Date of Award
2018
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration
Specialization
Marketing
Department
Business Administration
First Advisor
Daniel A. Sheinin
Abstract
Participatory pricing consists of unique pricing mechanisms which can provide firms an opportunity to differentiate themselves by allowing consumers to have some influence in setting the price in transactions. Many firms attempting to utilize participatory pricing mechanisms have struggled or even failed in their attempts. Understanding the role of branding with participatory pricing and how it is associated with consumer perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors would be beneficial as more firms attempt to utilize this pricing mechanism. Additionally, examining how giving consumers autonomy in part of the pricing mechanism could provide marketing managers insights into their purchasing preferences and behaviors.
Two manuscripts in this dissertation examine aspects of participatory pricing and contribute to the emerging literature. Manuscript I furthers our understanding of branding in the context of elective pricing, also known as pay-what-you-want pricing. We investigate how self-brand congruity, self-construal, perceived quality, and price autonomy are associated with consumer purchase intentions (purchase likelihood and perceived satisfaction). We find significant main effects for self-brand congruity, perceived quality, and price autonomy on purchase intentions. Additionally, we find a significant interaction effect between price autonomy and product quality on consumer purchase intentions. As perceived product quality decreases, consumer purchase intentions significantly decrease for consumers exposed to fixed prices, but no change occurs for consumers exposed to elective prices.
Manuscript II investigates how autonomy with surcharges is associated with consumer purchase intentions as well as examine how offer exclusivity and reactance. We find a main effect for surcharge autonomy on purchase intentions. Additionally, we find a significant interaction effect between surcharge autonomy and reactance where consumers with high levels of reactance have significantly lower purchase intentions when they are offered mandatory surcharges than when they are offered optional surcharges. Lastly, we find a significant interaction effect between surcharge autonomy and offer exclusivity where consumers receiving a mandatory surcharge that was inclusive, offered to everyone, had significantly higher purchase intentions than consumers receiving a mandatory surcharge that was exclusive, offered just to them.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Blair, James, "ESSAYS ON PARTICIPATORY PRICING, BRANDING, AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR" (2018). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 822.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/822