Bargaining over the price of a product: delightful anticipation or abject dread?

The literature provides substantial evidence of gender differences in the level of assertive and/or competitive traits an individual is likely to exhibit. Further, it has been established that those individual differences are related to certain exchange strategies employed by each gender. The primary research objectives in this study were, first, to develop a reliable pencil‐and‐paper scale assessing consumers’ propensity to employ bargaining tactics in marketing exchange situations; and second, to investigate gender differences in consumers’ bargaining propensity. The results of the study showed that the first research objective was successfully achieved in the form of the Bargaining Propensity Scale, and that statistically significant gender differences in bargaining propensity scores did occur. Managerial implications and avenues for future research are discussed.