Lucky Reply Effect

As social media has developed, online interaction between consumers and companies has increased rapidly. This research explores how companies' replies to consumers' past online comments affect consumers' predictions of their chances of winning randomly determined associated rewards (e.g., a random drawing). The results of two studies show that consumers who left positive comments (encouragement/appreciation) and then received a reply from the company predicted a higher likelihood of winning a random drawing than those whose comments did not receive company replies. Both the boundary and the underlying mechanism of the effect are discussed in the research. The present research contributes to the literature on companies' online reply patterns by linking their online replies with consumer predictions concerning randomly determined rewards, extends consumer efforts from offline purchases to online comments, and provides insights into the differences between consumer predictions regarding traditional offline promotional events and online promotional events.