Motivation for Tipping: The Case of the U.S. Ridesharing Industry

Abstract

Tipping behavior is often overlooked in the academic literature, where it often focuses mostly on the restaurant industry. In this paper I use the Tipping Motivational Framework proposed by Lynn (2015) and apply it to the ride-sharing industry by distributing a survey to the campus of SUNY Purchase. The results from the survey indicate evidence that the strongest motivation factor is through service outcomes, subjects indicated they are highly receptive to how well their driver performed and tip accordingly. There is also evidence to support social motivations such as tipping out of concern of the driver's income and tipping in adherence to the normative 20% tip behavior found amongst many tipping industries. It must be said however, that these results are not indicative of the entire U.S population as the sample consisted of 28 economics students at SUNY Purchase.