TY - JOUR
T1 - Social influence in the adoption of a B2B loyalty program
T2 - The role of elite status members
AU - Viswanathan, Vijay
AU - Sese, F. Javier
AU - Krafft, Manfred
N1 - Funding Information:
We are thankful for the data provided by a Fortune Global 200 firm. Similarly, we are grateful for input and comments by Kalyan Raman (Medill) on earlier versions of this paper, and to Lauren Kaufman who diligently helped us with the spatial plots. We are also thankful for feedback from participants at the 2014 EMAC conference in Valencia, and from colleagues at Massey University and The University of Auckland, New Zealand. Finally, F. Javier Sese appreciates financial support from the projects ECO2014-54760 ( MINECO , FEDER ), and S09-PM062 ( Gobierno de Aragon and Fondo Social Europeo ). All authors contributed equally, and their names appear in reverse alphabetical order.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Authors
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - This study investigates the role of elite loyalty program members in influencing other customers to adopt a hierarchical loyalty program (or HLP) in a business market. Drawing from the social psychology literature, the theoretical framework proposes that elite status members exert a disproportionate positive influence on neighboring non-members to adopt the HLP, and that this social influence has an inverse U-shaped effect. A unique dataset from a B2B loyalty program of a firm in the agribusiness industry with detailed information on members and marketing efforts from 1378 zip codes in Germany from 2008 to 2012 is used for the analysis. The study finds that, compared to members in lower status, elite status members have a stronger social influence on non-members. Importantly, as the proportion of elite status members increases, the adoption probability of non-members increases. However, as the fraction of elite status members increases beyond a certain point, the adoption probability of non-members decreases. Overall, the results of this study advances our understanding of loyalty programs in B2B markets, particularly with regard to the drivers of loyalty program adoption and the role played by social influence in driving new member enrollment.
AB - This study investigates the role of elite loyalty program members in influencing other customers to adopt a hierarchical loyalty program (or HLP) in a business market. Drawing from the social psychology literature, the theoretical framework proposes that elite status members exert a disproportionate positive influence on neighboring non-members to adopt the HLP, and that this social influence has an inverse U-shaped effect. A unique dataset from a B2B loyalty program of a firm in the agribusiness industry with detailed information on members and marketing efforts from 1378 zip codes in Germany from 2008 to 2012 is used for the analysis. The study finds that, compared to members in lower status, elite status members have a stronger social influence on non-members. Importantly, as the proportion of elite status members increases, the adoption probability of non-members increases. However, as the fraction of elite status members increases beyond a certain point, the adoption probability of non-members decreases. Overall, the results of this study advances our understanding of loyalty programs in B2B markets, particularly with regard to the drivers of loyalty program adoption and the role played by social influence in driving new member enrollment.
KW - Business-to-Business (B2B)
KW - Customer relationship management
KW - Elite status members
KW - Hierarchical loyalty program (HLP)
KW - Social influence
KW - Survival models
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2017.08.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2017.08.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028368651
VL - 34
SP - 901
EP - 918
JO - International Journal of Research in Marketing
JF - International Journal of Research in Marketing
SN - 0167-8116
IS - 4
ER -