"Not me" consumer justifications for not reporting suspected price‐fixing activities: neutralization techniques and counterstrategies

Wong, P, Vanharanta, M, Wan, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5750-0610 and Lo, MF, 2023. "Not me" consumer justifications for not reporting suspected price‐fixing activities: neutralization techniques and counterstrategies. Journal of Consumer Behaviour. ISSN 1472-0817

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Abstract

Price-fixing, an anti-competitive activity by firms, raises consumer prices, limits consumer choices, and violates the law. Drawing on the neutralization theory, this study aims to investigate consumer participation in anti-price-fixing efforts. This is important as the government's strategy of combating price-fixing often relies on tip-offs from the public. Accordingly, this study examines consumer willingness to come forward to file a complaint of suspected price-fixing cases to authorities and the justifications provided by participants for their reluctance. Focus group interviews were conducted with twenty-three participants. The findings revealed that although the participants agreed that price-fixing is unethical and unjust, they were reluctant to file a complaint to report suspected price-fixing activities to authorities. This study makes theoretical contributions to uncover five neutralization techniques used by the participants to reconcile their negative feelings. Three new counterstrategies have not been explored or discussed in previous studies. This contributes to a new line of inquiry about consumer responses to price-fixing.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Consumer Behaviour
Creators:	Wong, P., Vanharanta, M., Wan, C. and Lo, M.F.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	29 August 2023
ISSN:	1472-0817
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1002/cb.2242 DOI 1795924 Other
Rights:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wong, P., Vanharanta, M., Wan, C., & Lo, M. F. (2023). “Not me” consumer justifications for not reporting suspected price‐fixing activities: neutralization techniques and counterstrategies. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.2242. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	30 Aug 2023 10:01
Last Modified:	30 Aug 2023 10:01
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/49625

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