Surcharges and Seller Reputation

Amar Cheema

Journal of Consumer Research, 2008, vol. 35, issue 1, 167-177

Abstract: We propose that consumers buying from low- (vs. high-) reputation sellers pay greater attention to surcharges. Thus, reputation moderates the effect of surcharges on purchase. Data from eBay show that consumers adjust bids to account for surcharges when buying from low-reputation sellers but not when buying from high-reputation sellers (study 1). Study 2 replicates this effect with partitioned versus consolidated prices. Study 3 reveals that consumers take longer to make purchasing decisions when buying from low-reputation sellers and that response times mediate the moderating role of reputation. Furthermore, the effect of surcharges levied by low-reputation sellers is attenuated for consumers with low (vs. high) need for cognition (study 4). (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/529532 link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:35:y:2008:i:1:p:167-177

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Consumer Research is currently edited by Bernd Schmitt, June Cotte, Markus Giesler, Andrew Stephen and Stacy Wood

More articles in Journal of Consumer Research from Journal of Consumer Research Inc.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().