The Influence of Positive Role of Price Perceptions on Payment Intention and Price Acceptability in the Online Digital Goods Market

Abstract

Online Digital Goods Marketplace(ODGM) facilitates the transactions between the buyers and the seller community more efficiently than the off-line physical marketplace. It represents almost perfect competitive market because of the characteristics of information sufficiency and high price elasticity. Price is a complex stimulus and cue to explain the consumer’s behavior in the market. Especially, price is the most sensitive factor in the purchasing decision at the circumstance of competitive market like ODGM. Consumer’s price perceptions will affect two way, positively or negatively, to predict the organization process and response of buyers. We assumed that the consumer’s price acceptability of a product or goods is influenced by the price-value perception and payment intention. We developed a structural model to find the relationship among consumer’s positive role of price perceptions, payment intention, and price acceptability. The empirical tests proved that the positive role of price perception factors (price rationality and price-quality inference) affected on payment intention directly and indirectly. Subsequently, payment intention influenced on the price acceptability. This paper also proved the mediating role of payment intention between consumer’s price perceptions and acceptability. We could get important implications from the empirical tests that ODGM operators need to be more rational and fair in pricing and to understand the positive role of price perceptions. To improve the price acceptability of buyers, some strategies are need to enhance the payment intention.