On the effectiveness of gifts to initiate business relations in the circular economy

Kathrin Friedrich and Andrea Essl

Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, 2022, vol. 76, issue 3, 315-337

Abstract: In a natural field experiment, we examine whether business gifts are an effective tool to initiate new business relations in the circular economy. We sent letters to encourage restaurants to join the innovative deposit scheme for reusable takeaway tableware of a sustainable Swiss startup company. For treated restaurants, these letters contained a business gift. We implemented four gift treatments by manipulating along two dimensions. First, we varied whether gift-giving is unconditional or conditional on starting a business relation. Second, we alternated between chocolate and cash as a gift. We find no significant causal effect of business gifts on the acquisition of new restaurants. In addition, we find any differences neither between unconditional and conditional gifts nor between chocolate and cash gifts in terms of participation in the reusable system. Interestingly, however, the findings from an exploratory statistical analysis suggest that unconditional gifts attracted more attention and are better remembered than conditional gifts.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0042-059X-2022-3-315 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nms:untern:10.5771/0042-059x-2022-3-315

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Waldseestraße 3-5, 76530 Baden-Baden, Germany
https://www.nomos-sh ... w.aspx?product=13597

DOI: 10.5771/0042-059X-2022-3-315

Access Statistics for this article

Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice is currently edited by Prof. Dr. Artur Baldauf, Universität Bern, Prof. Dr. Manfred Bruhn, Universität Basel, Prof. Dr. Pascal Gantenbein, Universität Basel (geschäftsführend), Prof. Dr. Markus Gmür, Universität Fribourg, Prof. Dr. Klaus Möller, Universität St. Gallen, Prof. Dr. Günter Müller-Stewens, Universität St. Gallen, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Margit Osterloh, Universität Zürich, Prof. Dr. Dieter Pfaff, Universität Zürich and Prof. Dr. Martin Wallmeier, Universität Fribourg

More articles in Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice from Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG ().