Effects of pride-tagged money and surprise-tagged money on online tipping
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 25 November 2020
Issue publication date: 19 May 2021
Abstract
Purpose
With the rise of social media, online tipping has developed markedly in recent years. Drawing on emotional accounting, this research examined the effects of pride-tagged money (PTM) and surprise-tagged money (STM) on online tipping. It examined the mediating role of self-inflation and the moderating role of the perceived importance of money in the proposed relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Five experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses using ANOVA, SmartPLS3 and bootstrap analyses.
Findings
The results reveal that pride-tagged (vs surprise-tagged) money leads to higher self-inflation, which leads to an increased willingness to engage in online tipping. It illustrates that when the perceived importance of money is low, PTM results in a higher willingness to engage in online tipping than STM. However, when the perceived importance of money is high, the effect of PTM (vs STM) on the willingness to conduct online tipping is attenuated, and no significant difference exists in the willingness to engage in online tipping between people with PTM and those with STM. In addition, it shows that PTM (vs STM) leads to a higher amount of online tipping, and self-inflation mediates the proposed relationship.
Practical implications
Practically, web-based marketing managers should design programs (e.g. content that encourages users to feel pride in their achievements) that cause users to emotionally tag their money with pride as a means of increasing their willingness to engage in online tipping and to increase the amount of such tipping.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first evidence of how different sources of money influence online tipping.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (#71602122, #71572115, #71702111); Major Program of Social Science Foundation of Guangdong (#2016WZDXM005); Guangdong 13th-Five-Year-Plan Philosophical and Social Science Fund (#GD20CGL28); Natural Science Foundation of SZU (#836). The early version of this research was presented in China Marketing International Conference 2019 in Guangzhou.
Citation
Yang, P., Zhang, Q. and Feng, Y. (2021), "Effects of pride-tagged money and surprise-tagged money on online tipping", Internet Research, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 1061-1082. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-11-2019-0479
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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