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The price-perceived quality relationship: A meta-analytic review and assessment of its determinants

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Abstract

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of study results on the price-perceived quality relationship published from 1989 to 2006. The findings show that the price effect on perceived quality has decreased. Furthermore, the price–quality relationship is stronger in studies that use a within-subjects design, investigate higher priced products, and use samples from European countries but weaker for services, durable goods, and respondents who are familiar with the product. A striking null result indicates that the number of cues does not affect the price-perceived quality relationship significantly.

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Notes

  1. We inspected the following journals: International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing, Management Science, Marketing Letters, and Marketing Science.

  2. Rao and Monroe (1989) use a total set of 54 price-perceived quality effects.

  3. Bijmolt and Pieters (2001) compared the single value and the complete set approaches on their ability to detect the true effect size in a Monte Carlo study.

  4. We convert t values to a point biserial correlation by using \( r_{{{\text{pbis}}}} = {\sqrt {\frac{{t^{2} }} {{t^{2} + df}}} } \), where t = t value and df = degrees of freedom (Cohen, 1988, p. 545). Glass et al. (1981) recommended a conversion of this point biserial correlation to a biserial correlation by using \( r_{{bis}} = r_{{pbis}} \cdot {\sqrt {\frac{{n_{1} \cdot n_{2} }} {{\nu \cdot n}}} } \), where ν = ordinate of unit normal distribution and n = total sample size. According to this formula, it is possible in practice to obtain values of r bis greater than 1.00 if the point biserial correlation is larger than approximately 0.8.

  5. Rao and Monroe (1989) used a reduced set of 33 price–perceived quality data points in their analyses.

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Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. The comments of Henrik Sattler on previous drafts of this manuscript are also gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Institute of Marketing and Media, University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 5, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Franziska Völckner & Julian Hofmann

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  1. Franziska Völckner
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  2. Julian Hofmann
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Correspondence to Franziska Völckner.

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Völckner, F., Hofmann, J. The price-perceived quality relationship: A meta-analytic review and assessment of its determinants. Market Lett 18, 181–196 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-007-9013-2

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