Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine how enterprises use referral reward programs to acquire new customers effectively. We adopt two experimental designs and establish four hypotheses based on how referral reward subject category and reward type affect the likelihood of customer response. The results show that low-involvement products should reward recipients or offer financial rewards to increase intent to purchase. Customers perceive fairness of distributive justice as the underlying mechanism for the influence that reward recipient category and product involvement have on intent to purchase. Finally, implications and limitations for future research are discussed.
Keywords: involvement, perceived fairness, purchase intention, referral reward programs, word-of-mouth
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