Abstract
Online social referral incentive systems help attract new customers to commercial websites by leveraging existing customers' social networks. Designing an appropriate referral incentive system allows websites to increase their customer base and enhance sales. This study integrates ultimatum game (fairness) theory with construal level theory to investigate the impacts of social distance, social norms, and monetary incentives on the performance of different designs of online social referral incentive systems. Incentivized controlled lab experiments and randomized field experiments with an online ticketing company were conducted to test hypotheses on the effects of social distance, social norms, and the split of the referral bonus (monetary incentive) between a proposer and a responder on the performance of online social referral incentive systems. Results show that with small social distance (friends), the success of a referral is determined by the social norms between friends but not by the split of the referral bonus; with a large social distance (acquaintances), the success of the referral is determined by a fair split of the bonus between acquaintances. By studying the dynamics of social networking, our research stresses the role of social elements in ecommerce when rational economic rules can be potentially harmful.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2013): Reshaping Society Through Information Systems Design |
| Pages | 3440-3458 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Volume | 4 |
| State | Published - 2013 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2013 - Milan, Italy Duration: Dec 15 2013 → Dec 18 2013 |
Other
| Other | International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2013 |
|---|---|
| Country | Italy |
| City | Milan |
| Period | 12/15/13 → 12/18/13 |
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Keywords
- Construal level theory
- Electronic commerce
- Incentive design
- Online social referral incentive systems
- Social commerce
- Social distance
- Social norms
- Ultimatum game
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science Applications
- Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
- Applied Mathematics
- Library and Information Sciences
Cite this
Social commerce beyond word of mouth : Role of social distance and social norms in online referral incentive systems. / Shi, Nan; Hong, Yili; Wang, Kanliang; Pavlou, Paul A.
International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2013): Reshaping Society Through Information Systems Design. Vol. 4 2013. p. 3440-3458.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
}
TY - GEN
T1 - Social commerce beyond word of mouth
T2 - Role of social distance and social norms in online referral incentive systems
AU - Shi, Nan
AU - Hong, Yili
AU - Wang, Kanliang
AU - Pavlou, Paul A.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Online social referral incentive systems help attract new customers to commercial websites by leveraging existing customers' social networks. Designing an appropriate referral incentive system allows websites to increase their customer base and enhance sales. This study integrates ultimatum game (fairness) theory with construal level theory to investigate the impacts of social distance, social norms, and monetary incentives on the performance of different designs of online social referral incentive systems. Incentivized controlled lab experiments and randomized field experiments with an online ticketing company were conducted to test hypotheses on the effects of social distance, social norms, and the split of the referral bonus (monetary incentive) between a proposer and a responder on the performance of online social referral incentive systems. Results show that with small social distance (friends), the success of a referral is determined by the social norms between friends but not by the split of the referral bonus; with a large social distance (acquaintances), the success of the referral is determined by a fair split of the bonus between acquaintances. By studying the dynamics of social networking, our research stresses the role of social elements in ecommerce when rational economic rules can be potentially harmful.
AB - Online social referral incentive systems help attract new customers to commercial websites by leveraging existing customers' social networks. Designing an appropriate referral incentive system allows websites to increase their customer base and enhance sales. This study integrates ultimatum game (fairness) theory with construal level theory to investigate the impacts of social distance, social norms, and monetary incentives on the performance of different designs of online social referral incentive systems. Incentivized controlled lab experiments and randomized field experiments with an online ticketing company were conducted to test hypotheses on the effects of social distance, social norms, and the split of the referral bonus (monetary incentive) between a proposer and a responder on the performance of online social referral incentive systems. Results show that with small social distance (friends), the success of a referral is determined by the social norms between friends but not by the split of the referral bonus; with a large social distance (acquaintances), the success of the referral is determined by a fair split of the bonus between acquaintances. By studying the dynamics of social networking, our research stresses the role of social elements in ecommerce when rational economic rules can be potentially harmful.
KW - Construal level theory
KW - Electronic commerce
KW - Incentive design
KW - Online social referral incentive systems
KW - Social commerce
KW - Social distance
KW - Social norms
KW - Ultimatum game
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84897783377&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84897783377&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84897783377
SN - 9781629934266
VL - 4
SP - 3440
EP - 3458
BT - International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2013): Reshaping Society Through Information Systems Design
ER -