TITLE:
Determinants in Pay-What-You-Want Pricing Decisions—A Cross-Country Study
AUTHORS:
Tim Dorn, Augustin Suessmair
KEYWORDS:
Pay-What-You-Want, Willingness-to-Pay, Participative Pricing, Social Influence, Pricing Decisions, Cross-Country-Study
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.7 No.2,
February
28,
2017
ABSTRACT: Pay-what-you-want (PWYW) pricing has attracted much attention recently.
Current research focused on influencing factors and their power across social
contexts and countries. This article empirically examines a comprehensive list
of 10 empirically tested factors that influence individual price-setting but never
have been investigated holistically. Results indicate: (1) some previously
assumed influencing factors have stronger moderating effects than do others,
and (2) these influences must be interpreted as influential clusters rather
than individually, as not all constructs are of significantly differing
influence on an individual’s pricing decision. Satisfaction (Cluster 1), price
consciousness, and fairness (both Cluster 2) constitute the most crucial
moderators, regardless of context. Four country contexts (i.e.,
Australia, Germany, Poland, United States) revealed further insights about the
intercultural perspective of PWYW pricing: Whereas most of the influencing
factors/clusters are of comparable importance across the tested countries,
loyalty and reputation (Cluster 6) significantly differed in importance
depending on country.