Customers' purchase intentions as a reflection of price perception

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate customers' intentions to purchase mobile communications services and how these intentions are affected by the customers' price perceptions in two customer segments – a mobile segment and a combined segment. A further aim was to gain insight into the formation of price perceptions, and customer characteristics that underlie the differences between purchase intentions and price perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted in the Finnish mobile services market. The sample data were collected through a postal survey (n=3,000) sent to customers of a Finnish teleoperator. In analyzing empirical data the explanatory factor analyses, linear regression analyses, and analysis of variance were applied. Findings – The results indicated that a significant and positive relationship exists between customers' price perceptions and their purchase intentions, and that the formation of price perceptions is significantly influenced by satisfaction with pricing and services. Price transparency was found to be negatively associated with customers' price perceptions. Gender, age, and experience of service use were found to explain the differences in customers' perceptions. Practical implications – By segmenting customers according to the research results and targeting pricing schemes specific to these segments would potentially improve customers' price perceptions and their intentions to purchase mobile services. The study also supported the use of multi‐dimensional pricing schemes as it was found to positively influence customers' price perceptions. Originality/value – This paper provides new practical and theoretical insights into the relationship between purchase intentions and price perception, and into the formation of the price perceptions of mobile services customers.