Whether or Not to Use a Quick Response (QR) Code in the Ad

Abstract

Purpose QR codes have a multitude of benefits for both the scanning consumers and advertisers. We empirically examine print ads in Fortune magazine to explore the factors behind a company’s decision on whether or not to use QR codes in its print ads.

Design/methodology/approach In our model, we focus on the role of a company’s past decisions as well as its competitors’ past decisions. We adopt a binary logit model with multiple explanatory variables to control for advertiser type, past behavior, and past competitive behavior.

Findings We find that companies are likely to be influenced by their own past behavior in their decision to use QR codes in their print ads. We also find that companies are more likely to start adopting QR codes when their competitors have done so in the past.

Originality/Value To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to examine QR codes in a descriptive, objective, multivariate, scientific study. Although the incidence of QR codes is currently low, we expect increased overall usage of QR codes in the future because of strong inertia and mimicry effects we find in our empirical investigation.

Keywords: Advertising, Competition, Logit Model, Quick Response (QR)

JEL Classification: M3, M30, M31