareable promo code group will derive the highest lifetime value from the new customers the incentive lures in. We further conduct two lab experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk that replicate the field experiment\u2019s findings and explore the underlying mechanisms of the observed relationships. We find that the exclusivity perception and social motives triggered by one promo code incentive designs mediate and explain their effect on sender\u2019s purchase and successful referrals, respectively. 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.<\/p>\n