Abstract:

Mobile phones act as a nexus between physical and virtual worlds, extend the scope of our social interactions, and provide an interface that links marketing and consumer actions. By combining field experiments with individual mobile telecommunications data, three field studies explored the relationship between individuals’ social network characteristics and their actual pro-social response behavior. Individual’s social network characteristics reflecting social network activity (e.g., contact frequency, network size) and social status (e.g., network asymmetry, iPhone ownership) consistently predicted their pro-social intentions and actual pro-social behavior in numerous contexts. To establish causality, we also conducted a telephone based field experiment where we manipulated high versus low status accents of the solicitors of help. In general, lower status individuals helped the situationally needy more, while higher status individuals helped other higher social status people more. We discuss theoretical implications for pro-sociality (regarding empathy-altruism versus self-interested-egoism accounts) and outline a methodological framework for future mobile-based research combining field manipulations, social network variables, and verifiable response behavior.

(贾建民教授现任香港中文大学商学院市场学系教授和系主任、教育部讲座教授、西南交通大学经济管理学院名誉院长。贾教授在美国德克萨斯大学(奥斯汀)商学院获得博士学位,他的研究兴趣包括大数据营销、社会网络、消费者选择、行为决策等多个方面的，他的论文发表在《Management Science》、《Marketing Science》、《Journal of Consumer Research》、《Operations Research》等管理领域的国际学术期刊。另外，他目前还担任国家自然科学基金委管理科学部专家咨询委员会委员，全国MBA教育指导委员会委员，四川省人大常务委员会委员等职务。他曾担任美国《Operations Research》杂志副主编，美国营销科学学会(MSI)学术董事等职。)