IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v304y2023i3p981-996.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to charge in servicizing: Per period or per use?

Author

Listed:
  • Arani, Hamed Vafa
  • Pourakbar, Morteza
  • Laan, Erwin van der
  • de Koster, René

Abstract

In a servicizing business model, the service provider sells a product’s functionality, not the product per se. This study aims to find the best profit-maximizing pricing strategies for this business model that can also yield the highest consumer welfare with minimal environmental impact. This approach identifies win-win-win strategies satisfying profit, planet, and people objectives. As providers charge consumers based on usage (pay-per-use) versus a regular flat fee (pay-per-period), the economic, environmental, and welfare implications of such strategies remain unclear. We tackle this problem using a stylized game-theoretic model where the service provider first designs the pricing schemes, and consumers react by adjusting use. When offering a single product, we observe that pay-per-use policies outperform pay-per-period when the service provider is cost-inefficient or small-scale. Also, where per-use consumers are not very sensitive to payment frequency, service providers tend to exclude low usage-valuation users. Outperformance also prevails when the proportion of low-use consumers is sufficiently low. Our results show that a win-win strategy can be achieved by offering a pay-per-use policy to high usage-valuation consumers, however, a win-win-win strategy is never possible. We also analyze the problem for a situation where the service provider offers a product line including green and regular products. Then, we characterize possible win-win-win strategies that hinge on environmental impact from different phases of a product’s lifecycle. We extend the models to allow SP i) influence the size of market segments and ii) decide on product greenness levels in different phases of its lifecycle.

Suggested Citation

  • Arani, Hamed Vafa & Pourakbar, Morteza & Laan, Erwin van der & de Koster, René, 2023. "How to charge in servicizing: Per period or per use?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(3), pages 981-996.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:304:y:2023:i:3:p:981-996
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2022.05.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221722003605
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2022.05.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ioannis Bellos & Mark Ferguson & L. Beril Toktay, 2017. "The Car Sharing Economy: Interaction of Business Model Choice and Product Line Design," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 185-201, May.
    2. Chialin Chen, 2001. "Design for the Environment: A Quality-Based Model for Green Product Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(2), pages 250-263, February.
    3. Arun Sundararajan, 2004. "Nonlinear Pricing of Information Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(12), pages 1660-1673, December.
    4. Gérard P. Cachon & Pnina Feldman, 2011. "Pricing Services Subject to Congestion: Charge Per-Use Fees or Sell Subscriptions?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(2), pages 244-260, June.
    5. Arnold Tukker, 2004. "Eight types of product–service system: eight ways to sustainability? Experiences from SusProNet," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 246-260, July.
    6. Drazen Prelec & George Loewenstein, 1998. "The Red and the Black: Mental Accounting of Savings and Debt," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 4-28.
    7. Malhotra, Naresh K, 1982. "Information Load and Consumer Decision Making," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 8(4), pages 419-430, March.
    8. Karthik Murali & Michael K. Lim & Nicholas C. Petruzzi, 2019. "The Effects of Ecolabels and Environmental Regulation on Green Product Development," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 519-535, July.
    9. Vidyanand Choudhary, 2010. "Use of Pricing Schemes for Differentiating Information Goods," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 78-92, March.
    10. Peter C. Fishburn & Andrew M. Odlyzko, 1999. "Competitive pricing of information goods: Subscription pricing versus pay-per-use," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 13(2), pages 447-470.
    11. Sridhar Balasubramanian & Shantanu Bhattacharya & Vish V. Krishnan, 2015. "Pricing Information Goods: A Strategic Analysis of the Selling and Pay-per-Use Mechanisms," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 218-234, March.
    12. Bhattacharya, Shantanu & Robotis, Andreas & Van Wassenhove, Luk N., 2019. "Installed base management versus selling in monopolistic and competitive environments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 273(2), pages 596-607.
    13. Kenneth E. Train, 1991. "Optimal Regulation: The Economic Theory of Natural Monopoly," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200848, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhou, Wenli & Liu, Huan & Cao, Ping & Wang, Yaolei, 2024. "Optimal pricing for on-demand service platforms with heterogeneous customer demand frequencies," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Hu, Xu & Yang, Zhaojun & Sun, Jun & Zhang, Yali, 2023. "Optimal pricing strategy for electric vehicle battery swapping: Pay-per-swap or subscription?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    3. Alegoz, Mehmet & Karaer, Özgen, 2024. "Compound effect of closing the loop and servitization in supply chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manish Gangwar & Hemant K. Bhargava, 2023. "Pricing on‐demand services: Alternative ways of combining usage and access fees," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(1), pages 11-27, January.
    2. Adhikari, Arnab & Sharma, Megha & Basu, Sumanta & Jha, Ashish Kumar, 2022. "Uniform or spatially differentiated? Pricing Strategies for Information Goods under simultaneous and sequential decision-making in multi-market context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Tarun Jain & Jishnu Hazra, 2019. "“On-demand” pricing and capacity management in cloud computing," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(3), pages 228-246, June.
    4. Sven Heidenreich & Katrin Talke, 2012. "Tarifwahl-Anomalien bei optionalen Mobilfunktarifen — Eine Analyse der Ursachen von Flatrate-Präferenz und Flatrate-Bias," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 280-307, May.
    5. Reza-Gharehbagh, Raziyeh & Hafezalkotob, Ashkan & Makui, Ahmad & Sayadi, Mohammad Kazem, 2022. "Financing green technology development and role of digital platforms: Insourcing vs. outsourcing," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    6. Ruxian Wang & Maqbool Dada & Ozge Sahin, 2019. "Pricing Ancillary Service Subscriptions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4712-4732, October.
    7. Mingdi Xin & Arun Sundararajan, 2020. "Nonlinear Pricing of Software with Local Demand Inelasticity," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1224-1239, December.
    8. Vishal V. Agrawal & Atalay Atasu & Luk N. Van Wassenhove, 2019. "OM Forum—New Opportunities for Operations Management Research in Sustainability," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 1-12, January.
    9. Fang, Lei & Zhao, Sai, 2023. "On the green subsidies in a differentiated market," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    10. Yen-Ting Lin & Haoying Sun & Shouqiang Wang, 2020. "Designing Sustainable Products Under Coproduction Technology," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 1181-1198, November.
    11. Juan Zhang & Ziyue Wang & Huiju Zhao, 2020. "The Impact of Consumer Subsidy on Green Technology Innovations for Vehicles and Environmental Impact," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-24, October.
    12. Yuan Fang & Bin Shen & Yifan Cao, 2022. "To Share or Not to Share? The Optimal Technology Investment in a Virtual Product Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-30, October.
    13. Cao, Yu & Yi, Chaoqun & Wan, Guangyu & Hu, Hanli & Li, Qingsong & Wang, Shouyang, 2022. "An analysis on the role of blockchain-based platforms in agricultural supply chains," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    14. Fabian Herweg & Konrad Mierendorff, 2013. "Uncertain Demand, Consumer Loss Aversion, And Flat-Rate Tariffs," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 399-432, April.
    15. Cungen Zhu & Zhong Yao, 2018. "Comparison between the agency and wholesale model under the e-book duopoly market," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 313-337, June.
    16. Wei, Liqun & Zhang, Libin & Wei, Wanying & Chen, Xiaohong & Wang, Kai, 2024. "Working along both lines? The relationship between government green publicity and emissions tax," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 317(1), pages 128-140.
    17. Chowdhury, Sayan & Verma, Nishant K., 2024. "Walking a tightrope: Impact of adopting voluntary right-to-repair policy on firm profit and consumer welfare," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    18. Raghuram Iyengar & Kamel Jedidi & Skander Essegaier & Peter J. Danaher, 2011. "The Impact of Tariff Structure on Customer Retention, Usage, and Profitability of Access Services," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 820-836, September.
    19. Guo, Dongliang & Fan, Zhi-Ping & Sun, Minghe, 2022. "B2C car-sharing services: Sharing mode selection and value-added service investment," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    20. Sejeong Yun & Kwanho Suk, 2022. "Consumer preference for pay-per-use service tariffs: the roles of mental accounting," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 1111-1124, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:304:y:2023:i:3:p:981-996. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.