Dalarna University's logo and link to the university's website

du.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
The Myth of Incentive-Based Sales Strategies: an Empirical Analysis Contradicting Prevailing Theories using Data Mining and Hypothesis Testing Techniques
Dalarna University, School of Information and Engineering.
2023 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

In recent decades, the use of incentive-based reward programs to foster customer loyalty and promote sales has become prevalent in various industries. While these strategies are widely accepted and implemented, there is a significant gap in empirical studies to ascertain their real-world effectiveness. This thesis embarks on a comprehensive examination into the effectiveness of an online business's reward program, utilizing data from the past five years and employing data mining techniques, including RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) model and clustering algorithms; hypothesis tests are employed to further strengthen the drawn conclusions. Contrary to popular theories, the findings reveal that small incentives such as rewards did not induce significant changes in customer purchasing behavior, nor did they effectively boost sales among rewarded customers. A control group of non-rewarded top-class customers showed more robust purchasing patterns. These unexpected results challenge existing beliefs and call for a critical re-evaluation of current practices in sales promotion and customer loyalty. The research underscores the need for empirically grounded strategies, further exploration into alternative loyalty-building methods, and a recognition of the complex realities influencing customer engagement.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023.
Keywords [en]
Reward Program, Reward Evaluation, Data Mining, RFM, Customer Segmentation, Clustering, K-Means, Hypothesis Testing, One-Sided T-Test, Marketing Effectiveness, Incentive-Based Sales Strategy, Sales Promotion
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-47754OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-47754DiVA, id: diva2:1824999
Subject / course
Microdata Analysis
Available from: 2024-01-08 Created: 2024-01-08Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(925 kB)116 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 925 kBChecksum SHA-512
b25887338a0d35badc4e0e09845fba839c649ce43c593368c98abfb48dad9635fc96adaea6115234cc9baf0fd7df4aac53bdff1ba720a8e25474f43069887bd8
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

By organisation
School of Information and Engineering
Business Administration

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 116 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 147 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf