Who is more likely to initiate referrals? Effect of consumer's regulatory focus on referral intention

Huijie Jin, Shouwang Lu and Kanliang Wang

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2024, vol. 77, issue C

Abstract: Under the context of the online referral reward program (ORRP), this research explores the effect of consumers’ regulatory focus (promotion-focused vs. prevention-focused) on their referral intention and explores its mechanism and boundary condition. The results of four experiments show that compared to prevention-focused consumers, promotion-focused consumers have higher self-efficacy to complete the referral task; and thus, have higher referral intention. This effect will be attenuated when the social distance between inviters and invitees is small. The findings contribute to the research on ORRP and regulatory focus and provide guidance for firms to optimize ORRPs.

Keywords: Referral reward program; Regulatory focus; Referral intention; Self-efficacy; Social distance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:77:y:2024:i:c:s0969698923004010

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103650

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