Referrals · Field and laboratory experiments plus survey analyses of referral reward framing and likelihood.
A Penny for Your Thoughts: Referral Reward Programs and Referral Likelihood
Journal of Marketing · 2007
Summary
Rewards can increase referral likelihood, but their effectiveness depends on the strength of the relationship between referrer and recipient; incentives are less useful for weak ties.
For your marketing
Possible founder application
Use it as a behavioral mechanism or experiment-design reference, not a direct forecast for a SaaS funnel.
Reported result
What the study found
Rewards can increase referral likelihood, but their effectiveness depends on the strength of the relationship between referrer and recipient; incentives are less useful for weak ties.
Research question
What the authors investigated
When and for whom do referral rewards increase the likelihood of making a referral?
Design
Field and laboratory experiments plus survey analyses of referral reward framing and likelihood.
Sample and setting
Consumers in referral-program contexts; experiments compare reward/no-reward and relationship-strength conditions.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
The experiments and scenarios do not establish long-run customer value or downstream conversion; findings concern referral likelihood rather than SaaS retention or revenue.
Research sources
The publisher abstract/page identifies referral reward programs and referral likelihood; the article reports multiple empirical studies testing reward and relationship effects. Direct publisher-page retrieval was recorded on 2026-10-09; this profile uses publisher metadata/abstract and does not claim independent review of unavailable full text.