Social free sampling: engaging consumer through product trial reports
Information Technology & People
ISSN: 0959-3845
Article publication date: 15 July 2022
Issue publication date: 4 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Recent years have witnessed the popularity of social free sampling (SFS). That is, firms on social commerce platforms (e.g. Amazon Vine and Pconline Try) offer free sample products for consumers' applications, and the selected applicants are required to write a product trial report on the sites as a return. The main advantage of SFS is to leverage users' product trial reports to increase product exposure and attract prospective consumers. Thus, product trial reports play a central role in SFS. Despite that scholars have examined the rating bias of product trial reports in recent years' knowledge concerning how product trial reports influence user (i.e. readers of product trial reports) engagement remains sparse. To address the research gap, this paper aims to examine the drivers of user engagement with product trial reports.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilized the Poisson regression model to analyze 3,419 trial reports collected from a well-known Chinese SFS site.
Findings
Based on the ELM model, the empirical results indicate that product rating, vividness, opinion balance, and reputation of the trial user are positively associated with user engagement. However, longer reports and reports with higher emotional intensity lead to weaker user engagement. Furthermore, product prices strengthen the positive impact of opinion balance but weaken the positive impact of trial users' reputations.
Originality/value
This study is among one of the first studies to investigate the impact of trial reports on user engagement in SFS. It yields actionable guidelines for SFS campaigns.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (71802097 & 72002143), Jinan University Management School Funding Program (GY21013), Institute for Enterprise Development, Jinan University, Guangdong Province (2021MYZD04 & 2020CP03), Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Program of Guangzhou (2021GZYB05 & 2022JDGJ06), Research Institute on Brand Innovation and Development of Guangzhou (2021CS05), and the Youth Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of China (20YJC630053).
Citation
Liao, J., Chen, J. and Jin, F. (2023), "Social free sampling: engaging consumer through product trial reports", Information Technology & People, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 1626-1644. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-11-2021-0867
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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