关键词: 消费者推荐, 社交能力, 异质性, 奖励

Abstract: This work aims to optimize referral reward strategy from the perspective of consumers sociality. Under the assumption that consumers are heterogeneous, the consumers’ purchase and referral behaviors are analyzed through utility theory. The basic model of profit maximization and expand model incorporated with long-term interests are constructed. On this basis, the consumer referral reward program is optimized to show the suitable spaces of high and low discount strategies. And the influence of consumers’ heterogeneous social acceptability on enterprise’s profits and social performance is investigated. Our results show that the high reward strategy should be adopted when the differences in social acceptability are small, otherwise, the low reward strategy is preferable. Furthermore, when the long-term interests are considered, the optimal choices are freemium for referrers. When the environmental parameters change, the optimal high discount reward policy switches to low discount, which results in welfare loss. Additionally, the impetus of virtual-high price in many practical e-commerce firms is explained. Our study provides theoretical support for referral program in reward and price decisions.

Key words: social acceptability, heterogeneity, customer referrals, reward