Although price fairness has been intensively studied for decades, the measurement of its multidimensionality has not yet reached any consensus. Its impact on consumers’ trust and switching intentions in financial institutions has been less frequently analysed. This paper fills both gaps and has two objectives. First, it aims to develop a reliable and valid measurement scale for price fairness in microfinance. Second, following the equity and social exchange theories, it tests the impact of price fairness on consumers’ trust and switching intentions. Data were collected from 324 customers in six microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and tested using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as structural equation modelling. The results confirm that price fairness is a multidimensional construct with six dimensions, revealing that the construct has not been comprehensively captured in prior research. Furthermore, findings suggest that price fairness significantly affects customer trust and satisfaction, and that both variables mediate the relationship between price fairness and customer switching intentions. These results confer a strategic role of price fairness, trust and switching intention in the microfinance industry, which is currently subject to customer sensitivity to interest rates and mistrust towards MFIs.

尽管价格公平性已经被深入研究了几十年，但对其多维性的衡量尚未达成任何共识。它对消费者信任和金融机构转换意图的影响较少被分析。本文填补了这两个空白，并有两个目标。首先，它旨在为小额信贷中的价格公平制定一个可靠和有效的衡量尺度。其次，遵循公平和社会交换理论，检验价格公平对消费者信任和转换意愿的影响。从刚果民主共和国布卡武的六个小额信贷机构 (MFI) 的 324 位客户收集数据，并使用探索性和验证性因素分析以及结构方程模型进行测试。结果证实价格公平是一个具有六个维度的多维结构，表明该结构尚未在先前的研究中被全面捕获。此外，研究结果表明，价格公平性显着影响客户信任和满意度，并且这两个变量在价格公平性与客户转换意图之间的关系中起中介作用。这些结果赋予小额信贷行业价格公平、信任和转换意图的战略作用，目前该行业受到客户对利率的敏感性和对小额信贷机构的不信任。并且这两个变量在价格公平性和客户转换意图之间起到中介作用。这些结果赋予小额信贷行业价格公平、信任和转换意图的战略作用，目前该行业受到客户对利率的敏感性和对小额信贷机构的不信任。并且这两个变量都调解了价格公平性和客户转换意图之间的关系。这些结果赋予小额信贷行业价格公平、信任和转换意图的战略作用，目前该行业受到客户对利率的敏感性和对小额信贷机构的不信任。