Increasing willingness to pay through encouraging social participation - A Web experiment

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1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Content websites have been experimenting in recent years with charging users for their content offerings. However, reported conversion rates of around 1-5% of total unique website users make this strategy feasible only for websites that cater to millions of users. How, then, can a website raise conversion rates without significantly enlarging its user base? Content websites have begun to incorporate social features, providing platforms for community formation. Users' engagement with a website's social features has been shown to increase their willingness to pay. This research investigates the effect of acts of initiated participation - "calls to action" made by website owners - on users' willingness to pay in content websites. We designed an experiment in which users explore a content website and are required to respond to requests for participatory acts. We show that users who are given the calls to action in increasing order of effort level are willing to pay more for a monthly subscription or in a one-time donation, compared with users who are not exposed to such prompts. Interestingly, we show that the order of activities is crucial; when the tasks are not initiated according to increasing order of effort, the results do not hold.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationECIS 2014 Proceedings - 22nd European Conference on Information Systems
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
ISBN (Print)9780991556700
StatePublished - 2014
Event22nd European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 2014 - Tel Aviv, Israel
Duration: 9 Jun 201411 Jun 2014

Publication series

NameECIS 2014 Proceedings - 22nd European Conference on Information Systems

Conference

Conference22nd European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 2014
Country/TerritoryIsrael
CityTel Aviv
Period9/06/1411/06/14

Keywords

  • Business Model
  • Experiments
  • Paywalls
  • Virtual Communities

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