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Since Jan. 1, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) rule requiring hospitals publish their “standard charges” (also called “charge description masters” or “chargemasters”) in a public, machine-readable format has been in effect. The research at hand assesses hospital compliance with the federal regulation. In addition, a sentiment analysis of the chargemaster webpages compared to hospital homepages is performed to assess the consumer friendliness of the content in terms of language usage. A stratified sample of 212 hospitals was used to conduct observations. Strata were based on patient satisfaction scores drawn from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of health care Providers and Systems survey, and controls for hospital bed size and geographic US census region were utilized from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey. Descriptive statistics are presented, and chi-square testing is used to test for statistically significant differences. Key results are presented for compliance and sentiment. Most hospitals' websites are not presenting chargemaster data in a way that is readily collectable or comparable to other facilities. In addition, the tone of language used on chargemaster transparency webpages is generally more negative than that of hospitals' homepages. In particular, the messaging on transparency pages routinely suggests consumers to not use the data for decision-making purposes.

There is a widespread push by government and private payers to make the prices of health care services more transparent to consumers. The main goal is to promote more effective consumer shopping; secondary goals include promoting provider competition and reducing pricing variation. There are several headwinds opposing these efforts. One problem is that there may be several valid reasons for why price variations persist. Another is that provider (and other health care) markets are not very competitive, and sometimes widespread information about prices may make them even less so. A third is that price discrimination may be economically efficient. Any analysis of price transparency must take the specific market setting into account. This chapter analyzes markets characterized by monopolistic, oligopolistic, and competitive conditions to determine when and under what economic and managerial circumstances price transparency will be useful.

Promotional cues related to notions of fair prices or pricing designed to fit consumers’ needs are prevalent for many service offers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how both customers’ price fairness and idiosyncratic fit perceptions shape their tariff evaluations.

Two experimental studies involving different tariff types and service contexts test the complex interplay of customers’ perceived price fairness and idiosyncratic fit with customer and context characteristics on their tariff evaluations.

Customers judge tariffs drawing on both the perceived price fairness and idiosyncratic fit, driven by the perceived price level of the tariff and the perceived pricing transparency of the firm. Customers’ service usage and consumption goals moderate these effects: heavy users and hedonic consumers indicate lower price sensitivity while focusing more on their transparency perception. The role of perceived price fairness and idiosyncratic fit for tariff choice depends on the tariff/service context; idiosyncratic fit is important when it is incidental (e.g. flat rates) rather than intentional (i.e. customized tariffs) and when customers lack the expertise or confidence to evaluate price fairness such as in the case of relatively new services.

Prior studies focused on either price fairness or idiosyncratic fit and thus cannot fully explain the complex interplay between both in the context of tariff choice. This paper explicates the conditions that affect the relative importance of both concepts and under which incidental offers are better received than premeditated ones.

This research aims to examine the effects of transparency in pricing (i.e. disclosure of a price increase and extent of explanation) on perceived price fairness when a firm increases price.

US adult consumer panelists participated in two online experiments.

Consumers perceive a firm's price increase as more fair when the firm discloses the increase itself as compared to an outside source disclosing it. For a small price increase, a limited explanation was perceived as more fair; for a larger price increase, a more detailed aligned cost explanation was perceived as more fair.

Firms who must raise prices may increase consumer perceptions of price fairness by disclosing the price increase and providing an appropriate explanation matched to the size of the increase.

This research focuses on the effects of being more transparent about pricing in the case of a price increase. Perceived price fairness is affected by who discloses the price increase, the amount of the price increase and the extent to which reasons are revealed and aligned with the firm's costs.

Market transactions in large vegetable markets call for transparency with utmost urgency. The reason are that buyers are located at distant places and the volume of sales is very high. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the development of an automated system in market transactions in order to bring about transparency with concrete evidence available to small and medium farmers who are then able to repose trust in the system by acquiring the right price for the right product. The farmers can also confirm the effectiveness of the system by testing it themselves.

First, a theoretical framework of marketing procedures of larger vegetable markets has been constructed with tomato as a vegetable of study and the Madanapalle tomato market as a market studied through surveys. Second, methods of functioning in marketing procedures including pricing and auctioning have been modified according to the objective. An android-based application has been used to develop an automated model. Surveys have been conducted to understand the perceptions of farmers in marketing procedures and price determination at the village level, and to test the automated model in the study market.

Both quantitative as well as qualitative approaches indicate that, the proposed automated model in the modified marketing procedural system is of benefit to all stakeholders in the supply chain.

In model testing, gaps in inputs from a greater number of buyers during auctioning remains a limitation of the study.

For sustainable growth of tomatoes or any other vegetables it is essential that the farmers trust the marketing procedural system. This is possible if farmers obtain the right price for their products. Once the automated system is implemented, buyers acquire high-quality goods at desired prices, which further encourages more buyers from other regions to participate in the auctioning/tendering process stimulating an increased demand.

This paper is unique in its pricing function and scores of stakeholders. Pricing function involves the farmers’ input along with the buyers’ inputs whereas scores of these two stakeholders have been obtained through the inputs of commissioning agents.

The study aims to capture customers’ different price expectations by constructing a multidimensional price perception in Islamic banking setting and the impact on customer satisfaction and behavioral intention, as a single price perception approach cannot reflect heterogeneity of price expectations. The study conceptualized customers’ price expectation into price reliability, price confidence, price transparency, relative price, price–quality ratio and price fairness.

An online questionnaire was distributed to Islamic banking customers in Indonesia to test seven proposed hypotheses of price perceptions on customer satisfaction and behavioral intention. The instrument used a five-point Likert-type scale to capture customer perception on the instrument variables and analyzed the functional relation of the model using multiple regression analysis.

Empirical findings reveal that customers experienced more price expectations in their banking decision-making process. The number and complexity of price expectations depend primarily on the customers’ interest, particularly on price transparency, relative price and price–quality ratio, and these dimensions affect satisfaction and behavioral intention. Islamic banking customers in Indonesia are highly aware of price transparency, have “relative thinking” on price differences and put price–quality ratio in their assessment.

The study was conducted in Indonesian Islamic banking industry; the extension to other different countries may reveal difference in price complexity and implication to behavioral consequences. Any difference in customer attitude would bring managerial implication for different Islamic bank managers. Additionally, this study developed and examined five price dimensions, however, there may be additional price dimensions in different environment contexts. Further research is needed to identify any other price expectations that may affect customers’ behavior.

The results of this research allow bank practitioners to develop relevant pricing strategy to fulfil customers’ different price expectations in their decision-making process. Appropriate measures to different price expectations improve satisfaction, loyalty and, in turn, increase bank profits. Furthermore, this research provides useful information for future researchers in different settings.

This paper provides empirical analysis of pricing strategy by Indonesian Islamic banks and insights on customers’ experience toward different price expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to present a critical viewpoint on the negative aspects of market, price and cost transparencies to consumers in terms of its costs.

It adopts an inter-disciplinary approach from the marketing, economics and accounting literature. The paper explores market transparency in the ever-changing world and uses brand names like Starbucks and iPhone to illuminate instances where imperfect markets are supported by consumers.

Recognizing the role that the Internet plays in promoting price transparency, it espouses how extant information can add costs and risks to the consumer’s value judgement. Finally, the paper advocates that arbitrary judgements existing in cost accounting make it difficult to compare unit cost. This could result in consumers paying extra money to benefit from cost transparency.

This paper argues that three main issues may arise in providing unit cost to the consumers. First, transparency entails built-in costs, whether they are in taxes or product prices. Second, in accounting, unit cost information is currently not equitable between businesses. Finally, the paper argues that extra time and effort in making sense of unit cost information lead to questions about the viability of transparent costing.

The arguments for transparency have been widely discussed, supported and promoted by many. While negative aspects are known to businesses, few consider the consumer’s perspective. By amalgamating evidence and arguments from different disciplines, this paper lends value, providing a critical perspective where transparent unit cost revelation can be more costly and less viable than what is assumed.

This study aims to map and analyze health-care pricing information research. This work highlights current gap in pricing information research in health care and proposes future research avenues to academia and industry professionals.

A bibliometric method was adopted to analyze extant literature on pricing information asymmetry. Semistructured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in health care to triangulate the findings.

Pricing information is crucial for all stakeholders including health-care consumers, providers and regulators. The popular research areas were the rising health-care cost, cost-saving, outcome-based pricing, price based on service supply and demand, insurance and out-of-pocket spending. Cost–quality perceived linkages, cost–demand correlation in health-care service and cost–price interlinked drivers were the dominant themes in extant literature. The study highlighted that pricing information asymmetry pushed patients from weaker sections into a debt trap due to unplanned out-of-pocket health-care expenses. The study suggests areas of research to minimize this pricing information asymmetry.

The emerging themes in health pricing asymmetry will help key stakeholders to identify areas for improvement and take remedial actions in the health-care domain.

This study is a pioneering effort to summarize extant literature published in the health-care information pricing domain and analyze it from a bibliometric perspective. The study also triangulates the finding with primary data from key stakeholders and highlights emerging research areas.

The purpose of this paper is to propose that consumer choice be guided by price fairness judgements to increase consumer satisfaction and subsequently enhance market efficiency. Consumers en masse lack the information to judge price fairness, thereby causing their ability to influence the economy to be overlooked.

This is an argumentative and conceptual work that aims to initiate a debate on this important yet unexplored issue. The arguments presented in the paper are based on economic and technological considerations.

The measure for enabling a consumer price fairness judgement is unit cost information – the cost incurred by a firm to produce a product and/or service. The benefits and challenges stemming from the availability of unit cost information (i.e. cost transparency) to consumers and companies are presented and the likely impact of cost transparency on addressing information asymmetries between buyers and sellers are discussed.

Although a significant body of knowledge exists on issues such as price transparency and how it is driven and enabled by the growth of the Internet, there is little or no evidence of research yet on issues related to cost transparency. The authors believe this work would create a new line of research for scholarly community leading to an impact on practice.

This study identifies predictors of customers' trust in banks at both the banking system level and toward individual banks. A mixed methods technique is utilized which combines both customers' and bankers' perspectives.

The study utilizes mixed methods, including a questionnaire survey of 1017 bank customers from retail banks, together with qualitative research derived from ten interviews with Israeli bankers.

The quantitative study shows that transparency is mediated between perception of price fairness and integrity of the banking system level and trust toward individual banks. Customer satisfaction was found to be a mediator between integrity of the banking system and trust in the individual bank. Qualitative analysis of interviews with bankers yielded six themes: integrity, transparency, price perception, service, bank image and regulation.

This study adumbrates specific aspects of the banking system and of individual banks. Cultural differences pertaining to trust might validate the findings when the study is replicated in other countries.

Since customers are universally considered as key bank stakeholders, insights are provided concerning determinants at the banking system level and toward individual banks, both crucial to explain trust. From both managerial and policymaking perspectives, this study contains valuable practical implications.