Buyer Risk Reduction Through Adaptive Market Conditions

The variability of product quality and performance between industries, firms, and products causes the buyer to be uncertain of receiving a desired level of future utility. The uncertainty experienced by the buyer results from the conditions of the purchase decision as well as the effect which anticipations and doubts about the quality of future product performance have on that decision. This paper diverges from past risk research by considering the origin and sources of a specific type of risk, namely performance risk, and by considering the impact which decisions and activities of the private and public sectors, extraneous to the individual consumer, have on the level of performance risk perceived by buyers.