IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/anture/v93y2022ics0160738322000184.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Offering the right incentive at the right time: Leveraging customer mental accounting to promote prepaid service

Author

Listed:
  • Qiu, Shangzhi
  • Wu, Laurie
  • Yang, Yanjia
  • Zeng, Guojun

Abstract

The current study investigates promotional techniques to improve the sales of prepaid service. Drawing on mental accounting theory, this research examines the impacts of two promotional factors, namely incentive type and promotion timing, on consumers' intentions to purchase prepaid services. The results of studies reveal that a discount (vs. a bonus) is more effective in enhancing consumers' purchase intentions, given higher associated levels of perceived incentive value. Moreover, offering the promotion after (vs. before) payment leads to stronger purchase intention due to lower perceived cost. However, the advantage of a discount over a bonus is attenuated when the promotion is offered after (but not before) payment.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiu, Shangzhi & Wu, Laurie & Yang, Yanjia & Zeng, Guojun, 2022. "Offering the right incentive at the right time: Leveraging customer mental accounting to promote prepaid service," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:93:y:2022:i:c:s0160738322000184
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2022.103367
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738322000184
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.annals.2022.103367?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexei Alexandrov & Özlem Bedre-Defolie, 2014. "The Equivalence of Bundling and Advance Sales," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 259-272, March.
    2. Thaler, Richard H & Shefrin, H M, 1981. "An Economic Theory of Self-Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(2), pages 392-406, April.
    3. Byun, Jaemun & Jang, SooCheong (Shawn), 2015. "Effective promotions for membership subscriptions and renewals to tourist attractions: Discount vs. bonus," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 194-203.
    4. Richard H. Thaler, 2008. "Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 15-25, 01-02.
    5. Chambers, Valrie & Spencer, Marilyn, 2008. "Does changing the timing of a yearly individual tax refund change the amount spent vs. saved?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 856-862, December.
    6. Manel Baucells & Woonam Hwang, 2017. "A Model of Mental Accounting and Reference Price Adaptation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(12), pages 4201-4218, December.
    7. Henri Kuokkanen, 2016. "Behavioural pricing opportunities in tourism destinations: a collaborative approach," International Journal of Revenue Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(2/3), pages 186-200.
    8. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Drazen Prelec & George Loewenstein, 1998. "The Red and the Black: Mental Accounting of Savings and Debt," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 4-28.
    10. Henderson, Pamela W. & Peterson, Robert A., 1992. "Mental accounting and categorization," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 92-117, February.
    11. Heath, Chip & Soll, Jack B, 1996. "Mental Budgeting and Consumer Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 23(1), pages 40-52, June.
    12. Sinha, Rajesh Kumar & Adhikari, Atanu, 2018. "Buyer-seller amount-price equilibrium for prepaid services: Implication for promotional pricing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 285-292.
    13. Gourville, John T & Soman, Dilip, 1998. "Payment Depreciation: The Behavioral Effects of Temporally Separating Payments from Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 25(2), pages 160-174, September.
    14. Yang, Bi & Mattila, Anna S., 2020. "Consumer responses to savings message framing," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    15. Arya Sohrabi & Mir Saman Pishvaee & Ashkan Hafezalkotob & Shahrooz Bamdad, 2020. "Analysis of consumer preferences for prepaid mobile internet packages in Iran: A Discrete Choice Experiment," Economic Journal of Emerging Markets, Universitas Islam Indonesia, vol. 12(1), pages 39-53.
    16. Juan Gabriel Brida & Oksana Tokarchuk, 2015. "Keeping Mental Budgets: Visitors' Spending at a Christmas Market," Tourism Economics, , vol. 21(1), pages 67-82, February.
    17. Wen, Tong & Leung, Xi Y. & Li, Bin & Hu, Lingyan, 2021. "Examining framing effect in travel package purchase: An application of double-entry mental accounting theory," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    18. Ina Garnefeld & Andreas Eggert & Markus Husemann-Kopetzky & Eva Böhm, 2019. "Exploring the link between payment schemes and customer fraud: a mental accounting perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 595-616, July.
    19. Martin Spann & Robert Zeithammer & Marco Bertini & Ernan Haruvy & Sandy D. Jap & Oded Koenigsberg & Vincent Mak & Peter Popkowski Leszczyc & Bernd Skiera & Manoj Thomas, 2018. "Beyond Posted Prices: the Past, Present, and Future of Participative Pricing Mechanisms," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 5(1), pages 121-136, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ma, Jianan & Li, Fangxuan, 2023. "Tourist subsequent responses to promotion framing," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    2. Silva, Emmanuel Marques & Moreira, Rafael de Lacerda & Bortolon, Patricia Maria, 2023. "Mental Accounting and decision making: a systematic literature review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Silva, Emmanuel Marques & Moreira, Rafael de Lacerda & Bortolon, Patricia Maria, 2023. "Mental Accounting and decision making: a systematic literature review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    2. Bernadette Kamleitner, 2008. "Coupling: the implicit assumption behind sunk cost effect and related phenomena," Working Papers 22, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    3. Koch, Alexander K. & Nafziger, Julia, 2016. "Goals and bracketing under mental accounting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 305-351.
    4. Cheng, Andong & Baskin, Ernest, 2021. "Disproportionate redemption discounting: Mental accounting of discounted credit," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 156-163.
    5. Ina Garnefeld & Andreas Eggert & Markus Husemann-Kopetzky & Eva Böhm, 2019. "Exploring the link between payment schemes and customer fraud: a mental accounting perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 595-616, July.
    6. Chu, Hsunchi & Liao, Shuling, 2010. "Buying while expecting to sell: The economic psychology of online resale," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1073-1078, September.
    7. Schulz, Fabian & Schlereth, Christian & Mazar, Nina & Skiera, Bernd, 2015. "Advance payment systems: Paying too much today and being satisfied tomorrow," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 238-250.
    8. Dalla Costa, Aldo Fortunato & Mollica, Vito & Singh, Abhay, 2021. "Payment methods and the disposition effect: Evidence from Indonesian mutual fund trading," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    9. Li Chen & A. Gürhan Kök & Jordan D. Tong, 2013. "The Effect of Payment Schemes on Inventory Decisions: The Role of Mental Accounting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 436-451, September.
    10. White, Tiffany Barnett & Novak, Thomas P. & Hoffman, Donna L., 2014. "No Strings Attached: When Giving It Away Versus Making Them Pay Reduces Consumer Information Disclosure," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 184-195.
    11. Mohammad Reza Nikbakht & Mehrdad Sadr Ara, 2016. "A new experimental model for profit maximization," Journal of Economic and Financial Studies (JEFS), LAR Center Press, vol. 4(3), pages 45-52, June.
    12. Wen, Tong & Leung, Xi Y. & Li, Bin & Hu, Lingyan, 2021. "Examining framing effect in travel package purchase: An application of double-entry mental accounting theory," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Milkman, Katherine L. & Beshears, John, 2009. "Mental accounting and small windfalls: Evidence from an online grocer," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 384-394, August.
    14. Haipeng (Allan) Chen & Akshay R. Rao, 2002. "Close Encounters of Two Kinds: False Alarms and Dashed Hopes," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 178-196, August.
    15. Falk, Tomas & Kunz, Werner H. & Schepers, Jeroen J.L. & Mrozek, Alexander J., 2016. "How mobile payment influences the overall store price image," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 2417-2423.
    16. Scott B. Jackson & Paul A. Shoemaker & John A. Barrick & F. Greg Burton, 2005. "Taxpayers' Prepayment Positions and Tax Return Preparation Fees," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(2), pages 409-447, June.
    17. Liu, Hsin-Hsien, 2013. "How promotional frames affect upgrade intentions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 237-248.
    18. Bernadette Kamleitner & Erich Kirchler, 2006. "Personal loan users’ mental integration of payment and consumption," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 281-294, December.
    19. Kirchler, Erich & Hoelzl, Erik & Kamleitner, Bernadette, 2008. "Spending and credit use in the private household," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 519-532, April.
    20. Sarofim, Samer & Chatterjee, Promothesh & Rose, Randall, 2020. "When store credit cards hurt retailers: The differential effect of paying credit card dues on consumers' purchasing behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 290-301.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:93:y:2022:i:c:s0160738322000184. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-tourism-research/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.