IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iepoli/v33y2015icp43-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer uncertainty and price discrimination through online coupons: An empirical study of restaurants in Shanghai

Author

Listed:
  • (Catherine) Zhang, Jie
  • Savage, Scott J.
  • Chen, Yongmin

Abstract

We use data from restaurants in Shanghai, China to conduct a new empirical analysis of prices and coupons. Our results show a positive relationship between prices and online coupons. Moreover, the price premium from couponing is higher for restaurants about which consumer values appear to be more uncertain. When consumer uncertainty is high, restaurants that offer coupons have an average price that is about 60 percent higher than similar restaurants that do not issue coupons. When uncertainty is low, restaurants that offer coupons have an average price that is about 10 percent higher. These findings are consistent with online couponing in the restaurant industry being used for price discrimination and as a promotional device in the presence of higher uncertainty in consumer valuations.

Suggested Citation

  • (Catherine) Zhang, Jie & Savage, Scott J. & Chen, Yongmin, 2015. "Consumer uncertainty and price discrimination through online coupons: An empirical study of restaurants in Shanghai," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 43-55.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:33:y:2015:i:c:p:43-55
    DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2015.10.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167624515000487
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.infoecopol.2015.10.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kenneth S. Corts, 1998. "Third-Degree Price Discrimination in Oligopoly: All-Out Competition and Strategic Commitment," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 306-323, Summer.
    2. Shor, Mikhael & Oliver, Richard L., 2006. "Price discrimination through online couponing: Impact on likelihood of purchase and profitability," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 423-440, June.
    3. Varian, Hal R, 1980. "A Model of Sales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 651-659, September.
    4. Victor Aguirregabiria, 1999. "The Dynamics of Markups and Inventories in Retailing Firms," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 66(2), pages 275-308.
    5. Yongmin Chen & Tianle Zhang, 2015. "Interpersonal Bundling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(6), pages 1456-1471, June.
    6. Joel Sobel, 1984. "The Timing of Sales," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 353-368.
    7. Scott A. Neslin, 1990. "A Market Response Model for Coupon Promotions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(2), pages 125-145.
    8. Scott A. Neslin & Caroline Henderson & John Quelch, 1985. "Consumer Promotions and the Acceleration of Product Purchases," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(2), pages 147-165.
    9. Chakravarthi Narasimhan, 1984. "A Price Discrimination Theory of Coupons," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 128-147.
    10. Holmes, Thomas J, 1989. "The Effects of Third-Degree Price Discrimination in Oligopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 244-250, March.
    11. Aviv Nevo & Catherine Wolfram, 2002. "Why Do Manufacturers Issue Coupons? An Empirical Analysis of Breakfast Cereals," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(2), pages 319-339, Summer.
    12. Nahata, Babu & Ostaszewski, Krzysztof & Sahoo, P K, 1990. "Direction of Price Changes in Third-Degree Price Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(5), pages 1254-1258, December.
    13. Eric T. Anderson & James D. Dana, Jr., 2009. "When Is Price Discrimination Profitable?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 980-989, June.
    14. Dana, James D, Jr, 2001. "Monopoly Price Dispersion under Demand Uncertainty," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 42(3), pages 649-670, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hui Zhang & Kai Luo & Guanqun Ni, 2022. "The effects of price subsidy and fairness concern on pricing and benefits of take-away supply chain," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 1106-1124, July.
    2. Yao Tang, 2023. "A product strategy for daily deal campaigns utilizing demand expansion and consumer leakage," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1861-1883, September.
    3. Jingmei Xu & Li Hu & Xiaolong Guo & Xia Yan, 2020. "Online cooperation mechanism: game analysis between a restaurant and a third-party website," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(1), pages 61-73, February.
    4. Hui Zhang & Kai Luo & Guanqun Ni, 0. "The effects of price subsidy and fairness concern on pricing and benefits of take-away supply chain," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-19.
    5. Li Li & Xiaotong Li & Wenmin Qi & Yue Zhang & Wensheng Yang, 2022. "Targeted reminders of electronic coupons: using predictive analytics to facilitate coupon marketing," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 321-350, June.
    6. Tang, Yao & Chen, Rachel R. & Guan, Xu, 2021. "Daily-deal market with consumer retention: Price discrimination or quality differentiation," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    7. Du, Zhong & Fan, Zhi-Ping & Chen, Zhongwei, 2023. "Implications of on-time delivery service with compensation for an online food delivery platform and a restaurant," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    8. Ruixue Liu & Jing Xiao, 2020. "Factors Affecting Users’ Satisfaction with Urban Parks through Online Comments Data: Evidence from Shenzhen, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-22, December.
    9. Tuo Wang & Michael Y. Hu, 2019. "Differential pricing with consumers’ valuation uncertainty by a monopoly," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(3), pages 247-255, June.
    10. Xia Li, 2022. "The impact of place-of-origin on price premium for agricultural products: empirical evidence from Taobao.com," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 561-584, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    2. Kutsal Dogan & Ernan Haruvy & Ram Rao, 2010. "Who should practice price discrimination using rebates in an asymmetric duopoly?," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 61-90, March.
    3. Aviv Nevo & Catherine Wolfram, 1999. "Prices and Coupons for Breakfast Cereals," NBER Working Papers 6932, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Igal Hendel & Aviv Nevo, 2013. "Intertemporal Price Discrimination in Storable Goods Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2722-2751, December.
    5. Imke Reimers & Claire (Chunying) Xie, 2019. "Do Coupons Expand or Cannibalize Revenue? Evidence from an e-Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(1), pages 286-300, January.
    6. Lee, Chung-Ying, 2020. "Pricing strategy and moral hazard: Copay coupons in pharmaceuticals," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Mark Armstrong, 2005. "Recent Developments in the Economics of Price Discrimination," Industrial Organization 0511004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Yi-Chun (Chad) Ho & Yi-Jen (Ian) Ho & Yong Tan, 2017. "Online Cash-back Shopping: Implications for Consumers and e-Businesses," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(2), pages 250-264, June.
    9. Berck, Peter & Brown, Jennifer & Perloff, Jeffrey M & Villas-Boas, Sofia B., 2007. "Sales: Tests of Theories on Causality and Timing," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt2g56n1jk, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    10. Navdeep S. Sahni & Dan Zou & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2017. "Do Targeted Discount Offers Serve as Advertising? Evidence from 70 Field Experiments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2688-2705, August.
    11. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio & Leena Rudanko & Nicholas Trachter, 2019. "Relative Price Dispersion: Evidence and Theory," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 68-124, August.
    12. Mark Armstrong & Jidong Zhou, 2016. "Search Deterrence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(1), pages 26-57.
    13. Yuxin Chen & Chakravarthi Narasimhan & Z. John Zhang, 2001. "Consumer Heterogeneity and Competitive Price-Matching Guarantees," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(3), pages 300-314, June.
    14. Villas-Boas, Sofia B & Perloff, Jeff & Berck, Peter & Brown, Jen, 2008. "Sales: Tests of Theories on Causality and Timing," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt0076k5r6, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    15. Li, Chenguang & Volpe, Richard, 2014. "Retail Pricing Patterns and Driving Factors of Price Variation," 88th Annual Conference, April 9-11, 2014, AgroParisTech, Paris, France 169730, Agricultural Economics Society.
    16. Emi Nakamura, 2008. "Pass-Through in Retail and Wholesale," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 430-437, May.
    17. repec:pri:cepsud:185goldberg is not listed on IDEAS
    18. James Langenfeld & Wenqing Li & George Schink, 2003. "Economic Literature on Price Discrimination and its Application to the Uniform Pricing of Gasoline," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 179-193.
    19. Jean-Pierre H. Dubé & Zheng Fang & Nathan Fong & Xueming Luo, 2016. "Competitive Price Targeting with Smartphone Coupons," NBER Working Papers 22067, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Bakucs, Lajos Zoltan & Ferto, Imre, 2009. "Milk Retail Sales Patterns in a Transition Economy. The Case of Hungary," 83rd Annual Conference, March 30 - April 1, 2009, Dublin, Ireland 50932, Agricultural Economics Society.
    21. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio, 2015. "The Morphology Of Price Dispersion," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1165-1206, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer uncertainty; Coupons; Price discrimination; Price promotion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:33:y:2015:i:c:p:43-55. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505549 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.