Gift-Exchange from a customer Perspective: Gift Chaices to Foster Reciprocal Behaviour
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2020-07-15
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study aims at expanding the body of knowledge available on the notion of gift-receiving in a business-to-consumer context. Ever since the rise of relationship marketing, gift-exchange is a significant part of organisations’ business activities. However, organisations continue to invest in purchasing gifts to hand out to customers, on which the choice of gift and the outcome of the exchange process depends, while their perspective is relatively unknown. The purpose of this study was to provide practitioners with more guidance in choosing suited gifts for their customers. A 2 (economic vs. social gift) 2 (search vs. purchase phase) between-subjects field experiment (n = 112) was conducted in the automotive sector, which examined the type of gift and the gift-receiving moment in their effects on the recipients’ attitudes towards the organisation and their reciprocal behaviour. The results did not meet significance levels, indicating no evidence is found for differences between the independent variables and their effect on the two outcome variables. The author theorizes that practitioners do not have to take into account the type of gift or the gift-receiving moment in optimizing the effect of gifts on the recipients’ attitude towards the organisation.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen