The commercial cycle from the viewpoint of operant behavioral economics: effects of price discounts on revenues received from services

Abstract The relationship between supply and demand generates commercial cycles. Operant behavioral economics explain that these cycles are shaped by three-term bilateral contingencies – situations that create supply and demand responses and which, in turn, generate reinforcing or punitive consequences that can maintain or mitigate these. Research shows how the commercial cycle of a company occurs and investigates how price discounts affect basic and differentiated service revenues according to seasonality. Based on a longitudinal design, two time-series analyses were performed using the ARIMA model, while another was carried out using a Generalized Estimating Equations divided into seasonal combinations. The results show, among other things, (1) that a company handles most of the marketing context strategies and programmed consequences of services used by consumers, creating a new commercial situation for the company, (2) the effects of price discounts on sophisticated services have a positive impact and produce higher revenues during the low season, while those related to basic services have a greater impact and produce greater revenue during the high season; and (3) the seasonality of the greatest purchasing intensity exerts a more positive influence on revenues than the seasonality of demand characterized by heterogeneous reinforcements. These findings are useful for the administration of price discounts to generate maximum revenue and make it possible to have a better understanding of the way the commercial cycle of a company functions.