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 Will Cryptocurrency-Based Loyalty Programs Thrive as Coin Prices Rise?
Empirical Evidence from a Ride-Hailing Platform Speaker (s):
Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon
Assistant Professor,
Department of Information Technology
and Operations Management at
Nanyang Business School,
Nanyang Technological University
| Date: Time: Venue: | | 13 January 2025, Monday 10:30am – 12:00pm School of Computing &
Information Systems 2 (SCIS 2)
Level 4, Seminar Room 4-1
Singapore Management University
90 Stamford Road,
Singapore 178903 Please register by 12 January 2025. We look forward to seeing you at this research seminar. 
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About the Talk Cryptocurrencies have emerged as a new means of loyalty programs that platforms can employ to enhance user participation. However, without a well-orchestrated system that can address the unique vulnerabilities stemming from cryptocurrencies’ high volatility and liquidity, the virtue of a cryptocurrency-based loyalty program (i.e., CBLP) will not be realized. To this end, platforms often adopt a “two-stage” CBLP design, which first awards loyalty points with stable value and allows their conversion into platform-specific cryptocurrencies. We investigate whether and how a two-stage CBLP improves users’ participation, exploiting a unique dataset obtained from a ride-hailing platform that suspended users’ point-to-cryptocurrency conversion until 14 weeks after the start of its CBLP. The results illustrate that awarding points enhances users’ participation, and the positive effect does not reduce after users encounter the volatility and liquidity of cryptocurrencies through the conversion. We further find that, after the conversion, the loyalty effect becomes more prominent when the cryptocurrency price increases. More notably, however, the loyalty effect diminishes with a coin price increase before the conversion, contrary to platforms’ general expectation. We propose an alternative design strategy of encouraging the conversion with additional empirical support, which contradicts common practice. About the Speaker Dr. Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon is an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Business School and a member of the Editorial Review Board for Information Systems Research (ISR). His research interests primarily encompass mobile analytics for FinTech, digital healthcare, AdTech, and platforms and extend into broader domains such as AI and digital innovation. He has been closely working with a number of leading companies across a broad spectrum of industries—ranging from mobile marketing and telecom to banking, healthcare, retail, CRM, consumer/market research, and F&B—for research and consultation. Additionally, he serves as an advisor for a prominent Google-partnered tech startup accelerator in Korea, fostering connections between the innovation ecosystems of Singapore and Korea. Building upon these industry-academic partnerships, he has published in premier journals, including ISR, JMIS, JOM, and POM. He is one of the few scholars to have received both the INFORMS ISS Gordon B. Davis Young Scholar Award and the AIS Early Career Award, the two most prestigious accolades for emerging scholars in the Information Systems field. He also won the Nanyang Research Award, the university’s highest recognition, alongside multiple best paper awards, research excellence awards, and teaching excellence awards (CV Link). |
