Writing a Research Proposal

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Quantitative research proposal for negative impact of policy restrictions on consumer's
post purchase reaction on price matching guarantees
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
1.0 Introduction/Background of the research proposal
Price Match Guarantee (PMG) is one of the key pricing policies practiced by the retail
companies. The history of commerce shows that consumers have always been price sensitive and
selection of vendors is often determined by the prices. As stated by Yankelevich & Vaughan, B.
(2016), price is the first factor that forges customer loyalty and the perception about the brands is
often shaped by prices. The large retail giants have created their massive customer based on the
basis of the prices, that is, Walmart, Amazon, Tesco, Costco etc. have provided the guarantee to
the customers to get the products at lowest price possible. Along with the guarantee of lowest
market price, comes another strategy of price match guarantee. Though this mechanism, the
retailers provide the guarantee to the customers that in a certain time period after the purchase, if
the customer can find a better or lower price for the same product, then the company would
honor that particular price and usually offer a discount or perk to the customer (Peng, Tian &
Wang, 2020).
The post purchase reaction of the customers on the price match guarantee is either
positive or negative based on the fulfilment of the guarantee by the retailers. Price match
guarantee does not always mean the lowest or best possible price, rather it offers the guarantee to
the customers that if they could find a better price in any other store or online store prior to
making the purchase, then they would match that price for that particular product. Hence, this
can be termed as price competition practiced by the rival retailers. It has also been observed that
the price match guarantee is not generally extended beyond the first purchase and it leads to only
the match of price and no more further price discounts by the retailers (Mamadehussene, 2019).
Therefore, when the expectations of the customers do not get fulfilled from the price match, then
they tend to have a negative reaction towards the retailer and that would make the customers

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
switch to other retailer to get more value in the future. At the same time, price match guarantee is
often found to be a price competition, as majority of the time, the implication of better price is
the lowest price in the market and to provide this guarantee, the sellers often get involved into a
price war and continuously lower their price to offer the best price to the customers, which
eventually results in loss (Krämer, Jung & Burgartz, 2016). On the other hand, if the PMG does
not satisfy the customer’s expectation post purchase that affects their revenue in future.
However, various policies, like the terms and conditions are imposed by the retailers on
the PMGs to eventually prevent the losses that could incur from the PMGs and these might
negatively influence the post purchase reaction of the consumers, especially in case of future
purchases.
1.1 Identification of the problem
The research problem is to explore the consumer behavior due to imposition of restriction
policies on price match guarantees offered by the retailers and to evaluate the consequence of the
purchasing behavior of the consumers. These are also known as the terms and conditions of the
policies. It is observed that if the terms and conditions of the retail policies, like, return, refund or
exchange, are not flexible, convenient and user-friendly, then that negatively affects the
consumer behavior, especially consumer loyalty significantly (Wang & Qu, 2017). This research
study will explore the negative impact of policy restrictions on consumer's post purchase reaction
on PMGs through quantitative methods. In other words, the post purchase consumer behavior
will be studied using quantitative methods which is influenced by the negative effect of the PMG
policy restrictions imposed by the sellers. The desired outcome of the study aims to address the
issues of the policy restrictions to make the PMG more effective for the customers and also
protect the interest of the sellers at the same time.

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
1.2 Research questions
1) What are the price match guarantees (PMGs) offered in the retail sector of New Zealand?
2) How the PMGs affect the purchasing behavior of the consumers?
3) What are the policy restrictions on the PMGs in the retail sector of New Zealand?
4) How the policy restrictions affect the post purchase reaction of the consumers?
5) How the policies can be made valuable to both the sellers and buyers so that interests of both
the sides can be protected?
1.3 Outline of research plan
The research study will consist of few steps, such as, the problem will be identified first
and based on the problem, the research questions, aim and objectives have to be decided.
Secondly, literature review will be conducted to create the context of the study and make the
readers acquainted with the research subject. Thirdly, a suitable research methodology will be
chosen, which will depict the techniques to be applied to conduct the study logically and
systematically. Fourthly, relevant data will be collected, which in this case will be collected
directly from the retail industry customers in New Zealand, and after the data collection,
quantitative methods will be applied on the gathered information to answer the research
questions. Finally, the conclusion and recommendations will be presented on the basis of the
findings to the retailers to implement more effective restrictive policies for the PMGs.
1.4 Research objectives
 To explore the PMGs and the restrictive policies offered in the retail sector of New
Zealand
 To evaluate the negative effect of the restriction policies of the PMGs on the post
purchase behavior of the consumers