Does price reflect emotional,structural or performance quality?

Three denim jeans products from the same manufacturer with differentiated pricing and labels (antiqued, sandblasted, and stonewashed) were used to determine the relationship between price and quality. Both qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to analyse the garments. All three jeans were made of twill weave with 3 × 1 repeat. Both structural and performance characteristics were compared using standardized tests. Analysis of variance was used to compare the selected structural and performance characteristics among the three jeans products. Tukey’s HSD tests were used for post hoc multiple comparisons for three jeans. The findings revealed that despite the fact that all three jeans products were from the same store, and that the fabrics used the same weave, degree and direction of twist, the jeans differed significantly for several structural and performance characteristics. Several possibilities for future research were explored.     

Getting a feel for price affect: A conceptual framework and empirical investigation of consumers' emotional responses to price information

Behavioral pricing research is cognitively biased. Therefore, the research agenda for this paper is to examine consumers' emotional responses to price information, or price affect. A conceptual framework of price affect based on appraisal theory is proposed. Moreover, a psychometric measure of price affect capturing positive and negative emotions is derived. A field experiment involving N = 1533 consumers reveals that a price increase leads to changes in price affect. Also, negative price affect is related to passive consumer behavior, whereas positive price affect is associated with proactive consumer behavior. Yet, a price increase reduces the importance of price affect in predicting consumer behavior. In addition, both price cognitions and price affect mediate the effect of a price increase on consumer behavior. Consistent with appraisal theory, a price increase exerts its causal influence on price affect through changes in price cognitions. Similarly, price affect mediates the effect of price cognitions on consumer behavior. Finally, price affect improves the prediction of consumer behavior beyond price cognitions. Results suggest that price affect is a stand alone, previously overlooked predictor of consumer behavior. Implications are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The price of copper

This article may be of particular interest in view of the fact that UNCTAD has now for the first time set down a schedule for preparatory negotiations on raw materials. The resolution of UNCTAD IV on the treatment of the integrated action programme for raw materials is now to be realised. Negotiations on copper will take place in Geneva between Sept. 9 and Oct. 10, 1976.     

The impact of external reference price on consumer price expectations

Comparative pricing practices are frequently used where actual product prices are accompanied by higher external reference prices. All types of stores, regular-price department stores as well as discount stores, use comparative price claims to frame price deals as attractive [Marketing Science 4 (1985) 199]. In this paper, a quadratic model is specified for the impact of external reference price (ERP) on consumer price expectations. Based on the research on communication discrepancy and advertising claim discrepancy, which in turn draw on assimilation-contrast, attribution, and prospect theories, we hypothesize a quadratic effect of external reference prices on consumer price expectations. An interactive, computer-controlled experiment using multiple levels of ERP is used to estimate the proposed model. As hypothesized, support for an inverted U-shape relationship is found between consumers’ updated price expectations and the difference between ERP and initial price expectations. That is, as the difference between ERP and subjects’ initial price expectations increases, subjects’ updated price expectations increase to a point and then start to decrease. We find that the fit of the quadratic model specification for the effect of external reference price on price expectations is noticeably superior to that of linear, logarithmic, square root, and S-shaped specifications. Finally, we provide implications of our results for both retail managers and for regulatory authorities alike.     

Low price guarantees as signals of lowest price: The moderating role of perceived price dispersion

This article presents two experimental studies examining the effects of a low price guarantee on consumers’ pre-purchase evaluations and behavioral intentions. The authors first examine how the effects of a low price guarantee are moderated by consumer perception of market price dispersion. The results show that low price guarantee effects are likely to be attenuated when consumers perceive market price dispersion for a product to be high. The second study shows that higher levels of penalty can help restore a low price guarantee's effectiveness. Specifically, a low price guarantee with progressively higher levels of penalty leads to incrementally more favorable effects on key consumer outcomes when perceived price dispersion is high. Interestingly, penalty level has no such incremental benefit in case of low perceived price dispersion. Theoretical and managerial implications of the authors’ findings, the limitations of the studies, and future research opportunities are discussed.     

The price of a reservation

Although hotels commonly do not charge guests for making or breaking reservations, hotels do incur a measurable cost by accepting reservations.     

The practical side of international trade

We've all heard stories about U.S. exporters who shipped goods, then were not paid—or importers who bought goods from abroad, then found them not up to quality or received them too late. These problems are often due to too much concentration on the glamorous side of international trade and too little attention to the practical.     

The theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship

There is an on-going debate in the entrepreneurship academy about whether we can actually teach students to be entrepreneurs. Its resolution is inextricably connected with our theoretical assumptions because they affect how and what we teach. This article is the first in a set of two contained in this issue that argues that we should develop more refined, cumulative theory and teach it to students in a way that emphasizes learning by doing, which should accelerate student mastery. This first article treats the theoretical side of teaching entrepreneurship, whereas the second addresses the pedagogical side of entrepreneurship theory.Those who advocate that entrepreneurship can be understood and taught to students assume that researchers will eventually develop a more general theory of entrepreneurship. Theory is an essential part of what we teach because we do not know any other way to help students anticipate the future, which is a key to entrepreneurial success, unless we counsel them to rely on luck or intuition. The limitation of luck and intuition is that we do not know how to teach either of them. If students could accurately anticipate the future, they could allocate their resources in the most productive manner, which would ensure their survival, satisfaction and prosperity. Despite the current limitations of our theorizing, theory still offers the most promise as course content for students.This article sides with Kuhn (1970) who argued that theory is the most practical thing that we can teach to students. Its purpose is to comment on the progress to date in developing entrepreneurship theory. It begins by analyzing the contents of 18 syllabi provided by participants at a retreat for entrepreneurship scholars. It notes a wide divergence in topics, and possible causes for this divergence, which seem to be characteristic of a developing academic discipline. It appeals for more theory in our courses and suggests questions to which entrepreneurship scholars can provide distinctive answers when compared with those offered by scholars from other disciplines.One way to add more theoretical content to entrepreneurship courses is to teach students what they ought to do, which is coded language for theory. In addition, instructors should not merely describe what entrepreneurs do, particularly in light of the observation that most of them fail and accordingly have been described as ill-fated fools. Finally, assuming that scholars can offer a more general theory of entrepreneurship, they would be able to emphasize more deductive approaches as opposed to inductive ones.These appeals for more theoretical content depend on several assumptions, which include: (1) the improbability that students can encounter circumstances that would be similar to anecdotal lessons learned in entrepreneurship school; (2) the existence of a process that can be explained theoretically; (3) studying ideal types can be discouraging to aspiring entrepreneurs if they do not fit a special profile; (4) the high failure rate among entrepreneurs makes suggesting to students that they ought to pattern their activities after them seem illogical; (5) studying average profiles, anecdotal recommendations, rules of thumb or war stories can only lead to average returns, given semi-strong information efficiency; and (6) leveraging the motivational benefits of studying successful entrepreneurs may have detrimental, unintended consequences, among others.This article notes possible causes of non-cumulative theory building and suggests several opportunities to build cumulative theory. Although it acknowledges that the field of entrepreneurship currently lacks cumulative theory, it offers a contingency approach for teaching entrepreneurship, which is actually very similar to the scientific method used by scholars to develop hypotheses about the future.     

The pedagogical side of entrepreneurship theory

This is the second article in a set of two in this issue that deals with challenges in entrepreneurship education related to theory building and pedagogy. The first article argued that educators must increase the theoretical content in their courses if they hope to develop in students the cognitive skills to make better entrepreneurial decisions. This second article discusses a strategy for teaching entrepreneurship theory.The difficulty with teaching theory to entrepreneurship students is that they are likely to complain that “theory is boring! Lectures are boring! School is boring!” All three of these—theory, lecture, and school can also be irrelevant. We as teachers can also be boring and irrelevant! Students may not understand that learning theory can be highly interesting. Unfortunately, the process used to teach theory could be boring.We become boring as teachers when our classroom style becomes predictable because students are never surprised. We become irrelevant as teachers when we fail to apply theory as a tool to answer student questions. Good theory can always pass the test of applicability. If we fail to teach our students how to apply it in surprising ways, it is we who are at fault, not the theory.An effective strategy for teaching theory to students must be approved by them and monitored by teachers to be effective. If our purpose is to assist students to become skilled in theory-based competencies, the most effective method is to establish a student-approved system for class meetings that requires students to practice specific skills. Obtaining student approval is important because almost any system will work better if students feel good about it. In other words, students acquire competencies through their practice with theory-based activities.A theory-based activity approach is based on the assumption that to the extent that a teacher is the initiator of knowledge transfer, students tend to practice less and acquire fewer competencies. This occurs because it is the teacher who is the most engaged, not the students, which is the reverse of what is optimal.One way to evaluate our involvement in the classroom is to ask ourselves if our goal is to have students leaving class talking about how great we are as a teacher, rather than about how wonderful it would be to be an entrepreneur. If our students leave talking about being entrepreneurs instead of about us, we have probably figured out how to involve them in activities that help them to develop personal competencies.The teacher's primary role is to achieve student approval of the learning contract and to identify the theory-based competencies to be mastered. The question for educators faced with ensuring student mastery is not, “What an I going to teach today?” but “What am I going to have my students do today?” The teacher's task can be made easier by delegating part of the responsibility for the second question to students. Delegation of learning activities to students can introduce more variety and surprises into the classroom, each of which can aleviate boredom. It also provides teachers an opportunity to work more closely with students as they attempt to understand theory in anticipation of their classroom assignment to lead the learning activity.The remainder of this article discusses how to implement a theory-based activity approach, obstacles to its success and advantages of its use. The greatest advantage of its use is that students will be learning theory that can improve their odds of being successful as entrepreneurs. Of course their success depends upon us as scholars having gone before them and discovered the rules (theory) according to which events occur (c.f., Whitehead, 1917).     

浅谈投标报价的形成过程

随着<中华人民共和国招投标法>的颁布和实施,工程建设招投标市场日趋规范化和法制化.直至今日,几乎所有工程项目均需通过招投标方式发承包,投标已成为施工企业市场经营活动的重要组成部分,而投标报价则是招投标双方共同关注的焦点,投标的成功与否很大程度上处决于报价的合理水平.本文着重分析投标报价的形成过程,以便合理调整报价提高中标率.     

谈内部转移价格的类型

企业内部转移价格的种类通常是按制定转移价格的基础来确定的,包括成本基础和市场价格基础.不存在最优的内部转移价格.各企业生产条件不同,转移价格应当适应特定的生产条件和环境条件的要求.但无论如何,制定的内部转移价格要能够促使各责任中心最大限度地为达到整个企业的目标而努力.     

对价值和价格关系的解读

在资产评估中经常接触价值和价格两个概念,笔者结合工作实际和所学理论进行阐述两者关系和市场特征.     

The effects of informative and non‐informative price patterns on consumer price judgments

Converging evidence from laboratory experiments and empirical models of scanner data suggests that product price evaluations are often based on a comparison to an internal reference price. Research indicates that the reference price may reflect various characteristics of previously encountered prices including the mean, the range, and the last price encountered. In this research, the authors test whether, for prices purportedly sampled over time, the reference price reflects temporal patterns of the price sequence (ascending and descending prices). In four studies, participants viewed prices purportedly sampled at one time point or at multiple time points and then evaluated a target price. Price distributions differed only in their temporal pattern, whereas the mean, the range, and in some conditions, the last price, were held constant. The results reveal that the price pattern does not affect price judgments when prices are purportedly sampled at one time point. However, for ascending and descending price sequences purportedly sampled over time, the price pattern affects price judgments. Based on these findings the authors propose that consumers flexibly select the internal reference price used for price evaluations. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.