IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v71y2023ics0969698922003095.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumers’ choice of private label considering reference price and moderating effect

Author

Listed:
  • Mao, Zhixin
  • Duan, Yongrui
  • Liu, Wenxia

Abstract

Retailers frequently place private labels (PLs) next to the top-moving sales national brands (NBs) and utilize comparative pricing that is related to the national brands. There is thus always an external reference price between the private labels and the national brands. In this study, two categories of products were selected, and a hierarchical non-linear model used to study the impact of external reference prices on consumers’ choice of private labels. In addition, the effects of package size and average disposable income (ADI) were introduced into the analysis for the relationship between external reference price and consumers’ choice of private label. The findings show an inverted U-shaped curve between consumers’ choice of private labels and the external reference price discrepancy. Consumers in areas with high ADI are more likely to buy private labels. Package size and ADI have different direct and moderating effects on two categories of products. This study contributes to reference dependence theory and category management.

Suggested Citation

  • Mao, Zhixin & Duan, Yongrui & Liu, Wenxia, 2023. "Consumers’ choice of private label considering reference price and moderating effect," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:71:y:2023:i:c:s0969698922003095
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103216
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698922003095
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103216?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. Cotterill, Ronald W & Putsis, William P, Jr & Dhar, Ravi, 2000. "Assessing the Competitive Interaction between Private Labels and National Brands," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(1), pages 109-137, January.
    2. Khalil, Mary & Septianto, Felix & Lang, Bodo & Northey, Gavin, 2021. "The interactive effect of numerical precision and message framing in increasing consumer awareness of food waste issues," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    3. Robert C. Blattberg & Richard Briesch & Edward J. Fox, 1995. "How Promotions Work," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3_supplem), pages 122-132.
    4. Mayhew, Glenn E & Winer, Russell S, 1992. "An Empirical Analysis of Internal and External Reference Prices Using Scanner Data," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(1), pages 62-70, June.
    5. Vaidyanathan, Rajiv & Aggarwal, Praveen, 2020. "Does MSRP impact women differently? Exploring gender-based differences in the effectiveness of retailer-provided reference prices," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. Zhang, Juan & Gou, Qinglong & Liang, Liang & Huang, Zhimin, 2013. "Supply chain coordination through cooperative advertising with reference price effect," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 345-353.
    7. Jan-Benedict E. M. Steenkamp & Inge Geyskens, 2014. "Manufacturer and Retailer Strategies to Impact Store Brand Share: Global Integration, Local Adaptation, and Worldwide Learning," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(1), pages 6-26, January.
    8. van Oest, Rutger, 2013. "Why are Consumers Less Loss Averse in Internal than External Reference Prices?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 62-71.
    9. Briesch, Richard A, et al, 1997. "A Comparative Analysis of Reference Price Models," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(2), pages 202-214, September.
    10. Jo Thori Lind & Halvor Mehlum, 2010. "With or Without U? The Appropriate Test for a U‐Shaped Relationship," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(1), pages 109-118, February.
    11. Hoskins, Jake D., 2016. "Offering value and capturing surplus: A strategy for private label sales in a new customer loyalty building scenario," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 274-280.
    12. Richard F. J. Haans & Constant Pieters & Zi-Lin He, 2016. "Thinking about U: Theorizing and testing U- and inverted U-shaped relationships in strategy research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(7), pages 1177-1195, July.
    13. Utpal M. Dholakia & Itamar Simonson, 2005. "The Effect of Explicit Reference Points on Consumer Choice and Online Bidding Behavior," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 206-217, October.
    14. Richards, Timothy J. & Liaukonyte, Jura & Streletskaya, Nadia A., 2016. "Personalized pricing and price fairness," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 138-153.
    15. Weisstein, Fei L. & Choi, Pilsik & Andersen, Peter, 2019. "The role of external reference price in pay-what-you-want pricing: An empirical investigation across product types," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 170-178.
    16. Javad Nasiry & Ioana Popescu, 2011. "Dynamic Pricing with Loss-Averse Consumers and Peak-End Anchoring," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 59(6), pages 1361-1368, December.
    17. Cohen, Andrew, 2008. "Package size and price discrimination in the paper towel market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 502-516, March.
    18. Malekian, Yaser & Rasti-Barzoki, Morteza, 2019. "A game theoretic approach to coordinate price promotion and advertising policies with reference price effects in a two-echelon supply chain," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 114-128.
    19. Bigdellou, Saeide & Aslani, Shirin & Modarres, Mohammad, 2022. "Optimal promotion planning for a product launch in the presence of word-of-mouth," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Eloy Gil Cordero & Francisco Javier Rondan Cataluña & Manuel Rey Moreno, 2016. "Influence of macroeconomic indices on European private labels," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(6), pages 1237-1251, November.
    21. Gurumurthy Kalyanaram & Russell S. Winer, 1995. "Empirical Generalizations from Reference Price Research," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3_supplem), pages 161-169.
    22. Armstrong Soule, Catherine A. & Madrigal, Robert, 2015. "Anchors and norms in anonymous pay-what-you-want pricing contexts," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 167-175.
    23. Bruce G. S. Hardie & Eric J. Johnson & Peter S. Fader, 1993. "Modeling Loss Aversion and Reference Dependence Effects on Brand Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 378-394.
    24. Olbrich, Rainer & Jansen, Hans Christian & Hundt, Michael, 2017. "Effects of pricing strategies and product quality on private label and national brand performance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 294-301.
    25. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Massera, Laura, 2015. "Interaction effects of different price claims and contextual factors on consumers' reference price adaptation after exposure to a price promotion," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 63-73.
    26. Marc Vanhuele & X. Drèze, 2002. "Measuring the Price Knowledge Shoppers Bring to the Store," Post-Print hal-00457563, HAL.
    27. Richards, Timothy & Liaukonyte, Jura & Nadia, Streletskya, 2016. "Personalized Pricing and Price Fairness," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235809, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    28. Chandrashekaran, Rajesh & Grewal, Dhruv, 2006. "Anchoring effects of advertised reference price and sale price: The moderating role of saving presentation format," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(10-11), pages 1063-1071, October.
    29. Rubio, Natalia & Villaseñor, Nieves & Yagüe, María Jesús, 2017. "Creation of consumer loyalty and trust in the retailer through store brands: The moderating effect of choice of store brand name," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 358-368.
    30. Jean-Pierre Dubé & Günter J. Hitsch & Peter E. Rossi, 2018. "Income and Wealth Effects on Private-Label Demand: Evidence from the Great Recession," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 22-53, January.
    31. Kevin Dayaratna & P. Kannan, 2012. "A mathematical reformulation of the reference price," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 839-849, September.
    32. Duan, Yongrui & Feng, Yixuan, 2021. "Optimal pricing in social networks considering reference price effect," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    33. Neumann, Nico & Böckenholt, Ulf, 2014. "A Meta-analysis of Loss Aversion in Product Choice," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 182-197.
    34. Assarzadegan, Parisa & Hejazi, Seyed Reza & Raissi, Gholam Ali, 2020. "An evolutionary game theoretic model for analyzing retailers’ behavior when introducing economy and premium private labels," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    35. Christina Kan & Donald R. Lichtenstein & Susan Jung Grant & Chris Janiszewski, 2014. "Strengthening the Influence of Advertised Reference Prices through Information Priming," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(6), pages 1078-1096.
    36. Morrissey, Karyn & Plater, Andrew & Dean, Mary, 2018. "The cost of electric power outages in the residential sector: A willingness to pay approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 141-150.
    37. Edward Cureton, 1957. "The upper and lower twenty-seven per cent rule," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 22(3), pages 293-296, September.
    38. Heydari, Jafar & Momeni, Behnam, 2021. "Retailers’ coalition and quantity discounts under demand uncertainty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    39. Manel Baucells & Martin Weber & Frank Welfens, 2011. "Reference-Point Formation and Updating," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(3), pages 506-519, March.
    40. Chan Choi, S., 2017. "Defensive strategy against a private label: Building brand premium for retailer cooperation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 335-339.
    41. Niedrich, Ronald W & Sharma, Subhash & Wedell, Douglas H, 2001. "Reference Price and Price Perceptions: A Comparison of Alternative Models," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 339-354, December.
    42. Anthony D. Miyazaki & Dhruv Grewal & Ronald C. Goodstein, 2005. "The Effect of Multiple Extrinsic Cues on Quality Perceptions: A Matter of Consistency," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 146-153, June.
    43. Narwal, Preeti & Nayak, J.K., 2020. "How consumers form product quality perceptions in absence of fixed posted prices: Interaction of product cues with seller reputation and third-party reviews," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    44. Bernhard Wohner & Erik Pauer & Victoria Heinrich & Manfred Tacker, 2019. "Packaging-Related Food Losses and Waste: An Overview of Drivers and Issues," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, January.
    45. Lillian L. Cheng & Kent B. Monroe, 2013. "An appraisal of behavioral price research (part 1): price as a physical stimulus," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(3), pages 103-129, September.
    46. Lillian L. Cheng & Kent B. Monroe, 2013. "Some reflections on an appraisal of behavioral price research (part 1)," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(3), pages 155-159, September.
    47. Kalyanaram, Gurumurthy & Winer, Russell S., 2022. "Behavioral response to price: Data-based insights and future research for retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 46-70.
    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. Kim, Kyungah & Kim, Junghun, 2024. "The study of brand loyalty and switching cost on OTT bundled service choice: Focusing on reference-dependent preferences in the saturated market," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    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. Nicole Koschate-Fischer & Katharina Wüllner, 2017. "New developments in behavioral pricing research," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(6), pages 809-875, August.
    2. Kalyanaram, Gurumurthy & Winer, Russell S., 2022. "Behavioral response to price: Data-based insights and future research for retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 46-70.
    3. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Massera, Laura, 2015. "Interaction effects of different price claims and contextual factors on consumers' reference price adaptation after exposure to a price promotion," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 63-73.
    4. Neumann, Nico & Böckenholt, Ulf, 2014. "A Meta-analysis of Loss Aversion in Product Choice," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 182-197.
    5. Lillian L. Cheng & Kent B. Monroe, 2013. "An appraisal of behavioral price research (part 1): price as a physical stimulus," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(3), pages 103-129, September.
    6. Preeti Narwal & J. K. Nayak, 2020. "Investigating relative impact of reference prices on customers’ price evaluation in absence of posted prices: a case of Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) pricing," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(4), pages 234-247, August.
    7. Santana, Shelle & Thomas, Manoj & Morwitz, Vicki G., 2020. "The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 138-154.
    8. Vincenzina Caputo & Jayson L Lusk & Rodolfo M Nayga, 2020. "Am I Getting a Good Deal? Reference‐DependentDecision Making When the Reference Price Is Uncertain," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 132-153, January.
    9. van Oest, Rutger, 2013. "Why are Consumers Less Loss Averse in Internal than External Reference Prices?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 62-71.
    10. Sheehan, Daniel & Hardesty, David M. & Ziegler, Alexander H. & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2019. "Consumer reactions to price discounts across online shopping experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 129-138.
    11. Mao, Zhixin & Duan, Yongrui & Yao, Yuliang & Huo, Jiazhen, 2021. "The moderating effect of average wage and number of stores on private label market share: A hierarchical linear model analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Chaab, Jafar & Zaccour, Georges, 2024. "Dynamic pricing in the presence of social externalities and reference-price effect," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    13. Elshiewy, Ossama & Peschel, Anne O., 2022. "Internal reference price response across store formats," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 496-509.
    14. Liu, Xiaotian & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L., 2023. "The reference price effect of historical price lists in online auctions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    15. Wolk, Agnieszka & Spann, Martin, 2008. "The effects of reference prices on bidding behavior in interactive pricing mechanisms," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 2-18.
    16. Jaikumar, Saravana & Sahay, Arvind, 2016. "Effect of Overlapping Price Ranges on Price Perception: Revisiting the Range Theory of Price Perception," IIMA Working Papers WP2016-02-02, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    17. Morlotti, Chiara & Mantin, Benny & Malighetti, Paolo & Redondi, Renato, 2024. "Price volatility of revenue managed goods: Implications for demand and price elasticity," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(3), pages 1039-1058.
    18. Hsin‐Hui Lin & Pin‐Han Chen & Chih‐Lun Wu, 2023. "Exploring the price anchoring effect in mobile commerce: An experimental study," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(3), pages 1601-1623, April.
    19. Ahrens, Steffen & Pirschel, Inske & Snower, Dennis J., 2017. "A theory of price adjustment under loss aversion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 78-95.
    20. Kopalle, Praveen K. & Kannan, P.K. & Boldt, Lin Bao & Arora, Neeraj, 2012. "The impact of household level heterogeneity in reference price effects on optimal retailer pricing policies," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 102-114.

    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:joreco:v:71:y:2023:i:c:s0969698922003095. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    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.