Social Media, Influencers, and Adoption of an Eco-Friendly Product: Field Experiment Evidence from Rural China

Can low-cost marketing tools that are used to enhance business performance also contribute to creating a better world? The authors investigate the role of online social media tools in alleviating customer (farmer) uncertainty and promoting the adoption of a new eco-friendly pesticide in rural China via a randomized controlled field experiment. The key finding is that even for a new product such as a pesticide, a low-cost social media support...