The Effect of Distance on Persuasion in International E-mail Marketing Campaigns

Authors

Peter Magnusson, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
Stanford A. Westjohn, University of Alabama - TuscaloosaFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

We investigate the relative effectiveness of different persuasive appeals in international e-mail customer acquisition marketing campaigns. We conducted three separate experiments, including two lab experiments and one field experiment, to examine the impact of different persuasive appeals on customers. Our research specifically focuses on consensus and authority-focused persuasive appeals. Our findings consistently show that when there is a small cultural distance between the seller and potential buyer, consensus appeals are more effective. On the other hand, when there is a large cultural distance, authority appeals are more effective.

Comments

Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2025.102454

Recommended Citation

Magnusson, P. and Westjohn, S.A. (2025) ‘The effect of distance on persuasion in international e-mail marketing campaigns’, International Business Review, p. 102454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2025.102454

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2025.102454