Examining differences in consumer reactions to partitioned prices with a variable number of price components

Positive marketing: Introduction to the special section

“…Many markets are incomplete and feature external effects. Moreover participants are often imperfectly informed (Kivetz & Simonson, 2000), express their values through their consumption choices (e.g., McCarty and Shrum, 1993;Pasewark & Riley, 2010) including their notions of fairness (e.g., Carlson & Weathers, 2008;Xia & Kukar-Kinney, 2014), and often fail to make optimal decisions (e.g., Johnson, Tellis & MacInnis, 2010).…”

Partitioned pricing, price fairness perceptions, and the moderating effects of brand relationships in SME business markets

“…However, partitioned pricing has more applications than simply base price plus surcharge. While extant research typically examines two component prices (e.g., base plus surcharge, see Bambauer & Gierl, 2008;Burman & Biswas, 2007;Morwitz et al, 1998), the current research extends Carlson and Weathers (2008) research by examining six component prices and a total price. The findings of these two studies also build on Love's (2012) efforts to better understand combined partitioned pricing and branding effects.…”

“…Procedural transparency is unusual in consumer settings, but relatively common in business settings (Ferguson, Ellen, & Bearden 2014). Partitioned pricing is an example of transparent pricing because it presents multiple prices for a single product or service instead of one, all-inclusive price (Carlson & Weathers, 2008). For instance, partitioned pricing could involve a base price plus additional surcharges for shipping and handling, taxes, and processing fees, instead of one total or bundled price (Volckner, Ruhle, & Spann, 2012).…”

The price does not include additional taxes, fees, and surcharges: A review of research on partitioned pricing

“…Brand attitudes decrease when consumers facing PP attribute price recall errors to the firm's actions rather than to themselves (Lee & Han, 2002). Higher surcharges can reduce perceptions of price fairness (Sheng, Bao, & Pan, 2007), as can using more components in a PP when a seller is not trusted (Carlson & Weathers, 2008). Xia and Monroe (2004) found some evidence suggesting that PP may decrease search intentions, but the results were not statistically significant.…”