1 Angela Chang, Ph.D. University of Macau, SAR of China/ Chinese Culture University, Taiwan IAICS Harbin, June 22-24, 2007 Cross-Cultural Study of Actual Market Prices and Consumer Price Knowledge in Macau and Taiwan

2 Introduction Price variation, or a different price for the same good, is characteristic of nearly all markets. Commodity prices in the market play a relevant role in consumer decision-making (when, where, what, and how much consumers buy).

3 Literature Review Current study on consumers’ price knowledge has focused on price knowledge at the point of purchase. Consumers’ price knowledge was relatively poor (50% of the respondents knew the exact price).

4 Literature Review (continue) Consumers’ knowledge of prices can be influenced by numerous factors (ex. gender, income), the product category, availability of price information, retailers advertise their product prices in the media, or the authorities conduct retail price comparisons in order to educate consumers.

5 Research Methods Actual market prices vs. consumer price knowledge Stores checking (department stores) Lab experiment (64Q.answered) Interview --college students in communication & business school Macau (81); Taiwan,(101)

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7 Purchase Experience for the past 1 year

8 Taiwan Consumers ’ Knowledge of Price

9 Price Knowledge & Preference (Taiwan)

10 Variables describing market price in Macau N Average price Median price Variation of market price(%) t-shirt cell phone442,3492,29061 lipsticks high-heel shoes underwear tie belt shoes111,6431,48045

11 Variables describing Macau consumers ’ price estimates N average price estimate median price estimate variation of price Estimate % t-shirt cell phone lipsticks high-heel shoes underwear tie belt shoes

12 Discussions In the case of female used products, their price estimations varied widely by girls in Macau. This study proposes one possible explanation for poor price knowledge: the variation in the actual prices in the market. The prices of strong brands and general products were rather well known by both area consumers.

13 Conclusion The current findings support the previous study---the more frequent buyers of a product category are no more accurate in their price knowledge than less frequent buyers (Dickson& Sawyer, 1990; Aalto-Setala& Raijas, 2003). Consumer price knowledge is very complicated & many-sided phenomenon. It has to be examined from various approaches & in various market. The meaning of price will certainly change in time.

14 Q&A