Mobile Messaging for Offline Group Formation in Prosocial Activities: A Large Field Experiment

Tianshu Sun (), Guodong (Gordon) Gao () and Ginger Zhe Jin ()
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Tianshu Sun: Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089
Guodong (Gordon) Gao: R. H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
Ginger Zhe Jin: Department of Economics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742; and National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Management Science, 2019, vol. 67, issue 6, 2717-2736

Abstract: In this paper, we use mobile messaging to leverage recipients’ social ties and encourage offline prosocial activities in groups. In particular, we conduct a randomized field experiment with 80,000 blood donors and study how behavioral interventions and economic rewards motivate offline group formation. We find that two commonly used interventions—reminder messages and individual reward—are ineffective in motivating group formation because they do not compensate donors for the cost of bringing friends. In contrast, we find that group reward—a new reward that is contingent on a donor bringing a friend—is effective in motivating group formation. Furthermore, group reward tends to attract different types of donors, especially those who are traditionally less active in online social settings but have more local social ties. Structural estimation further reveals the underlying mechanisms, suggesting that group reward is four times more cost-effective than individual reward in driving total donation. Our study suggests that motivating offline group formation is a promising approach to boost prosocial activities. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2018.3069 . This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems.

Keywords: mobile messaging; field experiment; group formation; structural modeling; social interactions; incentive design; prosocial behavior; blood donation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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