The Impact of Website Social Presence and Price Level on Perceptions of Price Fairness

• Main Authors: Pei-JungHuang, 黃珮蓉
• Other Authors: Hsin-Hsin Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/22304852197098138776

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 企業管理學系碩博士班 === 98 === Customers usually require convenience and reasonable prices when they are shopping online. Charging customers who buy the same product differently based on the multi-channel (such as online store and offline store) pricing strategy affects their perception of price fairness. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate how the price level influences consumers’ cognitive (perceptions of price fairness), affection (emotion and satisfaction), and behavioral reactions (inertia, self-protection, revenge) in a situation in which the buyer is charged a higher price in the online store than in the physical store. In addition, this study also explores how website social presence (elements of human warmth and sociability) positively impacts the effects of differential pricing on consumer perceptions of price fairness, emotion, and satisfaction. In this study, a six factor between-subject experiment was conducted to simulate the several situations. ANOVA and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze 431 samples. An empirical study was undertaken to investigate the impact of high levels of price on perceptions of price unfairness. Second, price fairness positively influenced both emotion and satisfaction. Third, customer emotion had a positive influence on satisfaction. Fourth, emotion had a negative effect on inertia and positive effect on self-protection and revenge, while satisfaction affected behavioral response. Fifth, the website social presence positively influenced both emotion and satisfaction. Finally, this study suggests that managers could improve website social presence when consumers perceive price unfairness.