An empirical investigation into the effectiveness of cost transparency: Evidence from apparel brands

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of cost transparency on consumers’ perceptions of the brand and intentions to purchase its products. It also examines whether product-related attributes (product price and country-of-origin (COO) and consumer characteristics (socially responsible consumer behavior) moderate the effectiveness of cost transparency. Findings show that providing consumers with detailed cost breakdowns would lead to higher perceived quality and value and a more favorable brand attitude when compared to the conditions in which detailed cost information is not provided. The results also indicate that the cost transparency strategy is an effective way to generate a more favorable brand attitude, especially for lower-priced brands. Consumers who are more socially responsible in their behaviors perceived higher quality and expressed higher purchase intention for brands engaging in cost transparency practices. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.

Cite this work

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

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 10 citations exist upstream.

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