The Effects of The Reasons of A Price Increase,Product Characters,and Market Situations on Price Fairness Perceptions.

• Main Authors: Wan-Hua Li, 李婉華
• Other Authors: 張重昭
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/75806432269148398887

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 商學研究所 === 93 === The price acceptability of products and service would influence consumers’ purchase intentions. Perceived price fairness has been identified as one psychological factor that exerts an important influence on consumers’ reactions to price. Research suggests that consumers sometimes are concerned with the fairness of a price, particularly of a price increase, and that they dislike and are often unwilling to pay a price that is perceived as unfair （e.g. Etzioni 1988；Kahneman）. Many factors can influence consumers’ perceptions of price fairness. Some are internal factors, such as the reasons of the price increase, or disclosure of cost information etc., and others are external ones, such as market situations or product characteristics. The primary purpose of this research is to examine the effects of reasons of a price increase on perceptions of price fairness for utilitarian and hedonic products under different market situations. The target products are printer and amusement park and one 4x2x2 experiment is employed in this research. The four reasons of a price increase that are focused on are one uncontrollably（complying with governmental regulations）and three controllably（improving the quality of the product、increasing personnel cost and donations to charity）. Two market situations are studied：excess demand and non excess demand. Two product characteristics are studied：utilitarian and hedonic products. The major findings are as follows： 1.Telling consumers the reasons of a price increase will be perceived as fairer than increasing price by telling them nothing. 2.Various reasons of the price increase will influence consumers’ perceptions of price fairness. Price increases driven by factors that are perceived to be outside the seller’s volitional control will be perceived as fairer than those driven by factors perceived to be within a seller’s volitional control. 3.When consumers buy utilitarian products under non excess demand situation , the reasons of a price increase are improving the quality of the product and complying with governmental regulations will reinforce consumers’ perceptions of price fairness. 4.When consumers buy utilitarian products under excess demand situation, four reasons of a price increase will have the same effects as reinforcing consumers’ perceptions of price fairness. 5.When consumers buy hedonic products, market situations does not influence consumers’ perceptions of price fairness；however, the reasons of a price increase does. The reasons of a price increase are improving the quality of the product、complying with governmental regulations and donations to charity will reinforce consumers’ perceptions of price fairness.