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Providing health checks as incentives to retain blood donors — Evidence from two field experiments

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  • Leipnitz, Sigrun
  • de Vries, Martha
  • Clement, Michel
  • Mazar, Nina

Abstract

The collection of blood given by donors has proven to be a substantial societal and a managerial challenge. Consequently, blood donation services seek for incentive mechanisms to retain donors. However, economic or material rewards might entail negative side effects such as motivational crowding out or even attracting “bad blood”. In an effort to increase the retention of established blood donors, we conducted two randomized field trials (N1 = 53,257, N2 = 31,522) in cooperation with the German Red Cross Blood Donation Service and tested the effectiveness of an incentive strategy that is directly related to the blood donation itself: offering a comprehensive blood health check. Contrary to previous related research, we found substantial positive effects of a comprehensive blood health check incentive on donation behavior. In addition, unlike previous studies, we examine effects of repeated exposure to this incentive and do not find any wearout effects. Considering the positive effect of this incentive on donor retention and the relative low cost for providing this service to donors, our findings suggest that offering comprehensive blood health check incentives is a viable and cost-efficient marketing strategy to increase the retention among previous donors even if offered over the longer run.

Suggested Citation

  • Leipnitz, Sigrun & de Vries, Martha & Clement, Michel & Mazar, Nina, 2018. "Providing health checks as incentives to retain blood donors — Evidence from two field experiments," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 628-640.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:35:y:2018:i:4:p:628-640
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2018.08.004
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    Cited by:

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    3. Christian Kauten & Ashish Gupta & Xiao Qin & Glenn Richey, 2022. "Predicting Blood Donors Using Machine Learning Techniques," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 1547-1562, October.
    4. Robaina-Calderín, Lorena & Martín-Santana, Josefa D. & Melián-Alzola, Lucía, 2023. "Prosocial customer in the public sector: A PLS-SEM analysis applied to blood donation (active donors)," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Alex Belli & Anne-Maree O’Rourke & François A. Carrillat & Ljubomir Pupovac & Valentyna Melnyk & Ekaterina Napolova, 2022. "40 years of loyalty programs: how effective are they? Generalizations from a meta-analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 147-173, January.

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