Effects of Word-of-Mouth Versus Traditional Marketing: Findings from an Internet Social Networking Site

Working Paper No. RHS-06-065

April 24, 2008

Effects of Word-of-Mouth Versus Traditional Marketing:

Findings from an Internet Social Networking Site

Michael Trusov

University of Maryland

Randolph E. Bucklin

University of California, Los Angeles - Marketing Area

Koen H. Pauwels

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

Marketing Department

Robert H. Smith School of Business

University of Maryland

College Park, MD 20742-1815

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EFFECTS OF WORD-OF-MOUTH VERSUS TRADITIONAL MARKETING:

FINDINGS FROM AN INTERNET SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE

Michael Trusov

Randolph E. Bucklin

Koen Pauwels*

April 24, 2008

*

Michael Trusov (mtrusov@rhsmith.umd.edu, phone: (301) 405-5878, fax: (301) 405-0146) is Assistant Professor, Robert H.

Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, Randolph E. Bucklin

(rbucklin@anderson.ucla.edu) is Peter W. Mullin Professor, UCLA Anderson School, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA

90095. Koen Pauwels (koen.h.pauwels@dartmouth.edu) is Associate Professor at Ozyegin University (Istanbul, Turkey) and at

the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (Hanover, NH). The authors thank the guest editor, three anonymous JM reviewers,

and participants of the 2006 Marketing Dynamics Conference and the 2007 DMEF Research Summit, for helpful comments. The

authors are also grateful to the anonymous collaborating firm for providing the data used in this study.

Electronic

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1129351

EFFECTS OF WORD-OF-MOUTH VERSUS TRADITIONAL MARKETING:

FINDINGS FROM AN INTERNET SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE

ABSTRACT

The authors study the effect of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing on member growth at an

Internet social networking site and compare it with...