Consumer Informedness and Loyalty Benefits Accrual Performance

Recent theoretical developments in the theory of consumer and firm informedness have brought a new perspective to understanding important business problems in IS research. In this research, we adopt the theory of consumer informedness in the context of credit card loyalty programs in the retail banking industry. Leading companies in the airlines, hospitality, retail banking and other industries have widely implemented loyalty programs, and the participation of consumers is greater than ever before. Financial services firms commonly offer credit card customers loyalty awards. A large body of research in economics, marketing, and information systems (IS) has sought to understand the roles and mechanisms in loyalty programs for the airlines, hospitality and retail banking industries. Our work suggests how banks can enhance their capability to improve consumer welfare through contextaware sharing of action-relevant information. To this end, we have been conducting a multi-year study on card loyalty that focuses on the performance of customer accrual of loyalty benefits from their card transactions. We are prohibited from providing details in this work-in-progress submission due to a non-disclosure agreement, but plan to discuss additional aspects of this work in our conference poster and presentation.