Abstract:

Referral reward program (RRP) is becoming a powerful weapon of acquiring new customers and retaining old customers. However, the lack of research on RRP, especially with respect to the influences of RRP on consumer referral behavior, is contrary to the practices. Building upon work from marketing, psychology of motivation, psychology of emotion, and behavioral economics, a influencing mechanism model of RRP on referral behavior from the perspective of conflicts between social norm and market norm is presented. The study will be organized as follows. First, the effects of incentive schemes and social norm on the consumers’ referral motivations will be explored. Second, the mediating role of emotion between the congruence of motivations and referral behavior will be investigated. Third, the moderating effects of causality orientation, self-awareness, and cultural values on the above relationships will be clarified. Following this line of reasoning, findings from these studies will provide important theoretical and practical implications.

Key words: referral reward program (RRP), social norm, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, emotion