Work

When should retailers increase prices during a crisis? A longitudinal inquiry during the COVID ‐19 pandemic

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: The consumer price index in the United States has increased since the COVID‐19 outbreak. Little is known about how consumers perceive price increases during such a crisis. Our research focuses on how consumers' price fairness perceptions change at different time points of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Results from a longitudinal study (April–May, 2020, N = 271) suggest that when the lockdown restrictions were eased, consumers experienced changes in affect and perceived price increases to be less unfair. Our analysis reveals that such an effect was driven by changes in positive affect rather than negative affect. This research advances pricing literature by showing that affect, triggered by external situations such as a crisis, influences price fairness perceptions over and above the negative affect induced by the price increase.

Source: Journal of Consumer Behaviour

DOI: 10.1002/cb.1934

Authors: Haeyoung Jeong, Hongjun Ye, Siddharth Bhatt, Jintao Zhang, Rajneesh Suri

Institutions: North Carolina Central University, Drexel University, Pennsylvania State University

Language: English

Topic: Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing

Subfield: Marketing

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W3134628084

FWCI: 2.991

Cites: 69

Cited by: 21

Related to: 10