中介服务定价的理论基础以移动支付为例外文翻译.docx

1、中介服务定价的理论基础以移动支付为例外文翻译外文翻译Theoretical foundations in the pricing of intermediating services: The case of payments via mobile phones Material Source: University of Exeter, Business School, UKAuthor:Irene C.L. Ng, Nick K.T. YipABSTRACT: Intermediating services are relatively new in research. This stud

2、y explores how consumers may determine the value of intermediating services and the extent on willingness to pay. We investigate a mobile payment technology that intermediates payments facilitated by a telecommunication company and a bank. We show that a derived effect may persuade consumers to pay

3、higher for the intermediating service when the items purchased have a higher surplus to justify the consumption of the service. Our study also shows that money has polarity, in that money that is owned by the individual is viewed differently from money not owned.Keywords: intermediating services; pr

4、icing; mobile payment systems .1 INTRODUCTION This article is a study of a complex intermediating service a mobile payment technology and the factors that could influence the pricing of such a service. The technology intermediates between a payer and a payee whereby the payments, whether commercial

5、or otherwise, are facilitated by both the telecommunication company (by initiating payment through a cell phone) and the bank (by transferring the funds between the payers account and payees account after the initiation).The mobile payment service allows customers to pay for their purchases using th

6、eir mobile phones. The phones are registered with their banks, thereby enabling high security transfer of funds from the payers bank (or credit card account) to the payees bank account by way of a few key presses on the phone. This form of payment differs from debit and credit cards in so far as the

7、 cost of the transaction is borne partly by the customer. Moreover, in some parts of South East Asia, debit cards are not common payment instruments and this form of mobile payment can function as an alternative.This study is important as it is unclear how consumers value intermediating services and

8、 to the best of our knowledge, this has not been investigated before. Hence, this study aims to bring some insights into the phenomenon by conducting an exploratory study of a complex intermediating service a mobile payment technology with the aim of discovering its theoretical domains.In our study,

9、 the results suggest that variables, including bundling consumption, advance purchase and the primary product purchased, may have an impact on how customers would value such a service. For instance, the data show that a derived effect may persuade consumers to pay higher for the mobile payment servi

10、ce when the items purchased have a higher surplus to justify the consumption of the service. The data also show that consumers may choose to bundle losses by paying one bill at the end of each month, regardless of the number of transactions, although the economic benefit may be lower than to pay acc

11、ording to transactions. Conversely, the study also found that consumers who perceive high valuation risk may prefer to pay per-transaction as they bundle losses through the purchase of a primary product at a time that is suitable to them. Furthermore, our study showed that money has polarity, in tha

12、t money that is owned by the individual (for example, savings, current account) is viewed differently from money not owned (credit card account). Finally, the investigation showed that banks who often charge consumers through opportunity costs (for example, loss of interest earned) instead of servic

13、e fees would find it harder to charge for mobile payment services as this would create a greater sense of loss than normal, as consumers are loss averse (Thaler, 1999; Barberis and Huang, 2001).In the next section, a literature review is presented with some theoretical background on the pricing of i

14、ntermediating services. This is then followed by the findings and discussion before the conclusion.2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDScientific work on the use of IT and e-business in companies to gain a competitive advantage started in the 1980s (Parsons, 1983; Rockart and Scott Morton,

15、 1984). Over the past two decades, electronic services have proliferated as technological advancements allow for more innovations. Indeed, with more information being made available and better infrastructure in place, it is expected that a new generation of electronic intermediaries will emerge (Sar

16、kar et al, 1995; Janssen and Sol, 2000). This is because electronic intermediating services are able to lower the cost of transactions due to lower search (Bakos, 1997), coordination (Malone et al, 1987) and payment processing costs (Sirbu and Tygar, 1995).Previous studies of intermediating services

17、 often examined customers willingness or intention to adopt new technologies, either through the technology acceptance, also known as TAM based models (Davis et al, 1989; Lederer et al, 2000; Venkatesh et al, 2003), or studying the diffusion of innovation through Perceived Characteristics of Innovat

18、ing (PCI) models (Rogers, 1995; Carter and Belanger, 2004). Studies on TAM models present usage intentions and behavior as a function of perceived usefulness and perceived ease and they include studies on the role of gender and social influence in technology acceptance (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000; Ve

19、nkatesh et al, 2003), the world wide web (Lederer et al, 2000) and the determinants of adoption of multimedia mobile services (Pagani, 2004). The PCI model, on the other hand, explains the diffusion of an innovation that is, the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels

20、 over time among the members of a social society (Rogers, 1995). Studies in this area include the influence of perceived characteristics of innovating on e-government adoption (Carter and Belanger, 2004) and the use of social cognitive theory to evaluate the impact of the individuals affective and b

21、ehavioral reaction to information technology (Compeau et al, 1999).2.1 BundlingAs many intermediating services facilitate the purchase of another service or product, this would mean that the value of the intermediating service is always embedded within a bundle. Bundling is the tactic of marketing t

22、wo or more goods and/or services as a package at a special price (Guiltinan, 1987). This practice is ubiquitous in marketing, from the selling of vacation packages to cable TV options. Pure bundling is the offer of two or more services at a package price but does not provide the option of purchasing

23、 the individual services separately, that is, in their unbundled form. Hence, customers who wish to buy a service individually may not be so inclined to purchase the bundled services. Furthermore, customers who have already had the intention of buying the bundled services as individual services will

24、 now enjoy a lower price, and the service firm will lose the additional margin it would have earned otherwise (Venkatesh and Mahajan, 1993; Stremersch and Tellis, 2002). However, employing mixed bundling can circumvent some of these limitations. Mixed bundling provides the customer with two options,

25、 that is allowing them to choose whether to purchase the services in a bundle or individually (Schmalensee, 1984). Prices of services (whether sold individually or as a bundle) can be simultaneously optimized through mixed bundling in such a way that the service firms profit can be increased over an

26、d above the expected profit than if the services were sold on a pure component basis (Schmalensee, 1984; Yadav and Monroe, 1993). Academic literature proposes that bundling can provide better service value, reduce marketing costs (Ng et al, 1999), increase demand, reduce a firms selling risk and obs

27、cure discounts (Guiltinan, 1987).Yet, despite extensive literature on bundling, such studies implicitly assume that the consumer is certain of the value attached to the product or the bundle. With a service that is always on, or in which there is a separation between purchase and consumption, such t

28、hat consumer valuation of the service is uncertain, the pricing issues in the bundling of such a service with other services or goods purchased are unclear. Furthermore, an intermediating service would require consumers to buy part of the bundle in advance, which is the service itself, while consumi

29、ng the service when purchasing the other part of the bundle, for example subscribing to the Internet advanced purchase and buying groceries, resulting in the need to understand pricing within such a scenario.2.2 Prospect theoryProducts are sold in a bundle; the perceived savings may be viewed differ

30、ently from a prospect theory perspective (Yadav and Monroe, 1993). Prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979) holds that there are recurring biases driven by psychological factors that influence peoples choices under uncertainty. In particular, it assumes that people are more motivated by losses t

31、han by gains and as a result, they will devote more energy to avoiding loss than to achieving gain (Thaler, 1999). Thaler (1999) also examined the endowment effect within specific case studies, through which he observes that consumers often fail to behave in accordance with the normative prescriptio

32、ns of economic theory, instead responding more to perceived changes than absolute levels. The two behavioral principles of loss aversion and mental accounting were introduced to prospect theory. Loss aversion implies that when a loss and a gain have the same monetary value, the motivation to avoid l

33、oss is stronger than the motivation to approach the gain (Thaler et al, 1997), while mental accounting is the set of cognitive operations used by individuals and households to organize, evaluate, and keep track of financial activities.So far, academics drawing on prospect theory have only investigated comparatively straigh