IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eurman/v30y2012i1p74-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving referral management by quantifying market mavens’ word of mouth value

Author

Listed:
  • Walsh, Gianfranco
  • Elsner, Ralf

Abstract

Market mavens reportedly play important roles in the purchase decisions of other consumers, but this assumption has never been tested empirically. Prior research has profiled mavens and explored their motivations, without ever considering actual referral behaviour. This investigation applies equity theory to the question of referral behaviour; it also represents the first empirical research into the referral value and customer lifetime value of market mavens. A large-scale survey of 2700 customers enables the authors to identify mavens and non-mavens and determine how they differ in terms of their referral value. The results indicate that market mavens, compared with non-mavens, engage in stronger referral behaviour that leads to more new customers and revenue for the firm. Theoretically the findings offer a better understanding of referral behaviour; managerially, they can help firms amplify their new customer acquisition efforts by indicating which customer groups they should target with referral reward programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Walsh, Gianfranco & Elsner, Ralf, 2012. "Improving referral management by quantifying market mavens’ word of mouth value," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 74-81.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:30:y:2012:i:1:p:74-81
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2011.04.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237311000259
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.emj.2011.04.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura J. Kornish & Qiuping Li, 2010. "Optimal Referral Bonuses with Asymmetric Information: Firm-Offered and Interpersonal Incentives," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 108-121, 01-02.
    2. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin, 2009. "Firm-Created Word-of-Mouth Communication: Evidence from a Field Test," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 721-739, 07-08.
    3. Niraj Dawar & Phillip M Parker & Lydia J Price, 1996. "A Cross-Cultural Study of Interpersonal Information Exchange," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(3), pages 497-516, September.
    4. Armstrong, J. Scott & Overton, Terry S., 1977. "Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys," MPRA Paper 81694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Belch, Michael A. & Krentler, Kathleen A. & Willis-Flurry, Laura A., 2005. "Teen internet mavens: influence in family decision making," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(5), pages 569-575, May.
    6. Eyal Biyalogorsky & Eitan Gerstner & Barak Libai, 2001. "Customer Referral Management: Optimal Reward Programs," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 82-95, August.
    7. Bayón, Tomás & Gutsche, Jens & Bauer, Hans, 2002. "Customer Equity Marketing:: Touching the Intangible," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 213-222, June.
    8. McAlister, Leigh & Pessemier, Edgar, 1982. "Variety Seeking Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Review," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 9(3), pages 311-322, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jin, Huijie & Lu, Shouwang & Wang, Kanliang, 2024. "Who is more likely to initiate referrals? Effect of consumer's regulatory focus on referral intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Berman, Barry, 2016. "Referral marketing: Harnessing the power of your customers," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 19-28.
    3. Bachmann, Frank & Walsh, Gianfranco & Hammes, Eva K., 2019. "Consumer perceptions of luxury brands: An owner-based perspective," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 287-298.
    4. Bing Yuan & Alessandro M. Peluso, 2021. "The Influence of Word-Of-Mouth Referral on Consumers’ Purchase Intention: Experimental Evidence from WeChat," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-18, January.
    5. Nguyen-Phuoc, Duy Quy & Vo, Nguyen S. & Su, Diep Ngoc & Nguyen, Vinh Hoang & Oviedo-Trespalacios, Oscar, 2021. "What makes passengers continue using and talking positively about ride-hailing services? The role of the booking app and post-booking service quality," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 367-384.
    6. Cheah, Isaac & Shimul, Anwar Sadat, 2018. "Consumer ethnocentrism, market mavenism and social network analysis," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 281-288.
    7. Barnes, Stuart J. & Pressey, Andrew D., 2016. "Cyber-mavens and online flow experiences: Evidence from virtual worlds," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 285-296.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Inyoung Chae & Andrew T. Stephen & Yakov Bart & Dai Yao, 2017. "Spillover Effects in Seeded Word-of-Mouth Marketing Campaigns," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(1), pages 89-104, January.
    2. Yuichiro Kamada & Aniko Öry, 2020. "Contracting with Word-of-Mouth Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(11), pages 5094-5107, November.
    3. Vijay Viswanathan & Sebastian Tillmanns & Manfred Krafft & Daniel Asselmann, 2018. "Understanding the quality–quantity conundrum of customer referral programs: effects of contribution margin, extraversion, and opinion leadership," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(6), pages 1108-1132, November.
    4. Jin, Liyin & Huang, Yunhui, 2014. "When giving money does not work: The differential effects of monetary versus in-kind rewards in referral reward programs," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 107-116.
    5. Rodrigo Belo & Ting Li, 2022. "Social Referral Programs for Freemium Platforms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(12), pages 8933-8962, December.
    6. Ariel BenYishay & A. Mushfiq Mobarak, 2014. "Social Learning and Communication," NBER Working Papers 20139, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Meyners, Jannik & Barrot, Christian & Becker, Jan U. & Bodapati, Anand V., 2017. "Reward-scrounging in customer referral programs," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 382-398.
    8. Williams, Martin & Buttle, Francis, 2011. "The Eight Pillars of WOM management: Lessons from a multiple case study," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 85-92.
    9. Xiao, Ping & Tang, Christopher S. & Wirtz, Jochen, 2011. "Optimizing referral reward programs under impression management considerations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(3), pages 730-739, December.
    10. BenYishay, Ariel & Mobarak, A. Mushfiq, 2013. "Communicating with Farmers through Social Networks," Center Discussion Papers 156233, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    11. Dan Zhou & Zhong Yao, 2015. "Optimal Referral Reward Considering Customer’s Budget Constraint," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-14, December.
    12. repec:dgr:rugsom:10008 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Atabek Atayev & Maarten Janssen, 2021. "Information Acquisition and Diffusion in Markets," Papers 2109.15288, arXiv.org.
    14. Wang, Ruibing & Wang, Qiao & Chiang, Wei-yu Kevin, 2024. "Optimal promotional mix and pricing when faced with uncertain product value," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 313(2), pages 637-651.
    15. Bathaee, Atieh, 2011. "Culture affects consumer behavior: Theoretical reflections and an illustrative example with Germany and Iran," Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Diskussionspapiere 02/2011, University of Greifswald, Faculty of Law and Economics.
    16. Bijmolt, T.H.A. & Bl, 2010. "Should they stay or should they go? Reactivation and termination of low-tier customers," Research Report 10008, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    17. Laura J. Kornish & Qiuping Li, 2010. "Optimal Referral Bonuses with Asymmetric Information: Firm-Offered and Interpersonal Incentives," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 108-121, 01-02.
    18. Lili Wang & Zoey Chen, 2022. "The effect of incentive structure on referral: the determining role of self-construal," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 1091-1110, September.
    19. Elias Carroni & Simone Righi, 2015. "Pricing in Social Networks under Limited Information," Working Papers 1503, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    20. Upender Subramanian & Ram C. Rao, 2016. "Leveraging Experienced Consumers to Attract New Consumers: An Equilibrium Analysis of Displaying Deal Sales by Daily Deal Websites," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(12), pages 3555-3575, December.
    21. Stephen, Andrew T. & Lehmann, Donald R., 2016. "How word-of-mouth transmission encouragement affects consumers' transmission decisions, receiver selection, and diffusion speed," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 755-766.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:30:y:2012:i:1:p:74-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.