Excessive Pricing at the Covid-19 Pandemic: Big Data Insights From Consumer Complaints

Abstract

This study focuses on the excessive pricing issue that practiced by ecommerce websites during the Covid-19 pandemic. To understand the antecedents of excessive pricing and the expectations of consumers, Attribution Theory and Equity Theory were utilized. A total of 4,001 data were analyzed following a text mining methodology. Results showed that the main problem stems from the profit-oriented approach of the thirdparty sellers for the excessive pricing issue. According to results, while sudden price hikes without a reasonable excuse, stockpiling and opportunism were determined as the antecedents of excessive pricing; immediate action and the attention of authorities were appeared as the expectations of consumers. This result is clearly proved that consumers think they are deceived by stockpiling and opportunistic behavior arising from price gouging and wait for an urgent response from the authorities. Moreover, consumers’ price comparisons by using the terms “today,”“yesterday,”“before,” and “after” totally represent the perception of unfairness of price increases which is in parallel with the Equity Theory. Consumers who particularly pick the terms “authority,”“immediate,” and “attention” are by far the most dissatisfied ones and support their complaints by attaching proofs. This behavior is one of the effective ways to fight against price gougers’ uncontrollable practices and making the brand visible which coincides with the Attribution Theory. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first conducted with the competent authority provided data rather than using complaint websites or social media tools.