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Money matters? Effect of reward types on customers' review behaviors

Yajun Zhang (School of Business Administration, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, China)
Yongge Niu (Marketing Department, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China)
Zhi Chen (School of Business Administration, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, China)
Xiaoyu Deng (Business School, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China)
Banggang Wu (Marketing Department, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China)
Yali Chen (Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China)

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing

ISSN: 2040-7122

Article publication date: 28 June 2023

242

Abstract

Purpose

Online retailers are pioneering the incentivization of customers to generate more product reviews by rewarding them. However, little is known about the impact of reward types on customers' review behavior, including review frequency and sentiment. To address this gap, we investigated the effects of different reward types on customers' review behavior and how these rewards influence customers' review behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

We collected secondary data and empirically tested the hypothesis by analyzing the change in reward policy. Regression and two-stage Heckman models were applied to investigate the effects, with the latter used to control potential selection issues.

Findings

The results revealed that monetary rewards can stimulate customers to generate more positive product reviews. Furthermore, the reward amount has a negative moderating effect on the aforementioned relationship. Additionally, customer tenure negatively moderates the relationship between monetary rewards and review behavior.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the understanding of user-generated content motivation and provides managerial implications for reward programs.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Yajun Zhang, Yongge Niu and Zhi Chen share the first authorship of this paper. Xiaoyu Deng and Banggang Wu share the corresponding authorship of this paper.

Funding: Yongge Niu acknowledges the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 72072122). Banggang Wu acknowledges the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 71902148). Xiaoyu Deng acknowledges the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 72102005). Zhi Chen acknowledges the support by the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project (grant 2019EGL020) and the Soft Science Research Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan (grant 22692197800).

Citation

Zhang, Y., Niu, Y., Chen, Z., Deng, X., Wu, B. and Chen, Y. (2023), "Money matters? Effect of reward types on customers' review behaviors", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-01-2023-0027

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

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