Veritatis Gaudium: Multidisciplinary Journal of Postgraduate Studies

This study examines the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the relationship between pricing strategies and consumer perception in Nigeria's soft drink manufacturing sector. Drawing on the natural resource-based view, Behavioural Pricing Theory, and Consumer Perceived Value Theory, the study posits that firms characterized by higher levels of EO, encompassing innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness, deploy pricing strategies more dynamically and creatively, thereby amplifying their positive effects on the holistic consumer perception composite. Consumer perception is operationalized as a five-item composite construct capturing purchasing behaviour, perceived price fairness, purchase intentions, consumer loyalty, and purchasing ability. Using a corrected 30-item Likert-scale questionnaire administered to 439 respondents across FCT Abuja, Kaduna State, and Nasarawa State, and applying hierarchical OLS regression with interaction terms, the study tests the moderation of EO across five pricing dimensions: psychological pricing, premium pricing, penetration pricing, value-based pricing, and competitive pricing. The findings confirm that all five pricing dimensions positively and significantly influence consumer perception, and that EO significantly moderates all five pricing-perception relationships (all p < 0.05). The strongest moderation interaction is observed for value-based pricing (Beta = 0.216), followed by penetration pricing (Beta = 0.192), psychological pricing (Beta = 0.183), competitive pricing (Beta = 0.158), and premium pricing (Beta = 0.140). The full moderation model explains 46.3 percent of the variance in consumer perception, a significant increment over the main-effects-only model. The study contributes to entrepreneurship and marketing theory by establishing EO as a strategic boundary condition that amplifies pricing strategy effectiveness in competitive consumer goods markets.

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