As part of a multinational research team around Vijay Viswanathan, Tammo Bijmolt and Javier Sese, Professor Manfred Krafft and Dr. Kim Kötterheinrich (former doctoral student at the Chair of Marketing Management) have co-authored the forthcoming paper on "Quantifying the effect of status in a multi-tier loyalty program." The article will appear in Volume 104 of the Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) Journal, due for publication in July 2022.

In this study, the authors investigate if and when status stages in multi-tier loyalty programs (MTLPs) are effective in influencing customer buying behavior, in particular their share of wallet. To this end, they use a unique B2B dataset of a company in the German agricultural market from 2009 to 2017 for their analysis. The data is examined using a Tobit panel regression model based on the regression discontinuity design approach. The study makes several important contributions. First, it examines the effect of status in MTLPs and uses a causal design to quantify the previously intangible effect of customer status tiers. Second, the authors reveal important insights into how such tiers interact with other factors in the customer-firm relationship. Third, the article uses an interesting dataset from a B2B setting, contributing to the limited existing literature on the effectiveness of customer loyalty programs in B2B markets.

In summary, the study provides a new understanding of how customers respond to the different tiers or the negative impact of tenure, especially at the highest status tier. For researchers and managers alike, the article provides new perspectives on whether and how loyalty programs influence customer behavior and drive outcomes in the marketplace.

Are you interested in this piece of research? As of July 2022, the article is publicly available in print and on the IMM website.