Customer behavior and adoption · A two-shop search experiment held net prices constant while varying whether shops posted net prices or gross prices with separate discount offers, and whether the first or second shop used the discount frame; search and purchase/shop choice were outcomes.
Discounts and Consumer Search Behavior: The Role of Framing
R. C. Bayer, Cheng Ke (2013). Discounts and Consumer Search Behavior: The Role of Framing. Journal of Economic Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2013.08.004
Plain-English take
Participants based decisions on salient price-presentation characteristics rather than objective net-price information, demonstrating a pure framing effect of discounts on search behavior.
How much weight to give this
3/5 Empirical evidence with design limits
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
A two-shop search experiment held net prices constant while varying whether shops posted net prices or gross prices with separate discount offers, and whether the first or second shop used the discount frame; search and purchase/shop choice were outcomes.
Controlled two-shop search experiment with experimental subjects; the publisher abstract verifies the treatments and constant net prices but the accessible record does not expose the sample count.
Check comparison conditions and analysis in the paper.
Publisher record checked; full-text methods were not verified.
Double-blind? Blinding details were not established from the checked publisher page.
Research question
What the authors investigated
What does discounts and consumer search behavior: the role of framing show about customer behavior or marketing outcomes?
Design
A two-shop search experiment held net prices constant while varying whether shops posted net prices or gross prices with separate discount offers, and whether the first or second shop used the discount frame; search and purchase/shop choice were outcomes.
Sample and setting
Controlled two-shop search experiment with experimental subjects; the publisher abstract verifies the treatments and constant net prices but the accessible record does not expose the sample count.
Reported result
What the study found
Participants based decisions on salient price-presentation characteristics rather than objective net-price information, demonstrating a pure framing effect of discounts on search behavior.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
Inference from the controlled two-shop design: real shopping includes more shops, richer information, heterogeneous products, and repeated purchase histories, so the magnitude of the framing effect may not transfer directly to field settings. Full-text methods and correction history were not independently checked.
Possible founder application
Use this paper as evidence about discounts and consumer search behavior: the role of framing in the stated context; compare its population, treatment and outcome with your own decision.
Evidence access
Publisher page; full-text availability varies and was not established.
Candidate study metadata and reported evidence were cross-checked against a direct publisher-page retrieval; the full article was not independently reviewed.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.