Self-Signaling and Prosocial Behavior: a cause marketing mobile field experiment

Last registered on August 05, 2015

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Self-Signaling and Prosocial Behavior: a cause marketing mobile field experiment

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0000799

Initial registration date

August 05, 2015

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

August 05, 2015, 6:22 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Illinois

Primary Investigator

Name

Jean-Pierre Dube

Affiliation

University of Chicago Booth School of Business

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Xueming Luo

PI Affiliation

Temple University

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Zheng Fang

PI Affiliation

Sichuan University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2014-01-31

End date

2014-02-01

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

marketing

JEL code(s)

D4, D81, L00, M31

Secondary IDs

Abstract

We conduct two large-scale, randomized controlled field experiments for movie tickets sold on smartphones. Subjects are randomly assigned to one of several promotion campaigns with price discounts and/or charitable donations. Discount-only and charity-only campaigns increase demand. However, campaigns with both discounts and donations can decrease ticket demand. The findings are consistent with a self-signaling theory, whereby the discount crowds out the consumer’s self-inference from the charitable donation. Subjects also self-report lower ratings of “feeling good about themselves” for campaigns with both large discounts and donations. A structural model of self-signaling is fit to the data to quantify the role of self-signaling on purchases.

External Link(s)

link to paper

Registration Citation

Citation

Dube, Jean-Pierre, Zheng Fang and Xueming Luo. 2015. "Self-Signaling and Prosocial Behavior: a cause marketing mobile field experiment." AEA RCT Registry. August 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.799-2.0

Former Citation

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Mobile phone subscribers received promotional offers via SMS to purchase tickets to a movie. Subjects in the trial were randomly assigned to a specific promotional condition, which entailed a specific ticket price and, in some cases, a pre-determined portion of the price to be donated to a pre-determined charity. Subjects either purchase the ticket or do not purchase the ticket.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2014-01-31

Intervention End Date

2014-02-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

To test whether consumer response to charitable donations reflects altruism versus self-signaling.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

The goal is to see if the combination of donations and price discounts can lower demand. This would be used as evidence of self-signaling behavior.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We created 21 different promotional campaigns, each consisting of a price per ticket and a donation per ticket. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of these 21 cells.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done by computer.

Randomization Unit

individual subscriber.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

30000 subscribers.

Sample size: planned number of observations

30000 subscribers

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

cell sizes will range from 500 to 3000 subjects

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

This varies by cell. Our goal is to look at the proportion of subjects that buy (vs not buy) a ticket in a given experimental cell. We then want to test for differences in proportions between cells. So let's suppose we want to test whether two promotion cells have significantly different purchase responses. Based on a pilot test, we might expect 2% response when the price is 30% off and 5% response when the price is 50% off. To test for a significant difference, we would need 1,506 subjects in each of the two cells at 5% significance level and a power level of 0.8.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

University of Chicago Instutitional Review Board

IRB Approval Date

2013-12-03

IRB Approval Number

IRB13-1400

Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?

Yes

Intervention Completion Date

June 21, 2015, 12:00 +00:00

Data Collection Complete

Yes

Data Collection Completion Date

May 22, 2014, 12:00 +00:00

Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)

Was attrition correlated with treatment status?

Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations

30,300 individual mobile subscribers

Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms

range of 700-3,000 individuals per arm

Data Publication

Is public data available?

Program Files

Yes

Program Files URL

https://pubsonline.informs.org/journal/mksc

Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials

Description

publication

Citation

Jean-Pierre Dubé, Xueming Luo, Zheng Fang (2017) Self-Signaling and Prosocial Behavior: A Cause Marketing Experiment. Marketing Science 36(2):161-186.

URL

https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/mksc.2016.1012