Who I Am and How I Think: The Impact of Self-Construal on the Roles of Internal and External Reference Prices in Price Evaluations

• Main Author: CHEN, Yi, Cathy
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2009
• Subjects: Reference Price; Self-Construal; Marketing; Sales and Merchandising
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/1794; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/2793/viewcontent/Referencepriceandselfconstrual.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Drawing from self-construal studies on cognitive styles as well as reference price literature, this research investigates the impact of independent versus interdependent self-construal on consumers' use of internal reference prices (IRPs) and external reference prices (ERPs) during price evaluations. Three experiments reveal that IRPs have a larger impact on price evaluations for participants who are primed with an independent (vs. interdependent) self-construal, whereas ERPs have a larger impact for participants who are primed with an interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal. The differential impact of self-construal on the use of IRPs and ERPs seems to be mediated by a generalized, perceived sense of connectedness/separateness. Implications on reference price research, self-construal and cognitive styles are discussed.