Bargaining process as a determinant of postpurchase satisfaction

Abstract

To study interpersonal bargaining in an environment of increased realism, a shopping simulation game allowing for face-to-face dyadic interaction was created to test the hypothesis that pretransactional expectations concerning the willingness of a seller to bargain, as well as whether or not price concessions are received through bargaining, will affect postpurchase consumer satisfaction, 64 male college students served as Ss. Levels of expectation were controlled through pre-experimental instructions, whereas participation in bargaining was manipulated by programming the behavior of confederate salesmen. Results of a multivariate ANOVA indicate that both expectation of a seller's willingness to bargain and the receipt of price concessions through bargaining were independent factors that affected postpurchase satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)