“Passivity”: a model of grocery retail price decision-making practice

Steve Wood · J. D. Fernie

19 citations0/0 files storedEuropean Journal of Marketing

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing Supply Chain and Inventory Management Consumer Retail Behavior Studies

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the applied context of grocery retail pricing practice to understand how pricing executives approach “regular price” decision-making (as opposed to promotional pricing). The study seeks to inductively develop a model of regular price decision-making in grocery retailing. Design/methodology/approach – The research uses an inductive methodology involving interviews with pricing executives working for grocery retailers that account for approximately 85 per cent of the UK, and 64 per cent of USA, grocery market retail sales. The approach is appropriate given the underdeveloped research insights into regular pricing within food retailers. Findings – It is found that regular pricing is undertaken with little sophistication, typically, on the basis of simple, inflexible rules that result in conflicting goals. A typology of three pricing roles was identified, although all share an underdeveloped understanding of the effects of price changes on customer demand and the implications of competitor reactions. These contexts, causes and conditions lead to a range of consequences; notably, a degree of pricing inertia, “customer-less” pricing and “enforced symbiosis” – coping outcomes. Taken together, a theory of “passivity” pricing is identified. Originality/value – The research presents a contribution to new knowledge in the field of retail marketing by developing theory in retail pricing. In contrast to much extant research on grocery pricing, this paper accesses the insights and opinions of the pricing executives themselves. It exposes the realities of regular price decision-making across two developed retail markets and offers managerial insights.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 19 citations exist upstream.

References

1979Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk 1988Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk 2006Constructing grounded theory : a practical guide through qualitative analysis 2012Seeking Qualitative Rigor in Inductive Research 2022Business Research Methods 1963A Behavioral Theory of the Firm 1978Theoretical Sensitivity: Advances in the Methodology of Grounded Theory 1964Richard M. Cyert & James G. March, A Behavioral Theory of The Firm, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1963, 332 s.

Cited by

2019Supply Chain Contracts and Inventory Shrinkage: An Empirical Analysis in the Grocery Retailing Industry 2021Pricing in online fashion retailing: implications for research and practice

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.