Franzi Schmid, Doctoral Student, Smeal College of Business - Penn State

Referred it Through the Grapevine: How Informal Salesperson Networks Facilitate Business-to-Business Cross-Selling

Synopsis

Business-to-business (B2B) firms actively engage in customer relationship management to build customer loyalty and create long-lasting relationships. One strategy to increase customer loyalty is cross-selling. Even though salespeople know that it is a valuable tool, they often struggle to implement cross-selling effectively. In this research, we study the role of informal intrafirm salesperson networks in helping salespeople engage in cross-selling and successfully close cross- selling opportunities. We use data from a B2B paper-and-packaging firm to empirically test our conceptual model, where we observe over 80,000 sales opportunities and their outcomes. We find that a salesperson’s informal network, measured using betweenness centrality, positively impacts both the engagement and success of cross-selling opportunities. These findings suggest that encouraging the formation of intrafirm salesperson networks can enhance opportunities for new revenue growth through cross-selling. We also analyze a randomized cross-selling field experiment run by the same firm whose data was used for the first part of this study. Our findings show that extrinsic motivators (i.e., monetary incentives) can be effective at encouraging cross-selling. However, the intrinsic ability to rely on information from the informal network is still needed to close a cross-selling opportunity successfully.

Wooyong Jo, Doctoral Student, Goizueta Business School - Emory University

When Influencers Create Content: The (Possibly) Conflicting Roles of Live Streamers

Synopsis

Influencer marketing is growing in popularity as firms shift resources from traditional advertising channels to social media personalities. Social media personalities may be powerful spokespeople for multiple reasons. First, these personalities are often viewed as highly credible experts for specific product classes. Second, social media personalities such as streamers often have repeated interactions with consumers that may create relationship capital that enhances influence. However, while influencer marketing is theoretically powerful, the newness of the practice means that only limited literature investigates the factors that differentiate the effectiveness of social media personalities. Our research examines the effects of viewing different categories of streamers on video game playing and in-game purchases. Using data from a live streaming platform and an online video game, we find that viewing live streaming content featuring a specific game is a substitute for game usage. This finding is contrary to common beliefs shared by industry practitioners that endorsements of influencers yield positive outcomes. We also find that viewing micro-influencers (streamers with relatively small audiences) relative to mega-influencers (streamers with large audiences) reduces subsequent gaming. This finding highlights the potential downside of viewers forming attachments to influencers and the influencer’s content rather than the promoted game. We conjecture that as it becomes easier to build an intimate relationship with influencers, consumer responses to the endorsed game decrease. We also examine the impact of the game publisher’s official channel. This channel emphasizes high production values and content such as professional esports tournaments. We find that the official streaming account run by the gaming firm also substitutes for the focal game and may reduce the profitability of their core product from existing customers.

Yi Liu, Doctoral Student, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Implications of Revenue Models and Technology for Content Moderation Strategies

Synopsis

This paper develops a theoretical model to study the economic incentives for a social media platform to moderate user-generated content. We show that a self-interested platform can use content moderation as an effective marketing tool to expand its installed user base, to increase the utility of its users, and to achieve its positioning as a moderate or extreme content platform. For the purpose of maximizing its own profit, a platform will balance pruning some extreme content, thus losing some users, with gaining new users because of a more moderate content on the platform. This balancing act will play out differently depending on whether users will have to pay to join (subscription vs advertising revenue models) and on whether the technology for content moderation is perfect.

We show that when conducting content moderation optimally, a platform under advertising is more likely to moderate its content than one under subscription, but does it less aggressively compared to the latter when it does. This is because a platform under advertising is more concerned about expanding its user base, while a platform under subscription is also concerned with users' willingness-to-pay. We also show a platform's optimal content moderation strategy depends on its technical sophistication. Because of imperfect technology, a platform may optimally throw away the moderate content more than the extreme content. Therefore, one cannot judge how extreme a platform is by just looking at its content moderation strategy. Furthermore, we show that a platform under advertising does not necessarily benefit from a better technology for content moderation, but one under subscription does, as the latter can always internalize the benefits of a better technology. This means that platforms under different revenue models can have different incentives to improve their content moderation technology. Finally, we draw managerial and policy implications from our insights.

Isamar Troncoso, Doctoral Student, University of Southern California

Look the Part? Role of Profile Pictures in Online Labor Markets

Synopsis

Freelancing platforms have gained tremendous popularity, connecting millions of employers and freelancers worldwide. We examine whether profile pictures on such platforms may facilitate hiring biases based on appearance-based perceptions of a freelancer's fit for the job (e.g., whether the applicant looks like a programmer). We collect data from Freelancer.com for all jobs posted between January-June 2018 that ended in a contract, resulting in 79,038 jobs with 2,462,043 applications from 220,385 freelancers. Leveraging computer vision techniques, we find that freelancers with pictures perceived as high fit (or who “look the part”) are more likely to be hired. More importantly, we show that such a bias goes above and beyond known prejudice variables such as demographics and attractiveness. Interestingly, we discover that “looking the part” is a complement rather than a substitute for online reputation. We further conduct two experiments to explore the underlying mechanisms behind these findings. We find that when the reputation system is extremely positive, as in most freelancing platforms, employers use profile pictures as tiebreakers to choose among similar applicants. We also show that freelancers, especially those who “do not look the part,” may mitigate such biases by strategically selecting backgrounds and accessories in their profile pictures to enhance their chances of being hired.

Jisu Kim, Doctoral Student, University of Washington, Foster School of Business

Loyalty Program Enhancement Strategies: The Dynamic Effects of Relational States

Synopsis

Loyalty programs have been referred to as the ubiquitous customer relationship management tool. However, despite the growing practice and research in loyalty programs, the field remains unclear on the effectiveness of its key enhancement strategies such as points multiplier and expiring reward promotions. This article proposes a conceptual model that synthesizes extant insights on loyalty program enhancements, empirically analyzes longitudinal data from a global financial services firm to test the model, and conducts two experiments to reveal the mechanisms. The proposed conceptual model is grounded in gratitude-based social exchange theory to parsimoniously explain the differential impact of the key loyalty program enhancements (i.e., points multiplier and expiring promotions) on customer performance that depends on the types of customer relational states (i.e., customer temporal state and loyalty program state). Through a multi-method approach, this article suggests a set of managerial takeaways and future research avenues in loyalty programs literature. With an integrative theory of loyalty program enhancements, this paper delineates the trade-offs and mechanisms associated with the key loyalty program enhancement strategies and customer relational states.