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Smart users: Effort management in earning rewards

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  • Liu, Xianwei
  • Han, Meini
  • Liu, Jianwei
  • Zhang, Ziqiong

Abstract

Online travel agencies usually offer rewards and incentives to encourage high-quality reviews. Will these incentives compel tourists to strive to earn certain rewards and affect review quality? We collect data from Ctrip wherein tourists can earn 80 points by posting a review with ≥ 50 characters, which requires more keystrokes. This research context features a quasi-experimental setting and a regression-discontinuity design to infer the causal effects of incentives on reviewing behavior. Regarding effort management, the results reveal that tourists manage their effort to earn rewards more quickly at the review-length cutoff. With respect to review quality, results show that incentives lead to a 30 % reduction in review usefulness at the cutoff. Additionally, effort management is severer among experienced tourists.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Xianwei & Han, Meini & Liu, Jianwei & Zhang, Ziqiong, 2024. "Smart users: Effort management in earning rewards," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:108:y:2024:i:c:s0160738324000793
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2024.103802
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    1. Yu, Jing (Jasper) & Wong, Jose Weng Chou, 2026. "Non-utilitarian design in gamified destination donations," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).

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