Hidden Persuaders: Do Small Gifts Lubricate Business Negotiations?
通过实地实验发现，销售人员在谈判开始时赠送小礼物平均能带来两倍以上的收入，但首次见面时小礼物反而适得其反，说明商业关系性质影响礼物效果。
Gift-giving customs are ubiquitous in social, political, and business life. Legal regulation and industry guidelines for gifts are often based on the assumption that large gifts potentially influence behavior and create conflicts of interest, but small gifts do not. However, scientific evidence on the impact of small gifts on business relationships is scarce. We conducted a natural field experiment in collaboration with sales agents of a multinational consumer products company to study the influence of small gifts on the outcome of business negotiations. We find that small gifts matter. On average, sales representatives generate more than twice as much revenue when they distribute a small gift at the onset of their negotiations. However, we also find that small gifts tend to be counterproductive when purchasing and sales agents meet for the first time, suggesting that the nature of the business relationship crucially affects the profitability of gifts. This paper was accepted by John List, behavioral economics.