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910                         Tan Yi Ting & Dr Adaviah (2022)
            freshness of the products. Thus, the products are safe to be consumed. Crispy Oyster Mushroom is
            the most popular product that everyone loves. Till now, Restaurant Vegetarian S.I Jin Wei is able to
            sell its frozen foods in 11 states within Malaysia and Singapore through agents.

            2.1.2   REFERENCE PRICE

            Price perception of customers always being influenced by reference prices. Reference prices do usually
            come from competing products, thus it is important to enhance customers' perception on the product.
            The product will become more superior and more expensive. The theoretical foundation of reference
            price is Kahneman’s and Tversky’s (1979) prospect theory and it includes reference dependence, loss
            aversion and sensitivity decrement in the theory. Previous research (Kalyanaram and Winer, 1995)
            identified that the reference price comes from the product price of the  last purchase. Furthermore,
            customers  will  always  use  the  reference  price  to  make  their  choice  of  bands.  Customers’  choice
            presents loss aversion while under the influence of reference price. It shows that these characteristics
            are aligned with the basic characteristics of prospect theory.
                Besides, there are many researchers that have presented that (Hardie et al., 1993; Mazumdar et al.,
            2005; Briesch et al., 1997) reference price can be divided in 2 parts named as internal reference price
            and external reference price. Internal reference price is based on the past memory and past purchase
            experience  whereas  the  external  reference  price  is  triggered  by  external  environmental price
            incentives.  There  is  a  question  that  arises  on  which  reference  price  acts  significant  in  customer
            purchasing. In the study of Hardie et al. (1993), it portrays that the external reference price acts more
            significant than internal reference price. In contrast, Briesch and other researchers (1997) draw an
            opposite opinion from their study. Addition to that, according to Mazumdar’s and Papatla’s (2000),
            they identified that both internal and external reference prices have an impact and it will vary based on
            different market segments. For example, there are certain customers who tend to be  more sensitive to
            internal reference prices while others may be more sensitive to external reference prices.
                The most commonly  cited explanation for  reference price is  based on  Helson’s  (1947, 1964)
            adaptation-level theory, which asserts that judgments are proportional to deviations from a comparison
            standard. The context of the adaptation level is quite sensitive presented by the mean of stimuli within
            a contextual set (Helson 1964; Wedell 1995). According to Helson’s theory,  it explains that there is a
            significant relationship between past experiences and an individual's judgement on the present day.
            Customers will take into account several criteria such as the reference points of previous judgments,
            mean of similar stimuli depending on the recency and salience. Thus, customers’ past experiences and
            encounters related to stimuli will be the key drivers to determine the adaptation level. From the view
            of Monroe, 1990, customers will use the reference price to weigh average product prices from the
            relevant category.

            2.1.3   PURCHASE INTENTION

            Purchase intention represents consumers’ preference or precedence to purchase a product or service.
            Addition to that, purchase intention also describes customers' evaluation towards a  product  or service
            to decide their willingness on whether to buy or not buy (Younus et al., 2015). Purchase intention is a
            process related to consumers’ decision making which requires researchers to study about the reason
            why customers will purchase certain products or services according to the brand which they are more
            favorable. Purchase intention takes place when  customers decide to buy a certain product or service
            in a particular condition (Mirabi et al., 2015).

            2.2  HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT







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