Abstract
This study proposes Net Transaction Value (NTV), a unified theory of buyer decision-making. NTV hypothesizes that a buyer makes an implicit and subjective calculation before making a purchase in a high involvement context. In making this calculation, the buyer deducts the costs anticipated from a transaction or transaction stream from its associated benefits. In contrast to prior value equal benefits minus cost models, the NTV model conceptually expands, operationally defines, and empirically tests two types of benefits and costs. Benefits in the NTV equation reflect not only those derived from the product or service offering itself, but also from the monetary aspects of the transaction or purchase deal. Costs, over and above the selling price, reflect both the buyer’s self-imposed costs as well as the costs sellers impose on the buyer. This study uses the NTV model to develop and test the relationships between these benefit and cost variables and the buyer’s perceptions of net transaction value as manifest in purchase intention. Results confirm that the buyer includes the benefits of the product or service offering itself, benefits associated with the price deal, the buyer’s own costs over and above price, and seller-imposed costs over and above price in the calculation of NTV. As a result, NTV extends extent research on decision-making and provides a valuable tool for describing, explaining and predicting buyer decisions.