• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.183-199
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• 2013

This study investigates customers' different behavior in accumulating and redeeming points and focuses on the moderating effect of usage level. We measure the hedonic accumulation and redemption ratio and usage level using loyalty program transaction data and link them to the survey data of loyalty and satisfaction. By doing so, we examine the effects of hedonic accumulation and redemption ratio on a consumer's loyalty intention and his or her satisfaction and the moderating effect of usage level. The result shows that there is a significant positive effect of hedonic accumulation and redemption ratio on customer loyalty and the mediating role of satisfaction on customer loyalty in both stages. And accumulation and redemption most importantly, we find an interaction effect of usage level on outlet type in point redemption stage while no effect in accumulation stage. That is if customers accumulate and redeem points at a hedonic outlets in both stages, it will give him a feeling of satisfaction and finally it will enhance the loyalty toward the focal loyalty program. And light buyers' loyalty increase more than those of heavy buyers when they redeem points in hedonic outlet. Our findings will help marketing managers of loyalty program to apply the effective segmentation strategy to the reward program which affects the customer's satisfaction and loyalty.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.51-60
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• 2014

Previous research on loyalty program has verified the factors that influence redemption behavior and the understanding of the mechanism of redemption behavior with academic and practical implications. However, these research has not proven boundary conditions in which the phenomena can be strengthened or weakened- that is, the moderating effect remains unclear. The inclusion of moderating variables can provide a more extensive understanding of the mechanism of this behavior from academic and managerial perspectives alike. Therefore, this current research proposes regulatory focus as a moderating variable, which has received scarce attention in the study of loyalty program behavior, especially individual characteristic variables that, in turn, affect the consumers' purchasing behavior in various ways. Previous research on consumer decision making investigates the differential role of regulatory focus as a series of stages. Regulatory focus theory posits that people depend on the two types of regulatory focus when pursuing goals: promotion focus vs. prevention focus. The former induces tendencies to recognize a goal as a hope and ideal, as something that satisfies the need for accomplishment, and to be sensitive to the presence of a positive outcome of the match and to match the pursuit of goals. On the other hand, the latter tends to regard a goal as the responsibility or obligation to achieve the goal, has a tendency to avoid failure to meet a target, and is sensitive to the presence of the negative consequences that do not reach the target. The following propositions are suggested: 1) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on delaying point redemption speed will be relatively more pronounced for customers with prevention focus. 2) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on large redemption unit size will be relatively more pronounced for customers with prevention focus. 3) The effect of higher accumulation effort level on hedonic redemption ratio will be relatively more pronounced for customers with promotion focus. Therefore, this research provides a moderating variable that has the potential to be used as a reference for market segmentation and affects the relationship between point accumulation effort and three sides of point redemption behavior. On this basis, the direction for the future research on this issue is recommended. Future research could verify these propositions conducting a survey of customers' propensity of regulatory focus in conjunction with the history of the loyalty program of data. This would provide a more realistic effect on the usage behavior of loyalty program consumers by providing useful implications for both marketing practitioners and researchers.