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Pay-as-You-Wish Pricing

Author

Listed:
  • Yuxin Chen

    (New York University Shanghai, 200122 Shanghai, China)

  • Oded Koenigsberg

    (London Business School, London NW1 4SA, United Kingdom)

  • Z. John Zhang

    (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104)

Abstract

Some firms use a curious pricing mechanism called “pay as you wish” pricing (PAYW). When PAYW is used, a firm lets consumers decide what a product is worth to them and how much they want to pay to get the product. This practice has been observed in a number of industries. In this paper, we theoretically investigate why and where PAYW can be a profitable pricing strategy relative to the conventional “pay as asked” pricing (PAAP) strategy. We show that PAYW has a number of advantages over PAAP such that it is well suited for some industries but not for others. These advantages are as follows: (1) PAYW helps a firm to maximally penetrate a market; (2) it allows a firm to price discriminate among heterogenous consumers; (3) it helps to moderate price competition. We derive conditions under which PAYW dominates PAAP and discuss ways to improve the profitability of PAYW.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuxin Chen & Oded Koenigsberg & Z. John Zhang, 2017. "Pay-as-You-Wish Pricing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(5), pages 780-791, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:36:y:2017:i:5:p:780-791
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2017.1032
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Wang, Cindy Xin & Yuan, Hong & Beck, Joshua T., 2022. "Too tired for a good deal: How customer fatigue shapes the performance of Pay-What-You-Want pricing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 987-996.
    3. Mukherjee, Sudipta & Pandelaere, Mario, 2023. "The influence of self-decided prices on expected quality," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Bai, Jiaru & Tang, Christopher S., 2022. "Can two competing on-demand service platforms be profitable?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    5. Ma, Xuejing & Wang, Zetao & Liu, Hongju, 2022. "Do long-life customers pay more in pay-what-you-want pricing? Evidence from live streaming," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 998-1009.
    6. Lee, Boram & Fraser, Ian & Fillis, Ian, 2022. "To sell or not to sell? Pricing strategies of newly-graduated artists," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 595-604.

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