Treffer: Reducing front-line service providers' economic vulnerability: online customer acquisition in the sex trade.

Purpose: The authors focus on a little-studied facet of vulnerability amongst FLEs (front-line employees) by addressing whether rising costs of customer acquisition contribute to vulnerability and exploitation. This paper aims to identify ways to reduce FLEs' economic vulnerability in a market with restrictions on the promotion of services, the sex trade, by comparing the rate of customer acquisition across different digital channels. Design/methodology/approach: The primary data set consists of a fetish studio's customer acquisition data over a four-month period, which includes information about the channels prospects used to first contact the provider. Using a hazard model they compare the probability of acquiring a new customer across the various digital channels, which vary in how inclusive vs exclusive they are. Bayesian modeling is also used to validate the hazard model. Findings: Of the three primary channels that prospective customers can use to reach the seller, the most restrictive channel (online forum) yields the highest customer acquisition rate. More inclusive channels that place few restrictions on potential customers produce a lower rate of acquisition of actual customers, and thus are more costly to the seller. Practical implications: From a policy perspective, the findings show that restricting promotion can benefit sellers in a controversial marketplace as long as they carefully manage the customer acquisition channels. More restrictive channels allow FLEs in the sex-trade to lower the costs of acquiring new clients and these reduced costs in time and effort in turn reduce FLEs' vulnerability. Originality/value: Some FLEs are vulnerable by virtue of their work in a specific market, a type of vulnerability not previously documented in prior research. Those who work in controversial markets often do so because of economic necessity. In those markets, greater costs for customer acquisition can increase vulnerability because they can lead to riskier behavior to acquire customers. Although channels that place restrictions on consumers can be exclusionary, they can benefit sellers by reducing customer acquisition costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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