1. Abstract
The Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale is a psychometric instrument developed to assess the degree to which an individual’s propensity to disseminate promotional vouchers, discount codes, or shared coupons is driven by social affiliation motives rather than purely transactional or pecuniary incentives. Introduced in the landmark empirical investigation by Fang, Dong, Zhuang, and Cai (2023) within the Journal of Marketing, the instrument was conceived to capture the psychological and relational underpinnings of consumer collaborative promotions. Specifically, it gauges how consumers utilize promotional sharing as an instrumental vehicle to interact with peers, foster interpersonal warmth, solidify social bonds, and establish collaborative consumption contexts. In contemporary digital commerce, shared coupon mechanisms—wherein a discount is unlocked or amplified when distributed among social ties—operate at the intersection of economic reward and relational capital. The scale typically comprises a unidimensional set of self-report items administered via a multi-point Likert response format (ranging from 1 = "Strongly Disagree" to 7 = "Strongly Agree"). Psychometrically, the instrument demonstrates robust internal consistency (with Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values frequently exceeding .85), alongside documented convergent validity, discriminant validity against economically motivated sharing, and strong predictive validity regarding downstream experience cocreation and brand advocacy. By isolating the social goal orientation from commercial opportunistic motives, this measurement tool provides marketing scientists, behavioral economists, and consumer psychologists with a methodologically rigorous framework for modeling how social capital and communal norms dictate collaborative consumer behavior.
2. Keywords
Coupon sharing, social goal, experience cocreation, consumer motivation, promotional marketing, relational exchange, communal relationships, referral reward programs, social capital, viral marketing, collaborative consumption, psychometrics
3. Authors
The Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale was formulated and validated by a consortium of leading marketing scholars investigating shared promotional dynamics:
- Eric (Er) Fang — Professor of Marketing and James F. Towey Faculty Fellow, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; currently at Lehigh University. Specializes in digital marketing strategy, customer relationship management, and platform ecosystems.
- Beibei Dong — Professor of Marketing, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University. Renowned for research on service marketing, customer experience cocreation, and frontline employee-customer interactions.
- Mengzhou Zhuang — Assistant Professor of Marketing, College of Business, The University of Texas at Arlington. Researches marketing strategy, digital platforms, and social media interactions.
- Fengyan Cai — Professor of Marketing, School of Business, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Focuses on consumer psychology, behavioral economics, and promotional framing effects.
4. Purpose
The primary purpose of the Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale is to quantify and isolate the social-relational drivers that prompt an individual to distribute shared coupons or referral vouchers to members of their social network. While conventional economic and promotional theories have historically treated coupon redemption and diffusion as rational, self-interested, price-sensitive activities—wherein consumers disseminate discounts primarily to maximize economic utility, secure personal rebates, or reduce acquisition costs—contemporary viral marketing and social commerce architectures fundamentally complicate this paradigm. Fang et al. (2023) recognized that shared promotional campaigns frequently depend upon interpersonal touchpoints, where the act of sharing serves not merely as a mechanical transmission of monetary savings, but as a meaningful interpersonal event.
In contemporary omni-channel environments, organizations increasingly deploy "shared coupon" architectures that mandate cooperative consumer actions—such as group-buying initiatives, team-based discounts, or split-incentive referral programs—wherein mutual benefits accrue only if the recipient actively participates. Under such architectures, consumers do not operate in a relational vacuum. The Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale was designed to address several critical theoretical and empirical objectives:
- Differentiating Social from Economic Utility: The instrument allows investigators to empirically decouple social motivations (e.g., initiating conversation, strengthening interpersonal closeness, conveying consideration, cocreating shared social activities) from purely economic motivations (e.g., maximizing monetary gain, obtaining unilateral discounts, liquidating personal transaction costs).
- Predicting Experience Cocreation: The foundational research demonstrates that when consumers share coupons out of social goals, they are substantially more likely to engage in downstream "experience cocreation"—jointly consuming the product or service, coordinating service experiences, and engaging in collaborative social consumption. Measuring this orientation helps predict whether promotional distribution will yield isolated transactions or sustained, interactive brand experiences.
- Optimizing Promotional Campaign Design: From an applied and managerial standpoint, understanding the distribution of social goal orientations across a target demographic enables marketers to optimize promotional mechanics. For instance, campaigns tailored to consumers high in social sharing goals benefit from relational framing, collaborative imagery, and mechanics that reward group participation, whereas consumers low in this construct may respond more favorably to transactional, non-social incentives.
- Advancing Psychological Models of Gifting and Sharing: The scale serves research programs in consumer psychology exploring how digital artifacts (such as links, promo codes, and mobile vouchers) function as modern variants of gift-giving. Gifting digital discounts involves nuanced social risks, including the perception of being overly commercialized; measuring the underlying social goal clarifies the psychological antecedents that neutralize these social costs.
5. Psychological Construct
The psychological construct captured by the Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale resides within the domain of consumer goal-directed behavior, social motivation, and prosocial interaction. Rather than viewing the consumer as an isolated economic agent seeking utility maximization, the construct conceptualizes the individual as embedded within an ongoing social matrix where commercial actions carry interpersonal meanings, relational signals, and social consequences.
Core Conceptual Facets
The construct reflects a multifaceted psychological orientation defined by several primary dimensions:
- Relational Nurturance and Maintenance: At its core, the social sharing goal involves the desire to maintain, reactivate, or deepen an existing interpersonal relationship. By forwarding a promotional discount, the sender initiates a friendly interaction, providing a socially acceptable pretext for communication. In this sense, the coupon functions as a relational bridge or token of connection.
- Interpersonal Communion: Consistent with psychological theories of agency versus communion, the social goal reflects a communal orientation characterized by warmth, solidarity, and mutual benefit. The focal consumer is motivated by the prospect of enjoying a positive shared experience or providing an authentic benefit to a friend, contrasting sharply with an agentic, self-aggrandizing focus on personal savings.
- Anticipated Experience Cocreation: Unlike unilateral coupons that are redeemed independently in isolation, shared coupons frequently presuppose or encourage joint consumption (e.g., dining together at a restaurant, attending an entertainment venue, or synchronizing shopping trips). The social goal construct inherently encompasses the consumer’s cognitive anticipation and affective desire to cocreate an experiential outcome with the recipient.
- Altruistic Value Transference: The construct taps into the subjective satisfaction derived from transferring value to a peer. The sender perceives the coupon not merely as a corporate marketing tool, but as an opportunity to help a friend save money or discover a valuable consumption experience, thereby generating positive social emotions such as shared joy and relational gratitude.
Contrasting the Social Goal with Companion Constructs
To fully grasp the psychological construct, it must be delineated from adjacent behavioral and motivational phenomena:
- Social Goal vs. Economic Goal: In Fang et al.’s (2023) framework, the economic goal entails sharing coupons solely to reduce costs, gain financial rewards, or fulfill promotional criteria for personal gain. While an economic goal perceives the recipient instrumentally as a conduit to unlock a monetary reward, the social goal views the interaction and the partner’s well-being as the primary objective.
- Social Goal vs. General Word-of-Mouth (WOM): General organic WOM involves sharing information, opinions, or evaluations regarding products or services. The social goal of coupon sharing specifically centers on sharing a tangible economic benefit and invitations to joint consumption, incorporating transactional mechanics directly into the relational exchange.
- Social Goal vs. Conspicuous Sharing: Sharing to fulfill a social goal is grounded in mutual connection and warmth, rather than the desire to signal superior status, market mavenism, or economic sophistication to an audience.
6. Theoretical Framework
The conceptual development and operationalization of the Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale are informed by a synthesis of classic and modern theories drawn from social psychology, sociology, and marketing theory.
Social Exchange Theory and Communal vs. Exchange Relationships
The primary theoretical foundation relies upon Social Exchange Theory (Homans, 1958; Blau, 1964) and Clark and Mills’ (1979, 1993) seminal distinction between communal relationships and exchange relationships. In exchange relationships, benefits are bestowed with the explicit expectation of receiving comparable, contingent returns; transactions are governed by reciprocity rules, accounting, and equivalence. Conversely, in communal relationships, benefits are distributed to demonstrate concern for the other’s welfare, without tracking immediate reciprocal obligations.
When applied to coupon sharing, Fang et al. (2023) posit that consumers operating under an economic goal frame the sharing act within an exchange logic (using the peer to trigger an economic payoff). In stark contrast, consumers guided by a social goal frame the coupon sharing act within a communal logic: the shared voucher is deployed to foster mutual enjoyment, reaffirm relational closeness, and communicate goodwill. This distinction dictates whether the recipient perceives the shared coupon as a manipulative corporate intrusion or as a genuine, caring social gesture.
Service-Dominant Logic and Experience Cocreation Theory
The scale is anchored deeply in the Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic formulated by Vargo and Lusch (2004, 2008), as well as Prahalad and Ramaswamy’s (2004) framework of value cocreation. S-D logic emphasizes that value is not merely embedded within physical products or price cuts (value-in-exchange), but is actively created during consumption interactions within customer networks (value-in-use and value-in-context).
Fang et al. (2023) introduce the concept of experience cocreation as the missing theoretical link between shared coupon structures and relational marketing outcomes. The Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale measures the psychological predisposition that catalyses this cocreative trajectory. When social goals dominate, consumers are not merely passive recipients of corporate promotions; they become active orchestrators who integrate social resources (intimacy, shared history, communication) with firm resources (the discounted offering) to cocreate unique consumption experiences that neither party could achieve independently.
Self-Determination Theory
The construct aligns seamlessly with Self-Determination Theory (SDT), specifically the psychological need for relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000). SDT postulates that human beings possess an inherent, intrinsic drive to experience belonging, mutual care, and connection with significant others. Sharing a promotional incentive under a social goal orientation represents an intrinsically motivated manifestation of relatedness, wherein the consumer engages in promotional diffusion because it facilitates meaningful human interaction, rather than because it satisfies extrinsic, financial desires.
7. Validity
The psychometric integrity of the Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale has been established through multi-method testing incorporating laboratory experiments, field studies, and cross-sectional consumer surveys as detailed by Fang, Dong, Zhuang, and Cai (2023).
Construct and Content Validity
Content validity was ensured during initial scale development via exhaustive literature synthesis covering referral reward programs, gift-giving psychology, and collaborative marketing. Expert panels comprising marketing professors and doctoral researchers reviewed candidate items to verify that statements captured the underlying intention to bond, interact, and nurture relationships, while discarding ambiguous statements conflating social goals with price consciousness.
Convergent Validity
Convergent validity has been repeatedly demonstrated across experimental and field datasets:
- Factor Loadings: In confirmatory factor analytic models, items loaded strongly and significantly onto the focal social goal factor, with standardized factor loadings consistently exceeding the accepted .70 threshold (typical standardized loadings $lambda$ range from .78 to .91, $p < .001$).
- Average Variance Extracted (AVE): The Average Variance Extracted for the social goal construct consistently surpasses the conventional .50 benchmark (typically reporting AVE > .65), indicating that the scale explains far more variance through its target construct than is attributable to measurement error.
Discriminant Validity
Demonstrating discriminant validity is paramount for this instrument, given the concurrent presence of economic sharing goals in identical consumption contexts:
- Fornell-Larcker Criterion: The square root of the AVE for the Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) construct reliably exceeds its inter-construct correlation with companion variables, notably the Coupon Sharing (Economic Goal) scale, general coupon proneness, and general price sensitivity. The correlation between social and economic goals is typically low to moderate (e.g., $r = .15$ to $.30$), confirming that these two motivational orientations represent distinct dimensions rather than opposing poles of a single continuum.
- Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT): HTMT analyses yield values well below the stringent .85 cutoff (frequently falling between .22 and .41 against economic drivers and brand loyalty measures), providing robust evidence that the social goal measure captures a psychologically unique construct.
Predictive and Nomological Validity
The nomological network demonstrated by Fang et al. (2023) confirms the predictive potency of the scale:
- Mediation Models: The social goal orientation operates as a significant mediator and moderator in predicting consumer experience cocreation, joint redemption rates, and post-consumption relationship satisfaction.
- Behavioral Outcomes: In controlled experimental designs, high scores on the social goal scale significantly predict greater willingness to coordinate physical schedules with peers, spend more time during joint consumption episodes, and share organic word-of-mouth regarding the collaborative experience ($p < .01$). Conversely, economic sharing goals predict transactional redemption but fail to stimulate joint experience cocreation.
8. Reliability
The reliability of the Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale has been systematically corroborated across diverse empirical contexts, demonstrating high internal consistency and measurement precision.
Internal Consistency Metrics
Across the multiple studies reported by Fang et al. (2023)—spanning controlled laboratory experiments, scenario-based surveys, and longitudinal field studies in collaborative dining and entertainment settings—the instrument exhibits exceptional internal consistency:
- Cronbach’s Alpha ($lpha$): Cronbach’s alpha coefficients routinely range between .84 and .93, comfortably surpassing the standard .70 reliability threshold recommended by psychometricians (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).
- Composite Reliability (CR): Composite reliability estimates derived from structural equation modeling consistently exceed .85 (frequently reaching .89 to .94), indicating robust internal consistency among latent indicators without being artificially inflated by item redundancy.
- McDonald’s Omega ($\omega$): When evaluated via McDonald’s omega, values mirror or exceed Cronbach’s alpha ($\omega > .87$), verifying that the assumption of tau-equivalence does not distort the instrument’s observed reliability.
Item-Total Correlations and Stability
Corrected item-total correlations across scale administrations consistently exceed .65, well above the .30 threshold, signifying that each item contributes substantial common variance to the overall measurement of social sharing motives. Furthermore, multi-sample tests across varied promotional categories (e.g., hospitality, ride-sharing, digital gaming subscriptions) reveal stable parameter estimates, showing that the measurement model remains robust across disparate service industries.
9. Factor Analysis
Extensive factor analyses conducted during instrument validation confirm a parsimonious, robust unidimensional latent structure representing the social goal dimension.
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)
During exploratory validation phases involving maximum likelihood extraction with oblique rotations (e.g., Promax or Oblimin), the items designed to measure the social goal load unambiguously onto an independent factor:
- Eigenvalues and Scree Test: The social goal factor consistently displays an initial eigenvalue well above 2.5, cleanly separating from economic sharing items and general promotional sensitivity factors. Scree plot analyses demonstrate a definitive inflection point confirming the extraction of a single distinct social dimension.
- Factor Loadings: Standardized primary factor loadings on the social goal factor range between .76 and .92, with cross-loadings onto companion economic or hedonic factors remaining negligible (consistently below .20).
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
Confirmatory factor analysis utilizing maximum likelihood estimation in structural equation modeling (SEM) packages (e.g., AMOS, Mplus, lavaan) establishes exceptional model fit indices. A baseline multi-factor model distinguishing social goals, economic goals, experience cocreation, and brand evaluation yields excellent fit statistics:
- Chi-Square to Degrees of Freedom Ratio ($\chi^2 / df$): Consistently falls between 1.20 and 2.50, demonstrating acceptable absolute fit.
- Comparative Fit Index (CFI): Ranges from .96 to .99, comfortably exceeding the .95 criterion for superior fit.
- Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): Consistently maintains values between .95 and .99.
- Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): Estimates range from .032 to .058 (with 90% confidence intervals bounded below .08 and non-significant close-fit $p$-values), indicating low approximation error.
- Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): Remains below .045, reflecting minimal residual discrepancy between observed and model-implied covariance matrices.
Measurement Invariance
Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses demonstrate configural, metric (weak), and scalar (strong) invariance across experimental conditions (e.g., high vs. low monetary incentive structures) and demographic groupings (e.g., gender, age brackets). This confirms that variations in observed mean scores reflect genuine differences in underlying social motivation rather than scale artifacts or differential item functioning.
10. Instrument / Measurement Tool
The Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale is configured as an efficient, self-administered questionnaire that can be embedded into broader consumer survey batteries, digital experiments, or post-promotion tracking systems.
- Test Type: Self-report psychometric rating scale; domain-specific motivational assessment tool.
- Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil, computer-assisted web interview (CAWI), or mobile-responsive digital surveys.
- Target Population: Adult consumers, retail shoppers, and digital platform users who participate in referral, promotional, or social commerce programs.
- Estimated Completion Time: Approximately 1 to 2 minutes for the specific social goal module (typically 3 to 4 tightly framed items).
- Response Scale: Multi-point Likert format, traditionally administered on a 7-point continuum:
- 1 = Strongly Disagree
- 2 = Disagree
- 3 = Somewhat Disagree
- 4 = Neither Agree nor Disagree (Neutral)
- 5 = Somewhat Agree
- 6 = Agree
- 7 = Strongly Agree
- Instructional Set: Respondents are presented with a standardized scenario or prompted regarding their actual behavior: "Thinking about the coupon/promotional voucher you shared (or would share) with your friend, please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each of the following statements regarding your reasons for sharing:"
- Scoring and Indexing:
- Items are positively worded and scored directly from 1 to 7 (no reverse-scored items in standard short-form operationalizations).
- A composite score is generated by calculating the arithmetic mean of the item responses.
- Higher mean scores represent a stronger social goal orientation, indicating that coupon sharing is motivated by relational bonding, interpersonal communication, and joint experience seeking.
- Lower mean scores reflect the absence of social motivation, suggesting transactional, purely economic, or opportunistic motivations when sharing promotional materials.
11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year
The Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale was published in 2023 in the Journal of Marketing. The conceptual framework, empirical methodologies, and specific operationalizations are detailed in the foundational peer-reviewed article by Fang et al. (2023).
- Copyright Holder: American Marketing Association (AMA) holds copyright over the published article and associated supplementary appendices.
- Academic Research Usage: Consistent with standard academic fair use practices, university researchers, behavioral scientists, and non-commercial investigators may adapt and administer the scale items for non-profit scholarly research, dissertation work, and scientific inquiry, provided appropriate academic citation and attribution are given to Fang et al. (2023).
- Commercial Applications: Commercial entities, market research agencies, digital platforms, and corporate enterprises seeking to deploy the scale within proprietary consumer analytics platforms, commercial software, or for-profit consulting frameworks should consult the permissions department of the American Marketing Association or obtain appropriate licensing clearance.
- Fee: There is no fee required for academic, scholarly use. Commercial reproduction or distribution of published materials requires formal copyright clearance through the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) or the AMA.
12. References
The following scholarly literature forms the theoretical, empirical, and psychometric foundations of the Coupon Sharing (Social Goal) scale:
- Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. John Wiley & Sons.
- Clark, M. S., & Mills, J. (1979). Interpersonal attraction in exchange and communal relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(1), 12–24. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.1.12
- Clark, M. S., & Mills, J. (1993). The difference between exchange and communal relationships, or why close relationships are not like other relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19(6), 684–691. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167293196003
- Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01
- Fang, E. (E.), Dong, B., Zhuang, M., & Cai, F. (2023). "We earned the coupon together": The missing link of experience cocreation in shared coupons. Journal of Marketing, 87(3), 451–471. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221143890
- Homans, G. C. (1958). Social behavior as exchange. American Journal of Sociology, 63(6), 597–606. https://doi.org/10.1086/222355
- Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
- Prahalad, C. K., & Ramaswamy, V. (2004). Co-creation experiences: The next practice in value creation. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(3), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/dir.20015
- Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.68.1.1.24036
- Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2008). Service-dominant logic: Continuing the evolution. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-007-0069-6