IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v146y2022icp426-435.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fortune or Prestige? The effects of content price on sales and customer satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Zhi
  • Cao, Xia
  • Wang, Feng
  • Lu, Chongyu

Abstract

Although content sharing on the Internet used to be free of charge, increasing numbers of customers are willing to pay for shared online content. However, little is known about whether, when, and why the price of shared content affects the benefits of sharer. Using a secondary data analysis and two lab experiments, this paper examines the effect of content pricing on content sales and customer satisfaction. The results indicate that content price has a divergent impact on sales and customer satisfaction. Specifically, an increase in content price improves sales but hurts customer satisfaction for certified sharers; an increase in content price hurts sales but improves customer satisfaction for non-certified sharers. Thus, content sharers cannot use the pricing mechanism to simultaneously enjoy high sales (fortune) and high customer satisfaction (prestige), and they need the trade-off between sales and customer satisfaction. These findings have theoretical and managerial implications for content sharing.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Zhi & Cao, Xia & Wang, Feng & Lu, Chongyu, 2022. "Fortune or Prestige? The effects of content price on sales and customer satisfaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 426-435.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:146:y:2022:i:c:p:426-435
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322003137
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.075?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sabrina V. Helm & Victoria Ligon & Tony Stovall & Silvia Riper, 2018. "Consumer interpretations of digital ownership in the book market," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 28(2), pages 177-189, May.
    2. Jang, Seongsoo & Chung, Jaihak, 2021. "What drives add-on sales in mobile games? The role of inter-price relationship and product popularity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 59-68.
    3. Min Zhao & Darren W. Dahl & Steve Hoeffler, 2014. "Optimal Visualization Aids and Temporal Framing for New Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(4), pages 1137-1151.
    4. Franziska Völckner & Julian Hofmann, 2007. "The price-perceived quality relationship: A meta-analytic review and assessment of its determinants," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 181-196, September.
    5. Gentina, Elodie & Shrum, L.J. & Lowrey, Tina M., 2016. "Teen attitudes toward luxury fashion brands from a social identity perspective: A cross-cultural study of French and U.S. teenagers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5785-5792.
    6. Ding, Min & Ross, William T. & Rao, Vithala R., 2010. "Price as an Indicator of Quality: Implications for Utility and Demand Functions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 69-84.
    7. Ozgun Atasoy & Carey K Morewedge & Vicki MorwitzEditor & Kristin DiehlAssociate Editor, 2018. "Digital Goods Are Valued Less Than Physical Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(6), pages 1343-1357.
    8. Fengyan Cai & Rajesh Bagchi & Dinesh K. Gauri, 2016. "Boomerang Effects of Low Price Discounts: How Low Price Discounts Affect Purchase Propensity," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(5), pages 804-816.
    9. Jang, Seongsoo & Chung, Jaihak, 2021. "Corrigendum to [What drives add-on sales in mobile games? The role of inter-price relationship and product popularity]," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 588-588.
    10. Min Zhao & Darren W. Dahl & Steve Hoeffler, 2014. "Optimal Visualization Aids and Temporal Framing for New Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(4), pages 1137-1151.
    11. Dan J. Kim & Donald L. Ferrin & H. Raghav Rao, 2009. "Trust and Satisfaction, Two Stepping Stones for Successful E-Commerce Relationships: A Longitudinal Exploration," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 237-257, June.
    12. Grewal, Dhruv & Gotlieb, Jerry & Marmorstein, Howard, 1994. "The Moderating Effects of Message Framing and," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 145-153, June.
    13. Huotari, Pontus & Ritala, Paavo, 2021. "When to switch between subscription-based and ad-sponsored business models: Strategic implications of decreasing content novelty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 14-28.
    14. Luri Minami, Adriana & Ramos, Carla & Bruscato Bortoluzzo, Adriana, 2021. "Sharing economy versus collaborative consumption: What drives consumers in the new forms of exchange?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 124-137.
    15. Borges-Tiago, Maria Teresa & Tiago, Flavio & Cosme, Carla, 2019. "Exploring users' motivations to participate in viral communication on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 574-582.
    16. Hsu, Hsuan Yu & Tsou, Hung-Tai, 2011. "Understanding customer experiences in online blog environments," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 510-523.
    17. Eugene W. Anderson & Mary W. Sullivan, 1993. "The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for Firms," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 125-143.
    18. Adriana Samper & Janet A. Schwartz, 2013. "Price Inferences for Sacred versus Secular Goods: Changing the Price of Medicine Influences Perceived Health Risk," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(6), pages 1343-1358.
    19. Dmitri Kuksov & Ying Xie, 2010. "Pricing, Frills, and Customer Ratings," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 925-943, 09-10.
    20. G. Tomas M. Hult & Forrest V. Morgeson & Neil A. Morgan & Sunil Mithas & Claes Fornell, 2017. "Do managers know what their customers think and why?," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 37-54, January.
    21. Chou, Chien-Hsiang & Wang, Yi-Shun & Tang, Tzung-I, 2015. "Exploring the determinants of knowledge adoption in virtual communities: A social influence perspective," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 364-376.
    22. Erickson, Gary M & Johansson, Johny K, 1985. "The Role of Price in Multi-attribute Product Evaluations," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(2), pages 195-199, September.
    23. Torsten Bornemann & Christian Homburg, 2011. "Psychological Distance and the Dual Role of Price," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(3), pages 490-504.
    24. Julian Hofmann & Michel Clement & Franziska Völckner & Thorsten Hennig-Thurau, 2007. "The price-perceived quality relationship: A meta-analytic review and assessment of its determinants," Post-Print hal-02990424, HAL.
    25. William Boulding & Richard Staelin, 1995. "Identifying Generalizable Effects of Strategic Actions on Firm Performance: The Case of Demand-Side Returns to R&D Spending," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3_supplem), pages 222-236.
    26. Cordell, Victor V. & Wongtada, Nittaya & Kieschnick, Robert Jr., 1996. "Counterfeit purchase intentions: Role of lawfulness attitudes and product traits as determinants," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 41-53, January.
    27. Raghubir, Priya, 2006. "An information processing review of the subjective value of money and prices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(10-11), pages 1053-1062, October.
    28. Ho, Jason Y.C. & Dempsey, Melanie, 2010. "Viral marketing: Motivations to forward online content," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1000-1006, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Benoit, Sabine & Wang, Yonggui & Teng, Lefa & Hampson, Daniel P. & Li, Xia, 2022. "Innovation in the sharing economy: A framework and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 207-216.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisco B. Galarza & Gabriella Wong, 2017. "The Impact of Price Information on Consumer Behavior: An Experiment," Working Papers 106, Peruvian Economic Association.
    2. Abhishek Borah & Francesca Bonetti & Angelito Calma & José Martí-Parreño, 2023. "The Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science at 50: A historical analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 222-243, January.
    3. Park, Taehee & Yoo, Dongho, 2023. "Consumer perceptions of price increase by CSR: Focusing on construal level and consumer attribution," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    4. Mukherjee, Amaradri & Jha, Subhash & Smith, Ronn J., 2017. "Regular Price $299; Pre-order Price $199: Price Promotion for a Pre-ordered Product and the Moderating Role of Temporal Orientation," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 201-211.
    5. Kim, Joonkyung & Zhao, Min & Soman, Dilip, 2023. "Converging vs diverging: The effect of visual representation of goal structure on financial decisions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 362-377.
    6. Wang, Le & Luo, Xin (Robert) & Li, Han, 2022. "Envy or conformity? An empirical investigation of peer influence on the purchase of non-functional items in mobile free-to-play games," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 308-324.
    7. Philp, Matthew & Ashworth, Laurence, 2020. "I should have known better!: When firm-caused failure leads to self-image concerns and reduces negative word-of-mouth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 283-293.
    8. Balabanis, George & Stathopoulou, Anastasia, 2021. "The price of social status desire and public self-consciousness in luxury consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 463-475.
    9. Xiaoke Yang & Meiling Hong & Dejin Shi & Qian Chen, 2022. "The Negative Effects of Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent Labels on Consumers’ Food Brand Evaluation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-19, October.
    10. Xiaoke Yang & Yuanhao Huang & Xiaoying Cai & Yijing Song & Hui Jiang & Qian Chen & Qiuhua Chen, 2021. "Using Imagination to Overcome Fear: How Mental Simulation Nudges Consumers’ Purchase Intentions for Upcycled Food," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    11. Goode, Sigi & Lin, Chinho & Fernandez, Walter & Jiang, James J., 2014. "Exploring two explanations of loyalty in application service provision," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(2), pages 649-657.
    12. Wendy W. Moe & David A. Schweidel, 2012. "Online Product Opinions: Incidence, Evaluation, and Evolution," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 372-386, May.
    13. Gagnon-Bartsch, Tristan & Rosato, Antonio, 2022. "Quality is in the eye of the beholder: taste projection in markets with observational learning," MPRA Paper 115426, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Leonie Kuen & Fiona Schürmann & Daniel Westmattelmann & Sophie Hartwig & Shay Tzafrir & Gerhard Schewe, 2023. "Trust transfer effects and associated risks in telemedicine adoption," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, December.
    15. Yani Wang & Jun Wang & Tang Yao, 2019. "What makes a helpful online review? A meta-analysis of review characteristics," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 257-284, June.
    16. Boccali, Filippo & Mariani, Marcello M. & Visani, Franco & Mora-Cruz, Alexandra, 2022. "Innovative value-based price assessment in data-rich environments: Leveraging online review analytics through Data Envelopment Analysis to empower managers and entrepreneurs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    17. William Fritz & Rhonda Hadi & Andrew Stephen, 2023. "From tablet to table: How augmented reality influences food desirability," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 503-529, May.
    18. Colicev, Anatoli, 2023. "How can non-fungible tokens bring value to brands," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 30-37.
    19. Rokonuzzaman, Md & Iyer, Pramod & Harun, Ahasan, 2021. "Return policy, No joke: An investigation into the impact of a retailer's return policy on consumers' decision making," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    20. Zhao, Haichuan & Jiang, Lan & Su, Chenting, 2020. "To Defend or Not to Defend? How Responses to Negative Customer Review Affect Prospective customers' Distrust and Purchase Intention," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 45-64.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:146:y:2022:i:c:p:426-435. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.