Receiver responses to rewarded referrals: the motive inferences framework

Referral reward programs have been shown in past research to stimulate referrals and also to contribute positively to customer lifetime value and firms’ profitability. In this paper we examine whether, how, and under what conditions providing a reward for a referral affects receivers’ responses to the referral. Based on a multiple motives inference framework, we propose that rewards adversely affect responses because they lead receiving consumers to infer ulterior motives for the referral. Using experiments and a survey, we find support for this hypothesis and show that this effect is stronger for unsolicited and weak tie referrals. We also demonstrate that rewarding both the referral provider and receiver or providing symbolic rewards can eliminate the negative effect of rewarded referrals. The paper makes conceptual contributions to the literature on referral reward programs, word-of-mouth, and motive inferences. The work has implications for managers considering ways to construct referral programs and design marketing activities to increase referrals

Medium Minimization Effect of Medium-type Reward in the Online Referral Reward Programs: A General Evaluability Perspective

Medium-type reward is a token that people receive as an immediate reward for their effort and can be traded for a desired outcome, and has been widely used in various promoting campaigns. However, our understanding of its impact remains limited. This research focuses on the effect of medium-type reward on individuals’ referral intention in online reward referral programs. Based on general evaluability theory, we propose the medium minimization effect, i.e., individuals have higher referral intention when the numerical value of medium-type reward is small (vs. large) and that the effect will be attenuated when the reward strategy does not care whether referral is successful or the actual reward is uncertain. Results of three experimental studies support our hypotheses. Findings put forward new insights into the medium effect, as well as its potential mechanism, and individuals’ referral behavior, and can help firms optimize the design of online reward referral program systems

A Referral Rewards Incentive Dedign On Travel Consumer- Generated Content

User-generated content has become increasingly important to both tourism practitioners and travel consumers. Although prior studies have demonstrated how impactful UGC is and why marketing mavens employ UGC sites in their marketing campaigns, there is still scant evidence on how to successfully manipulate them. To fill this void, we conducted a two-phase experiment study. In the experiment, first, 65 tourists were invited then grouped according to three different treatments (namely, creating travel posts to achieve the maximum ‘comments’, ‘retweets’, or ‘likes’), and one will be rewarded if he/she achieves the goal. Second, for the manipulation check, we invited another group of Chinese consumers (n =268) to rate these travel posts based on their perceptions. Our experiment results indicate that this referral rewards incentive design has significant effects on consumers’ UGC perception (the credibility, interestingness, influence of postings), behavioral intentions (purchase intention, and WOM intention), and their likelihood of social media engagement (offering ‘likes’). In addition, we also discuss the implications of the results and how to exploit this design

Addressing barriers to learning: In the classroom and schoolwide.

IntroductionPublic education is at a crossroads. Moving in new directions is imperative. Just tweaking and tinkering with old ideas is a recipe for disaster.Continuing challenges confronting public education highlight why moving school improvement policy and practice in new directions is imperative. With a view to enhancing graduation rates and successful transitions to post-secondary opportunities and well-being, pressing challenges include:Increasing equity of opportunity for every student to succeed, narrowing the achievement gap, and countering the school to prison pipeline Reducing unnecessary referrals for special assistance and special education; Improving school climate and retaining good teachers Reducing the number of low performing schools.As education leaders well know, meeting these challenges requires making sustainable progress inimproving supports for specific subgroups (e.g., English Learners, immigrant newcomers, lagging minorities, homeless students, students with disabilities) increasing the number of disconnected students who re-engage in classroom learning and thus improving attendance, reducing disruptive behaviors (e.g., including bullying and sexual harassment), and decreasing suspensions and dropouts increasing family and community engagement with schools responding effectively when schools experience crises events and preventing crises whenever possible.In some schools, continuous progress related to these concerns is being made. For many districts, however, sustainable progress remains elusive – and will continue to be so as long as the focus of school improvement policy and practice is mainly on improving instruction. Efforts to expand the use of instructional technology, develop new curriculum standards, make teachers more accountable, and improve teacher preparation and licensing all have merit; but they are insufficient for addressing the many everyday barriers to learning and teaching that interfere with effective student engagement in classroom instruction.Most policy makers and administrators know that good instruction delivered by highly qualified teachers cannot ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school.Even the best teacher can’t do the job alone. Teachers need student and learning supports in the classroom and schoolwide in order to personalize instruction and provide special assistance when students manifest learning, behavior, and emotional problems. Unfortunately, school improvement plans continue to give short shrift to these critical matters.We recognize, as did a Carnegie Task Force on Education, that school systems are not responsible for meeting every need of their students. But as the task force stressed: when the need directly affects learning, the school must meet the challenge.The most pressing challenge is to enhance equity of opportunity by fundamentally improving how schools address barriers to learning and teaching. The future of public education depends on moving in new directions to accomplish this.Now is the time to fundamentally transform how schools address factors that keep too many students from doing well at school. And while transformation is never easy, pioneering work across the country is showing the way. Trailblazers are redeploying existing funds allocated for addressing barriers to learning and weaving these together with the invaluable resources that can be garnered by collaboration with other agencies and with community stakeholders, family members, and students themselves.The first step in moving forward is to escape old ideas. The second step is to incorporate a new vision in school improvement planning for addressing barriers to learning and teaching and re-engaging disconnected students. Our analyses envision a plan that designs and develops a unified, comprehensive, and equitable system of student and learning supports. The third step is to develop a strategic plan for systemic change, scale-up, and sustainability.This book highlights each of these matters. We invite you to join us in the quest to enhance equity of opportunity for all students to succeed at school and beyond. And we look forward to hearing from you about moving schools forward to make the rhetoric of the Every Student Succeeds Act a reality

Substance abuse and pharmacy practice: what the community pharmacist needs to know about drug abuse and dependence

Pharmacists, the most accessible of health care professionals, are well positioned to help prevent and treat substance use disorders and should prepare themselves to perform these functions. New research improves our knowledge about the pharmacological and behavioral risks of drug abuse, supports the clinical impression that drug dependence is associated with long-lasting neurochemical changes, and demonstrates effective pharmacological treatments for certain kinds of drug dependencies. The profession is evolving. Pharmacists are engaging in new practice behaviors such as helping patients manage their disease states. Collaborative practice agreements and new federal policies set the stage for pharmacists to assist in the clinical management of opioid and other drug dependencies. Pharmacists need to be well informed about issues related to addiction and prepared not only to screen, assess, and refer individual cases and to collaborate with physicians caring for chemically dependent patients, but also to be agents of change in their communities in the fight against drug abuse. At the end of this article the pharmacist will be better able to: 1. Explain the disease concept of chemical dependence 2. Gather the information necessary to conduct a screen for chemical dependence 3. Inform patients about the treatment options for chemical dependence 4. Locate resources needed to answer questions about the effects of common drugs of abuse (alcohol, marijuana, narcotics, "ecstasy", and cocaine) 5. Develop a list of local resources for drug abuse treatment 6. Counsel parents who are concerned about drug use by their children 7. Counsel individuals who are concerned about drug use by a loved one. 8. Counsel individuals who are concerned about their own drug us

Improving the healthcare service quality in Chinese Public Class-A Hospitals: from frontline healthcare professional's perspectives

In a highly competitive market, healthcare service improvement is important to satisfy people’s increasing need for care and to maintain the sustainability of hospitals' competitive advantages. Although Public Class-A hospitals are the top hospitals in China, existing problems exert negative influences on service quality. This research aims to contribute to the improvement of Chinese Public Class-A hospitals by investigating the perspectives of healthcare professionals regarding service improvement. Using a qualitative approach, 16 professionals working for several Public Class-A hospitals were interviewed and expressed their views on the existing service quality, the factors influencing this service and made suggestions about how to improve it. The results of content analysis revealed that professionals view Chinese Public Class-A hospitals as having good medical ability, advanced equipment and reliable curative effect. The price of treatment is considered high but acceptable. According to professionals, the main problems were poor service attitude, lack of emotional support, communication problems, long waiting times, environmental problems, and administrative problems. The identified barriers to high-quality service delivery include professional pressure and burnout, patient factors, remuneration and promotion perspectives. Overall, more people-centered services were suggested, meaning that healthcare professionals should improve their service consciousness and humane care, while the whole society should give humane care to healthcare professionals as well. Other suggestions involved enhancing the hierarchical medical system, strengthening doctor-patient communication, optimizing the treatment processes, improving hospital environment and publicity, and dispensing health education. In short, addressing these themes can contribute to improve the service of Chinese Public Class-A hospitals.Num mercado altamente competitivo, a melhoria da qualidade dos serviços de saúde é importante para satisfazer as crescentes necessidades de cuidados da população e para a sustentabilidade das vantagens competitivas dos hospitais. Os hospitais públicos de Classe-A ocupam os lugares cimeiros na China, e os problemas neles existentes influenciam negativamente a qualidade do serviço que prestam. Este estudo tem por objetivo contribuir para a melhoria destes hospitais investigando as perspetivas dos profissionais sobre a melhoria do serviço. Com base numa abordagem qualitativa, 16 profissionais que trabalham em diversos hospitais públicos de Classe-A foram entrevistados e expressaram os seus pontos de vista sobre o nível de qualidade de serviço existente, os fatores que afetam este serviço e as sugestões para o melhorar. Os resultados da análise de conteúdo revelam que os profissionais vêm os hospitais chineses de Classe-A como tendo elevada capacidade médica, equipamento avançado e uma reposta curativa eficaz. O preço dos serviços é considerado relativamente elevado, mas aceitável. Segundo os profissionais, os principais problemas existentes nestes hospitais referem-se à existência de fraca atitude de serviço, falta de suporte emocional, problemas de comunicação, longas listas de espera, problemas ambientais e problemas administrativos. As barreiras à prestação de cuidados de maior qualidade identificadas pelos profissionais reportam-se à pressão e ao burnout dos profissionais, a fatores relacionados com os doentes, à remuneração e às perspetivas de promoção. Em geral, os profissionais sugerem um serviço mais centrado nas pessoas, ou seja, os profissionais deverão acentuar a prestação de cuidados mais conscienciosos e humanos, enquanto a sociedade deverá cuidar de forma também mais humana dos profissionais de saúde. Outras sugestões focam-se na melhoria do sistema hierárquico de saúde, no fortalecimento da comunicação ente o médico e o doente, na optimização dos processos terapêuticos, na melhoria do ambiente hospitalar e na prática de educação em saúde. Em suma, lidar com estes temas pode contribuir para a melhoria do serviço prestado pelos hospitais chineses de Classe-A

Deferral - High-Volume Decentralized Blockchain-Based Referral Systems

The rise of digital marketing has holistically reshaped and influenced many aspects of the marketing field and is characterized by modern technologies. During the process, existing disciplines, such as referral marketing, have been transformed to employ large automated systems dealing with high volumes of users and data representing the marketing interests of companies across diverse industries. However, most of these systems rely on centralized architectures and thus miss out on potential advantages a decentralized approach could bring. Decentralized referral systems could provide trust and transparency and tackle known issues such as complex and expensive payout processes of referral rewards. This thesis aims to investigate and evaluate the feasibility of a high-volume decentralized referral system. The main requirements of such a system are defined in the current context, and its solution architecture is outlined. Thereby, multiple blockchain-based solution designs are developed to compare and showcase decentralized referral systems with varying complexities. The different solution prototypes are implemented as smart contracts. The smart contracts are tested and analyzed concerning their costs and performance in exemplary evaluations involving high volumes of participating users. In the best-case scenario, the final Deferral solution, including several tested and evaluated smart contracts, can serve as a framework for designing and implementing blockchain-based decentralized referral systems. Conclusively, the examination of the generated results confirms the feasibility of a highvolume decentralized and blockchain-based referral system from a technical point of view. Furthermore, the challenges of implementing and operating such a system in a real-world environment, including the interdependence of the technical and conceptual or economical design, are discussed. Finally, the implications of varying degrees of decentralization among the different components of the Deferral solution are reviewed

Marketing advantage. II. New ideas on getting and keeping clients

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_comm/1113/thumbnail.jp