Pricing and monetization · Empirical analysis of pre- and post-promotion mobile-data usage from a telecom firm, examining initial usage as a determinant of offer redemption and post-redemption usage change; the article also develops an analytical model.
Experience Effect in the Impact of Free Trial Promotions
Sadat Reza, Hillbun Ho, Rich Ling, Hongyan Shi (2021). Experience Effect in the Impact of Free Trial Promotions. Management Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3613
Plain-English take
Initial usage predicted redemption and subsequent usage change: redemption rose from low- to high-percentile users, while usage change rose weakly monotonically through the 90th percentile and was generally insignificant above it.
How much weight to give this
2/5 Evidence needs cautious interpretation
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Empirical analysis of pre- and post-promotion mobile-data usage from a telecom firm, examining initial usage as a determinant of offer redemption and post-redemption usage change; the article also develops an analytical model.
Telecom-firm customers receiving a free-sample promotion for an experience good; usage distribution is analyzed through at least the 90th percentile.
Check comparison conditions and analysis in the paper.
Publisher record checked; full-text methods were not verified.
Double-blind? Blinding details were not established from the checked publisher page.
Research question
What the authors investigated
What does experience effect in the impact of free trial promotions show about customer behavior or marketing outcomes?
Design
Empirical analysis of pre- and post-promotion mobile-data usage from a telecom firm, examining initial usage as a determinant of offer redemption and post-redemption usage change; the article also develops an analytical model.
Sample and setting
Telecom-firm customers receiving a free-sample promotion for an experience good; usage distribution is analyzed through at least the 90th percentile.
Reported result
What the study found
Initial usage predicted redemption and subsequent usage change: redemption rose from low- to high-percentile users, while usage change rose weakly monotonically through the 90th percentile and was generally insignificant above it.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
Conservative inference: this is one telecom firm’s mobile-data experience good and a promotion analyzed with observational usage data, so effects may not transfer to other free trials or products. Full-text methods and correction history were not independently checked.
Possible founder application
Use this paper as evidence about experience effect in the impact of free trial promotions in the stated context; compare its population, treatment and outcome with your own decision.
Evidence access
Publisher page; full-text availability varies and was not established.
Candidate study metadata and reported evidence were cross-checked against a direct publisher-page retrieval; the full article was not independently reviewed.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.