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

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.