• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.77-98
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• 2017

This research explores two key facets of behavior (reward point accrual and redemption) that consist of a loyalty program. It focuses on assessing the impact of accrual effort level on three types of redemption behavior: speed, unit size, and hedonic preference at the individual level by using large scale transaction data from a multi-vendor loyalty program providing flexible environment for point accrual and redemption. Findings from this research demonstrate that customers tend 1) to speed up point redemption, 2) to enlarge the size of redeemed points, and 3) to prefer utilitarian rewards as the level of effort at the accrual stage of reward point increases.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.63-82
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• 2014

The main objective of this research is to investigate whether the RFM (recency-frequency-monetary value) information of a customer's redemption behavior of loyalty points can improve the prediction of future value of the customer. The conventional measurement of customer value has been primarily based on purchase transactions behavior although a customer's future behavior can be also influenced by other interactions between the customer and the firm such as redemption of rewards in a loyalty program. We theorize why a customer's redemption behavior can influence her future purchases and thereby the customer's total value based on operant learning theory, goal gradient hypothesis, and lock-in effect. Using a dataset from a major book store in Korea spanning three years between 2008 and 2010, we analyze both purchase transactions and redemption records of over 10,000 customers. The results show that the redemption-based RFM information does improve the prediction accuracy of the customer's future purchases. Based on this result, we also propose an improved estimate of customer lifetime value (CLV) by combining purchase transactions and loyalty points redemption data. Managerial implications will be also discussed for firms managing loyalty programs to maximize the total value customers.

• 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.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.165-180
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• 2013

Using long-term panel data of OKCashbag, this study analyzes whether learning effect influencing in effectiveness of coalition loyalty program exists. We found that there is learning effect in the behavior of loyalty program customers, and discovered that learning effect appears more greatly in using (redeeming) behavior than accumulating behavior. The authors also found a long-lasting structural changes in the pattern of point redemption after a major marketing activities associated with the act of using points. The results of this research can contribute to suggest direction to the future researches to examine differences of learning effect according to demographic (gender, age, region, ect.) and transactional (frequency or scale in point accumulation and redemption etc.) characteristics.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.55-78
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• 2011

Recently strategic alliance between business firms has become prevalent to overcome increasing competitive threats and to supplement resource limitation of individual firms. As one of allianced sales promotion activities, a new type of discount program, so called "Alliance Card Discount", is introduced with the partnership of credit cards and loyalty cards. The program mainly pursues short-term sales growth by larger discount scheme while spends less through cost share among alliance partners. Thus this program can be regarded as cost efficient discount promotion. But because there is no solid evidence that it can really deliver profitable sales growth, an empirical study for its effects on sales and profit should be conducted. This study has two basic research questions concerning the effects of allianced discount program ; 1)the possibility of sales increase 2) the profitability of the discount driven sales. In F&B industry, sales increase mainly comes from increased guest count. Especially in family restaurants, to increase the number of guests we need to enlarge the size of visitor group (number of visitors for one group) because customers visit by group in a special occasion. And because they pay the bill by group(table), the increase of sales per table is a key measure for sales improvement. The past researches for price & discount sensitivity and reference discount rate explain that price sensitive consumers have narrow reference discount zone and make rational purchase decision. Differently from all time discount scheme of regular sales promotions, the alliance card discount program only provides the right to get discount like discount coupon. And because it is usually once a month opportunity given by the past month usage level, customers tend to perceive alliance card discount as a rare chance to get. So that we can expect customers try to maximize the discount effect when they use the limited discount opportunity. Considering group visiting practice and low visit frequency of family restaurants, the way to maximize discount effect should be the increase the size of visit group. And their sensitivity to discount and rational consumption behavior defer the additional spending for ordering high price menu, even though they get considerable amount of savings from the discount. From the analysis of sales data paid by alliance discount cards for four months, we found the below. 1) The relation between discount rate and number of guest per table is positive : 25% discount results one additional guest 2) The relation between discount rate and the spending per guest is negative. 3) However, total profit amount per table is increased when discount rate is increased. 4) Reward point accumulation & redemption did not show any significant relationship with the increase of number of guests. These results suggest that the allianced discount program substantially contributes to sales increase and profit improvement by increasing the number of guests per table. Though the spending per guest is decreased by discount rate increase, the total amount of profit per table is improved. It seems the incremental profit by increased guest count offsets the profit decrease. Additional intriguing finding is the point reward system does not have any significant impact on the increase of number of guest, even if the point accumulation & redemption of loyalty program are usually regarded as another saving offers by customers. In sum, because it is proved that allianced discount program with credit cards and loyalty cards is effective to both sales drive and profit increase, the alliance card program could be recommended as strategically buyable program.