2.1.5.2 Definitions of perceived value
Researchers used different terms to define the construct of perceived value, although most of them meant the same concept (Woodruff 1997). Based on ninety marketing-related articles, Woodall (2003) found eighteen different names for the value consumers derive from buying and using the product. The most commonly used marketing terms of value:
- perceived value (e.g. Chang and Wildt 1994; Dodds et al. 1991; Monroe 1990),
- customer value (e.g. Anderson and Narus 1998; Dodds 1999; Holbrook 1994; 1996; Oh 2000; Woodruff 1997),
- value (Berry and Yadav 1996; De Ruyter et al. 1997; Ostrom and Iacobucci 1995)
- value for money (Sirohi et al. 1998; Sweeney et al. 1999).
Less frequently used value terms are:
- value for the customer (e.g. Reichheld 1996),
- value for customers (e.g. Treacy and Wiersema 1993),
- customer perceived value (e.g. Grönroos 1997),
- perceived customer value (Chen and Dubinsky 2003; Lai 1995),
- consumer value (e.g. Holbrook 1999),
- consumption value (Sheth, Newman and Gross 1991),
- buyer value (e.g. Slater and Narver 1994),
- service value (e.g. Bolton and Drew 1991),
- acquisition and transaction value (Grewal et al. 1998; Parasuraman and Grewal 2000),
- net customer value (e.g. Butz and Goodstein 1996),
- perceived service value (LeBlanc and Nguyen 2001),
- consumer surplus (e.g. Brynjolfsson et al. 2003)
- expected value (Huber et al. 1997).
There are a number of perceived value definitions that have been used in the literature;
- Chen and Dubinsky (2003, p. 326)
- a consumer’s perception of the net benefits gained in exchange for the costs incurred in obtaining the desired benefits
- Holbrook (1994, p. 27)
- an interactive relativistic consumption preference experience
- Monroe (1990, p. 46)
- a tradeoff between the quality or benefits they perceive in the product relative to the sacrifice they perceive by paying the price
- Spreng, Dixon and Olshavsky (1993, p. 51)
- a consumer’s anticipation about the outcome of purchasing a product or service based on future benefits and sacrifices
- Schechter (1984), cited in Zeithaml (1988)
- all factors, both qualitative and quantitative, subjective and objective, that make up the complete shopping experience
- Sirohi, McLaughlin and Wittink (1998, p. 228)
- what you [consumer] get for what you pay
- Woodall (2003, p. 21)
- any demand-side, personal perception of advantage arising out of a customer’s association with an organization’s offering, and can occur as reduction in sacrifice; presence of benefit (perceived as either attributes or outcomes); the resultant of any weighted combination of sacrifice and benefit (determined and expressed either rationally or intuitively); or an aggregation, over time, of any or all of these.
- Woodruff (1997, p. 142)
- a customer’s perceived preference for and evaluation of those product attributes, attribute performances, and consequences arising from use that facilitate (or block) achieving the customer’s goal and purposes in use situations
- Woodruff and Gardial (1996: p. 20)
- a customer’s perceived perception of what they want to happen in a specific use situation, with the help of a product and service ordering, in order to accomplish a desired purpose or goal
- Zeithaml (1988, p. 14)
- a consumer’s overall assessment of the utility of a product based on perceptions of what is received and what is given.
Despite the varying terms and definitions, the following commonalities among these definitions stand out:
- Perceived value is inherent in or linked through the use to some product, service or object,
- Perceived value is something perceived by consumers rather than objectively determined,
- Perceptions of value typically involve a tradeoff between what the consumer receives and what he or she gives up to acquire and use a product or service (Woodruff 1997).