Nonmonetary rewards of referral reward programs and recommendation intention: The role of reward–product congruity

Referral reward programs (RRPs) are a cost-effective means for companies to acquire new customers, and they have therefore been adopted by diverse businesses. This research investigates how the reward–product congruity of nonmonetary rewards influences consumers' recommendation intention in online RRPs. Specifically, drawing on the theories of congruity fit and schema congruity, we propose that nonmonetary rewards with moderate congruity trigger consumers' recommendation intention in RRPs more than those with high and low congruity. Moreover, this inverted U-shaped relationship is moderated by factors that influence the individual cognitive state (i.e., need for cognition and utilitarian versus hedonic products). An experiment with a 3 (reward–product congruity: high/moderate/low) × 2 (product type: utilitarian app/hedonic app) mixed factorial design was conducted to test our hypotheses. The results largely support our propositions. First, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship between reward–product congruity and recommendation intention and a mediated effect of reward attractiveness. Furthermore, need for cognition moderates the effects of reward–product congruity on recommendation intention, and there is a three-way interaction effect among product type, need for cognition, and reward–product congruity. We also discuss the important theoretical and practical implications of our findings.