Attitude Toward a Low Price Guarantee (Information Focus)

What it measures

A three-item scale assessing the degree to which a consumer believes that retailers who offer low price guarantees do so primarily to signal that they genuinely hold the lowest prices in the market. This information-focus framing conceptualises the guarantee as a truthful signal of price competitiveness rather than a defensive refund mechanism. The scale is paired with a companion protection-focus version that captures an alternative consumer belief about the purpose of price guarantees.

Response format

7-point Likert

Scale items

• By giving a Low Price Guarantee, a retailer mainly informs consumers that its prices are the lowest in the market.
• If a retailer is not extremely confident of informing consumers that it charges the lowest prices in the market, it would not offer a Low Price Guarantee.
• I am primarily attracted to a retailer that offers a Low Price Guarantee because I feel confident that the retailer truly has the lowest prices in the market.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

RELIABILITY CAUTION: Alpha estimates for the general version across studies were .73 (Study 1), .75 (Study 2), and .72 (Study 3A) — all below the .80 threshold. A retailer-specific version reached α = .84 in one study. This entry retains the scale on the basis of the .84 estimate from the adapted version, but researchers should be aware that reliability for the general wording has been consistently below criterion across independent studies and revalidation is recommended. VALIDITY: Factor analyses across studies showed the information-focus and protection-focus items separated cleanly into two factors. NOTE: A general version and a retailer-specific version exist (replace 'a retailer' with the specific retailer's name). The companion scale, Attitude Toward a Low Price Guarantee (Protection Focus) — ALPGP — measures an alternative interpretation of the same guarantee mechanism.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Dutta, Sujay, Abhijit Biswas, and Dhruv Grewal (2011). Regret from postpurchase discovery of lower market prices: Do price refunds help? Journal of Marketing, 75(6), 124–138.

Keywords