IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orisre/v31y2020i3p835-847.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When Loyalty Goes Mobile: Effects of Mobile Loyalty Apps on Purchase, Redemption, and Competition

Author

Listed:
  • Yoonseock Son

    (Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, Indiana 46556)

  • Wonseok Oh

    (College of Business, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 02455, South Korea)

  • Sang Pil Han

    (W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85281;)

  • Sungho Park

    (SNU Business School, Seoul National University, Seoul 08825, South Korea)

Abstract

Avenues for the delivery of loyalty programs have rapidly shifted from plastic card schemes to mobile app–based initiatives, yet our understanding of the economic value presented by the latter (i.e., loyalty apps) has not kept pace with this development. We examine the effects of loyalty app adoption on customers’ offline purchase patterns, reward redemption, and deal-prone behaviors as well as store-level competition in a multivendor loyalty program (MVLP) context, where multiple offline brands collaborate in the operation of point-sharing initiatives. Mobile-driven loyalty apps substantially lower consumer search costs, thereby enhancing on-demand information accessibility and facilitating the monitoring of reward points. Based on a unique data set that comprises information on customers’ loyalty app adoption status, loyalty point redemption patterns, and purchase behaviors in MVLP environments, we investigate how the transition from plastic-based programs to loyalty apps influences the out-of-pocket spending and point redemption patterns of consumers. Our findings reveal that the adoption of loyalty apps is associated with an increase in purchases and the predilection for point redemption. Despite these positive outcomes, however, potential adverse consequences may arise in the form of deal-susceptible behaviors and reduced store-specific loyalty. Loyalty app adopters tend to be more vulnerable to deals, with these customers selectively buying highly discounted products of low margin. Additionally, loyalty app consumers visit more stores but spend less in a focal store, thereby diminishing loyalty to this specific store. These results have managerial implications on optimal mobile-based loyalty program designs and implementation, reward-driven platform strategies, and risk management initiatives in an MVLP setting.

Suggested Citation

  • Yoonseock Son & Wonseok Oh & Sang Pil Han & Sungho Park, 2020. "When Loyalty Goes Mobile: Effects of Mobile Loyalty Apps on Purchase, Redemption, and Competition," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 835-847, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:31:y:2020:i:3:p:835-847
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2019.0918
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2019.0918
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/isre.2019.0918?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anindya Ghose & Avi Goldfarb & Sang Pil Han, 2013. "How Is the Mobile Internet Different? Search Costs and Local Activities," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 613-631, September.
    2. Jiwoong Shin & K. Sudhir & Dae-Hee Yoon, 2012. "When to "Fire" Customers: Customer Cost-Based Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(5), pages 932-947, May.
    3. Thomas Blake & Chris Nosko & Steven Tadelis, 2015. "Consumer Heterogeneity and Paid Search Effectiveness: A Large‐Scale Field Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 155-174, January.
    4. Richard H. Thaler, 2008. "Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 15-25, 01-02.
    5. Bellman, Steven & Potter, Robert F. & Treleaven-Hassard, Shiree & Robinson, Jennifer A. & Varan, Duane, 2011. "The Effectiveness of Branded Mobile Phone Apps," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 191-200.
    6. Nelson Granados & Alok Gupta & Robert J. Kauffman, 2012. "Online and Offline Demand and Price Elasticities: Evidence from the Air Travel Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 164-181, March.
    7. Schumann, Jan H. & Wünderlich, Nancy V. & Evanschitzky, Heiner, 2014. "Spillover Effects of Service Failures in Coalition Loyalty Programs: The Buffering Effect of Special Treatment Benefits," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 111-118.
    8. Dorotic, Matilda & Verhoef, Peter C. & Fok, Dennis & Bijmolt, Tammo H.A., 2014. "Reward redemption effects in a loyalty program when customers choose how much and when to redeem," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 339-355.
    9. Zheng Fang & Bin Gu & Xueming Luo & Yunjie Xu, 2015. "Contemporaneous and Delayed Sales Impact of Location-Based Mobile Promotions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 552-564, September.
    10. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    11. Rishika Rishika & Ashish Kumar & Ramkumar Janakiraman & Ram Bezawada, 2013. "The Effect of Customers' Social Media Participation on Customer Visit Frequency and Profitability: An Empirical Investigation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 108-127, March.
    12. Punj, Girish N & Staelin, Richard, 1983. "A Model of Consumer Information Search Behavior for New Automobiles," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 9(4), pages 366-380, March.
    13. Talukdar, Debabrata & Gauri, Dinesh K. & Grewal, Dhruv, 2010. "An Empirical Analysis of the Extreme Cherry Picking Behavior of Consumers in the Frequently Purchased Goods Market," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(4), pages 336-354.
    14. Sam Ransbotham & Nicholas H. Lurie & Hongju Liu, 2019. "Creation and Consumption of Mobile Word of Mouth: How Are Mobile Reviews Different?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(5), pages 773-792, September.
    15. Brad N. Greenwood & Ritu Agarwal, 2016. "Matching Platforms and HIV Incidence: An Empirical Investigation of Race, Gender, and Socioeconomic Status," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(8), pages 2281-2303, August.
    16. Tammo H. A. Bijmolt & Peter C. Verhoef, 2017. "Loyalty Programs: Current Insights, Research Challenges, and Emerging Trends," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Berend Wierenga & Ralf van der Lans (ed.), Handbook of Marketing Decision Models, edition 2, chapter 0, pages 143-165, Springer.
    17. Kim, Su Jung & Wang, Rebecca Jen-Hui & Malthouse, Edward C., 2015. "The Effects of Adopting and Using a Brand's Mobile Application on Customers' Subsequent Purchase Behavior," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 28-41.
    18. Els Breugelmans & Tammo Bijmolt & Jie Zhang & Leonardo Basso & Matilda Dorotic & Praveen Kopalle & Alec Minnema & Willem Mijnlieff & Nancy Wünderlich, 2015. "Advancing research on loyalty programs: a future research agenda," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 127-139, June.
    19. Ran Kivetz & Oleg Urminsky & Yuhuang Zheng, 2006. "The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected: Purchase Acceleration, Illusionary Goal Progress, and Customer Retention," Natural Field Experiments 00658, The Field Experiments Website.
    20. Steven M. Shugan, 2005. "Brand Loyalty Programs: Are They Shams?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 185-193.
    21. Roland T. Rust & Ming-Hui Huang, 2014. "The Service Revolution and the Transformation of Marketing Science," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 206-221, March.
    22. Netemeyer, Richard G. & Heilman, Carrie M. & Maxham, James G., 2012. "The Impact of a New Retail Brand In-Store Boutique and its Perceived Fit with the Parent Retail Brand on Store Performance and Customer Spending," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(4), pages 462-475.
    23. J. Yannis Bakos, 1997. "Reducing Buyer Search Costs: Implications for Electronic Marketplaces," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(12), pages 1676-1692, December.
    24. Soumya Ray & Sung S. Kim & James G. Morris, 2012. "Research Note ---Online Users' Switching Costs: Their Nature and Formation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 197-213, March.
    25. Vijay Viswanathan & Linda D. Hollebeek & Edward C. Malthouse & Ewa Maslowska & Su Jung Kim & Wei Xie, 2017. "The Dynamics of Consumer Engagement with Mobile Technologies," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(1), pages 36-49, March.
    26. Zhen Sun & Milind Dawande & Ganesh Janakiraman & Vijay Mookerjee, 2017. "Not Just a Fad: Optimal Sequencing in Mobile In-App Advertising," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 511-528, September.
    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. Ni Huang & Probal Mojumder & Tianshu Sun & Jinchi Lv & Joseph M. Golden, 2021. "Not Registered? Please Sign Up First: A Randomized Field Experiment on the Ex Ante Registration Request," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 914-931, September.
    2. Anindya Ghose & Heeseung Andrew Lee & Wonseok Oh & Yoonseock Son, 2024. "Leveraging the Digital Tracing Alert in Virus Fight: The Impact of COVID-19 Cell Broadcast on Population Movement," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 570-589, June.
    3. Yuqian Xu & Anindya Ghose & Binqing Xiao, 2024. "Mobile Payment Adoption: An Empirical Investigation of Alipay," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 807-828, June.

    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. Bies, Suzanne M.T.A. & Bronnenberg, Bart J. & Gijsbrechts, Els, 2021. "How push messaging impacts consumer spending and reward redemption in store-loyalty programs," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 877-899.
    2. Bies, Suzanne, 2022. "Examining the effectiveness of activation techniques on consumer behavior in temporary loyalty programs," Other publications TiSEM ade86df3-4846-4318-938f-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Gabel, Sebastian & Guhl, Daniel, 2022. "Comparing the effectiveness of rewards and individually targeted coupons in loyalty programs," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 395-411.
    4. Bombaij, Nick, 2021. "Effectiveness of loyalty programs," Other publications TiSEM 095c506d-5b5c-4ea3-9b41-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Chen, Yanyan & Mandler, Timo & Meyer-Waarden, Lars, 2021. "Three decades of research on loyalty programs: A literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 179-197.
    6. Matilda Dorotic & Dennis Fok & Peter C. Verhoef & Tammo H. A. Bijmolt, 2021. "Synergistic and cannibalization effects in a partnership loyalty program," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 1021-1042, September.
    7. Bazargan, Amirhossein & Karray, Salma & Zolfaghari, Saeed, 2017. "Modeling reward expiry for loyalty programs in a competitive market," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 352-364.
    8. Danaher, Peter J. & Sajtos, Laszlo & Danaher, Tracey S., 2020. "Tactical use of rewards to enhance loyalty program effectiveness," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 505-520.
    9. Alina Nastasoiu & Neil T. Bendle & Charan K. Bagga & Mark Vandenbosch & Salvador Navarro, 2021. "Separating customer heterogeneity, points pressure and rewarded behavior to assess a retail loyalty program," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1132-1150, November.
    10. Afonso Vieira, Valter & Agnihotri, Raj & de Almeida, Marcos Inácio Severo & Lopes, Evandro Luiz, 2022. "How cashback strategies yield financial benefits for retailers: The mediating role of consumers’ program loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 200-212.
    11. Amirhossein Bazargan & Salma Karray & Saeed Zolfaghari, 2021. "Can restrictions on redemption timing boost profitability of loyalty programs in competitive environments?," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 99-124, January.
    12. Bombaij, Nick J.F. & Dekimpe, Marnik G., 2020. "When do loyalty programs work? The moderating role of design, retailer-strategy, and country characteristics," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 175-195.
    13. Brent Kitchens & Anuj Kumar & Praveen Pathak, 2018. "Electronic Markets and Geographic Competition Among Small, Local Firms," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 928-946, December.
    14. Li, Chen & Swaminathan, Srinivasan & Kim, Junhee, 2021. "The role of marketing channels in consumers’ promotional point redemption decisions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 314-323.
    15. McLean, Graeme & Osei-Frimpong, Kofi & Al-Nabhani, Khalid & Marriott, Hannah, 2020. "Examining consumer attitudes towards retailers' m-commerce mobile applications – An initial adoption vs. continuous use perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 139-157.
    16. Reinartz, Werner & Wiegand, Nico & Imschloss, Monika, 2019. "The impact of digital transformation on the retailing value chain," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 350-366.
    17. Lara Stocchi & Naser Pourazad & Nina Michaelidou & Arry Tanusondjaja & Paul Harrigan, 2022. "Marketing research on Mobile apps: past, present and future," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 195-225, March.
    18. Minnema, Alec & Bijmolt, Tammo H.A. & Non, Mariёlle C., 2017. "The impact of instant reward programs and bonus premiums on consumer purchase behavior," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 194-211.
    19. Luis Aguiar Wicht, 2019. "Going Mobile: The Effects of Smartphone Usage on Internet Consumption," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2019-07, Joint Research Centre.
    20. Unnati Narang & Venkatesh Shankar, 2019. "Mobile App Introduction and Online and Offline Purchases and Product Returns," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(5), pages 756-772, September.

    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:inm:orisre:v:31:y:2020:i:3:p:835-847. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.