Referral marketing: Harnessing the power of your customers
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Trusov, M., Bucklin, R. E., & Pauwels, K. H. (2009) · Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1509/jmkg.73.5.90 · Cited by 2,453 · see citing works
The Impact of Marketing-Induced Versus Word-of-Mouth Customer Acquisition on Customer Equity Growth
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The effects of incentives, deal proneness, satisfaction and tie strength on word‐of‐mouth behaviour
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A Penny for Your Thoughts: Referral Reward Programs and Referral Likelihood
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How valuable is word of mouth?
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Driving Profitability by Encouraging Customer Referrals: Who, When, and How
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Growing Existing Customers’ Revenue Streams through Customer Referral Programs
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Optimizing referral reward programs under impression management considerations
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Improving referral management by quantifying market mavens’ word of mouth value
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Impact of service pricing on referral behaviour
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Flagged first, then by citations
2 of the 14 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 2
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- Omaha Steaks. (2012, July 18). Omaha Steaks to launch new referral rewards program. Retrieved February 20, 2015, from http://www.omahasteaks.com/press/Omaha-Steaks-to-Launch-New-Referral-Rewards-Program-126
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Li, J.-Y., Maiti, A., Springer, M. G., & Gray, T. (2020) · International journal of computer integrated manufacturing (Print) · doi:10.1080/0951192x.2020.1815853 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
How Customer Referral Programs Turn Social Capital into Economic Capital
Van Den Bulte, C., Bayer, E., Skiera, B., & Schmitt, P. (2018) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.1509/jmr.14.0653 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
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Identifying influencers in a social network: The value of real referral data
Roelens, I., Baecke, P., & Benoit, D. F. (2016) · Decision Support Systems · doi:10.1016/j.dss.2016.07.005 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“Moreover, the number of referral marketing programs is expected to increase significantly as a result of the rise in social media usage, the heightened use of customer databases by firms and the growing number of platforms to outsource referral programs [4].”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialKuo, T.-S., Huang, K. C., Nguyen, T. Q., & Nguyen, P. H. (2019) · Journal of Business Economics and Management · doi:10.3846/jbem.2019.10448 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Successful referral behavior in referral reward programs
Wirtz, J., Tang, C. J., & Georgi, D. (2018) · Journal of service management · doi:10.1108/josm-04-2018-0111 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Referral campaigns for software startups: The impact of network characteristics on product adoption
Eggers, F., Risselada, H., Niemand, T., & Robledo, S. (2022) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.007 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Cao, Z., Chu, J., Hui, K.-L., & Hong, X. (2021) · Journal of Management Information Systems · doi:10.1080/07421222.2021.1962597 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
“In pursuing the reward, an opportunistic sender may abuse the referral program by recommending unsuitable products [3].”
InfluentialI Will Get a Reward, Too: When Disclosing the Referrer Reward Increases Referring
Xu, M., Yu, Z., & Tu, Y. (2022) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.1177/00222437221117113 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“…were already screened on the basis of their preferences or needs by the referrers; in fact, a key advantage of customer referral programs is that existing customers help companies precisely target potential customers (Berman 2016; Schmitt, Skiera, and Van den Bulte 2011; Van den Bulte et al. 2018).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialShare experiences: receiving word of mouth and its effect on relationships with donors
Sundermann, L. M. (2017) · Journal of Services Marketing · doi:10.1108/jsm-08-2016-0319 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Gligor, D., Newman, C. L., & Kashmiri, S. (2021) · Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · doi:10.1007/s11747-021-00768-0 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
“Salespersons have to spend significantly less on customers acquired through referrals than on customers acquired through other channels (Berman 2016).”
BackgroundGhouri, A. M., Akhtar, P., Haq, M. A. U., Mani, V., Arsenyan, G., & Meyer, M. S. (2021) · Technological Forecasting and Social Change · doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120684 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Xu, F., Han, Z., Piao, J., & Li, Y. (2019) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3359167 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“Following this idea, several active marketing strategies have been devised, which have two important branches: multi-level marketing [13] and referral marketing [4].”
BackgroundKuang, D., Ma, B., & Wang, H. (2021) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102849 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Bring a Friend! Privately or Publicly?
Carroni, E., Pin, P., & Righi, S. (2019) · Management Science · doi:10.1287/mnsc.2018.3282 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
“According to Huston (2010), founder and CEO of Dropbox, the referral program extended their client basis by 60% in 2009 and referrals were responsible for 35% of new daily signups proving to be, over time, pivotal for the company’s success (Berman 2016).”
BackgroundDesigning a Real-Time Data-Driven Customer Churn Risk Indicator for Subscription Commerce
Deligiannis, A., & Argyriou, C. (2020) · International Journal of Information Engineering and Electronic Business · doi:10.5815/ijieeb.2020.04.01 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“The cost of maintaining old customers is proved to be more affordable than the cost of acquiring new customers [16].”
Backgroundvan de Vijver, P. L., Schalkwijk, F. H., Numans, M. E., Slaets, J. P. J., & van Bodegom, D. (2022) · BMC Family Practice · doi:10.1186/s12875-022-01729-4 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“These disciplines are more experienced in recruitment and their insights can increase effectiveness of these minimal effort referrals [39, 40].”
BackgroundBifkovics, B., Malota, E., Faria, L. N., & Martinez, L. F. (2023) · Journal of Promotion Management · doi:10.1080/10496491.2023.2253235 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“Results show that people are four times more likely to buy a product when referred to it by a friend—or in this study—a strong tie; plus, referral leads are believed to be 25% more valuable in comparison to a lead coming from traditional marketing sources (Berman, 2016).”
BackgroundParticipation vs. Effectiveness in Sponsored Tweet Campaigns: A Quality-Quantity Conundrum
Peng, J., & den Bulte, C. V. (2024) · Management Science · doi:10.1287/mnsc.2019.01897 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Hwang, J., Oh, S., & Jang, S. (2021) · Business Communication Research and Practice · doi:10.22682/bcrp.2021.4.2.92 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“More specifically, a brand can take advantage of Instagram users’ sharing behaviors, providing them compensation when they make referrals based on either direct payment or increased visibility on social media (Berman, 2016).”
BackgroundReward the inductor or inductee? The effect of the inductee's altruism on a shopping guide platform
Zhang, X., & Zhang, Y. (2021) · Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics · doi:10.1108/apjml-06-2021-0421 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
How patrons value casino promotional offers: A conjoint study
Legg, M., & Hançer, M. (2019) · Tourism Economics · doi:10.1177/1354816619858892 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“Likewise, firms have become adept at leveraging promotional offerings and reinvestments to enhance loyalty programs with the intent of limiting customer churn (Berman, 2016).”
BackgroundHow to Effectively Design Referral Rewards to Increase the Referral Likelihood for Green Products
Kuang, D., Li, X.-F., & Bi, W.-W. (2021) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su13137177 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
LGBTQ hotel selection criteria: a thematic analysis method
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Optimal control of the customer dynamics based on marketing policy
Rosa, S., Rebelo, P., Silva, C. M., et al. (2018) · Applied Mathematics and Computation · doi:10.1016/j.amc.2018.02.027 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“Contrary to other marketing programs purely based on spontaneous word-of-mouth, referral programs are marketer directed with possibility to control message content [3].”
BackgroundJayasuriya, N., Jayasinghe, P. S. K., Rajapaksha, A., Dharmasiri, T., Sumanasinghe, D., & Dasanayake, A. (2024) · Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics · doi:10.1108/apjml-02-2024-0168 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
The influx of skeptics: an investigation of the diffusion cycle effect on online review
Kim, R. Y. (2020) · Electronic Markets · doi:10.1007/s12525-020-00417-4 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“Businesses often adopt referral programs to accelerate service adoption (Berman 2016).”
BackgroundBased on Mini Batch K-Means Clustering for Customer Segmentation in E-commerce
Chang, Y.-C., Yang, H., & Kong, S. (2022) · doi:10.1109/3cbit57391.2022.00021 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Komal, K. (2021) · Open Journal of Business and Management · doi:10.4236/ojbm.2021.92027 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“This marketing technique ensures that all the grievances of the customers are met by providing high-quality services (Berman, 2016).”
Su, J., Ke, D., Luo, X. R., & Bai, X. (2024) · Electronic Commerce Research · doi:10.1007/s10660-024-09819-4 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“The process involves the referrer initiating the referral, deciding to make the referral, and the recipient deciding whether to become a new customer [21].”
Trajectory of marketing function ‒ from traditions to innovations
Пуцентейло, П., Nianko, V., & Карпенко, В. (2018) · European Journal of Management Issues · doi:10.15421/191811 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Peng, J., & den Bulte, C. V. (2015) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2702053 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Recommend Friends for Miles: Effective Referral Marketing Strategies in Frequent Flyer Programs
Hwang, Y., & Shin, J. (2022) · International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration · doi:10.1080/15256480.2022.2131678 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“The company succeeded in expanding their customer base from 100,000 to 4 million in 15 months through this referral program (Berman, 2016).”
InfluentialMethodological Challenges in Interviewing Elite Women in a Patriarchal Society
Firdaus, A. S. B., Aksar, I. A., Danaee, M., et al. (2023) · The Qualitative Report · doi:10.46743/2160-3715/2023.5737 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“This also establishes a position of the marketed product or service (Berman, 2016).”
BackgroundCan we enhance trust in the circular economy through referral marketing control?
Lacitignola, D., & Martiradonna, A. (2025) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0332348 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“In this paper, we want to engage in this debate, focusing our attention on the possible role of referral marketing campaigns [13] in promoting the transition to CE.”
Word-of-Mouth Communication and Customer Patronage Behaviour Towards Smartphones
Glory, S. E., James, E. E., Inyang, I. B., & Eko, H. A. (2023) · International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation · doi:10.52589/ijebi-ibjmwrb6 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“This is why companies need to prioritise the production and delivery of highquality products in the first place to accelerate the chances of obtaining positive recommendations from existing customers (Berman, 2019; Etim et al., 2023; Mpuon et al., 2023).”
BackgroundSlivar, I., & Bayer, R. U. (2017) · Business and Economics Research Journal · doi:10.20409/berj.2017.86 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Comunicación en los programas de referenciación y fidelización de clientes
Barrientos–Báez, A., & Domínguez, D. C. (2022) · Revista Venezolana de Gerencia · doi:10.52080/rvgluz.27.8.35 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Service Marketing, Referral Marketing, and Trust Icon Corporate to Increase Customer Satisfaction
Indrajaya, F. A., & Agustina, T. S. (2023) · Indonesian Business Review · doi:10.21632/ibr.6.1.49-60 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Hasil studi ini sejalan dengan penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Berman (2016) dan Chamariyah et al. (2022) yang menyatakan bahwa referral marketing merupakan dampak yang ditimbulkan akibat adanya kepuasan konsumen secara keseluruhan.”
BackgroundBe Social! The Impact of Online Referral Program on Referrer Purchase Behavior
Liu, X., Ge, C., Shen, Y., & Jiang, J. (2024) · IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management · doi:10.1109/tem.2024.3374422 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Multi-channel Digital Marketing Strategy in an Emerging Economy: The Case of Flintobox in India
Tamilmani, K., Rana, N. P., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2019) · Advances in theory and practice of emerging markets · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-24374-6_16 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
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Expanding and Strengthening Your Referral Network
Kamrani, P., & Flamm, A. F. (2023) · Dermatologic Clinics · doi:10.1016/j.det.2023.06.001 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Symbolic incentives and the recruitment of volunteers for citizen science projects
Cicognani, S., Stein, S., Tonin, M., & Vlassopoulos, M. (2023) · Oxford Economic Papers · doi:10.1093/oep/gpad031 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
A Relationship Marketing Strategy in Brand Communication
Özsaçmacı, B., & Dursun, T. (2019) · Advances in marketing, customer relationship management, and e-services book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-1618-8.ch003 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Maibach, E. W., Uppalapati, S. S., Orr, M., & Thaker, J. J. (2022) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4201560 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Zhai, Y., Zhuang, R., Li, N., Zhang, J., & Ding, Y. (2025) · Journal of Informetrics · doi:10.1016/j.joi.2025.101699 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Social Media and Fashion Marketing
Zhou, A. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-82571-2_8 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Shahid, S., & Zafar, S. (2021) · South Asian Journal of Management Sciences · doi:10.21621/sajms.2021151.03 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“These findings are consistent with the findings of Berman (2016) who reported that a recommendation from an influential person is weighed more by consumers than a paid advertisement.”
ResultCrisis mapping in the “senses” arena narratives
Karantza, I., Anestis, M. C., & Vlachakis, S. (2021) · International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing · doi:10.1007/s12208-021-00319-x · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Interestingly, data indicates that WOM is more powerful than many other marketing strategies (Berman, 2016).”
BackgroundZou, Y., Zhang, Y., & Lu, X. (2024) · Electronic Markets · doi:10.1007/s12525-024-00689-0 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Referral programs are a widely adopted business practice in which companies reward existing actors for recruiting new actors (Berman, 2016; Schmitt et al., 2011).”
Networking as a Word of Mouth Marketing Strategy in Entrepreneurial Contexts
Robledo-Giraldo, S. (2018) · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Optimal control of the customer dynamics based on marketing policyPreprint
Rosa, S., Rebelo, P., Silva, C. M., et al. (2018) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1802.05489 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Contrary to other marketing programs purely based on spontaneous word-of-mouth, referral programs are marketer directed with possibility to control message content [3].”
BackgroundUnderstanding The Growth Of Takeaway Food Apps in The UK: A Supplier and Consumer Perspective
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“Free to Play“: a comunicação de marketing dos videojogos gratuitos
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A Population Dynamics Approach to Viral Marketing
Souto, P. C., Silva, L. V., Pinto, D. C., & Santos, F. C. (2019) · Studies in computational intelligence · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-36687-2_33
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Understanding Customer-Product Matching in Social Media Referrals: A Data-Driven ApproachPreprint
Huang, S., & Yu, Y. (2022) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4125028
Shifts in Customer Relationship
Mandal, P. C. (2022) · International Journal of Applied Management Theory and Research · doi:10.4018/ijamtr.2022010102
The Impact of Referral Reward Programs on Customer Value: Evidence from the Restaurant Market
Zheng, Y., Wan, F., & Hu, L. (2022) · International Conference on E-business, Management and Economics (ICEME) · doi:10.1145/3556089.3556118
“, vouchers, gifts, and free products) to referrers, referrals, or both [5, 12, 26].”
BackgroundBernard, E. I. (2023) · Splint International Journal Of Professionals · doi:10.5958/2583-3561.2023.00011.5
Ribeiro, A. S. C., & Vera, L. A. R. (2023) · Marketing & Tourism Review · doi:10.29149/mtr.v8i3.8042
Zastosowanie wybranych metod data mining w segmentacji klientów
Sokołowski, K. (2023) · Wroclaw University of Economics and Business eBooks · doi:10.15611/2023.09.3.06
"Ajak Teman'' as a Referral Strategy to Persuade Friends to Use Digital Banking
Nurani, G., Rimenda, T., Juwita, R., & Abrianto, H. (2024) · KnE Social Sciences · doi:10.18502/kss.v9i14.16135 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“The concept of referrals was created because searching for information on the internet takes a long time so that recommendations from friends or family will facilitate the search [4].”
BackgroundHesse, L. (2025) · Nonprofit Management and Leadership · doi:10.1002/nml.21652
“Contrastingly, Berman (2016) conducted multiple experiments and found that people donate to charities based on personal preference, disregarding effectiveness ratings even when provided.”
InfluentialBernard, E. I. (2024) · Splint International Journal Of Professionals · doi:10.5958/2583-3561.2024.00028.6
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Advances in Social Media Influence Marketing
Bahri, M. I., Aswirawan, M. Y. M. S. K., Wistiasari, D., et al. (2026) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/979-8-3373-4526-0.ch012
Analysis of referral marketing implementation in increasing online sales
Batlajery, S., Longgy, D. H. A., Adiatma, T., & Alfons, M. E. (2026) · Priviet Social Sciences Journal · doi:10.55942/pssj.v6i3.1699
“Referral marketing is a form of word-of-mouth strategy intentionally designed by companies to achieve specific goals, particularly by providing incentives to loyal customers for introducing their friends, family, and acquaintances as potential new customers (Berman, 2016a).”
InfluentialFactors affecting brand equity in private schools of Northeast Thailand
Suwannarong, N., Thawinkarn, D., & Vatanasapt, P. (2026) · Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education · doi:10.32674/11p4tq98
- Authors
- Berman, B.
- Affiliations
- Hofstra University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Berman, Barry
- Venue
- Business Horizons
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-01
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 19-28
- ISSN
- 0007-6813 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2179118818
- Semantic Scholar
- 3fd2b2ad59c84badceee98dd902958f1a58222e5
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 9.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Business Horizons (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Marketing and Advertising Strategies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Customer Service Quality and Loyalty
- Keywords
- referral marketing, referral program, word of mouth, customer lifetime value, customer satisfaction
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