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The Gift and Pay-What-You-Want Pricing

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  • Egbert, Henrik

Abstract

This paper addresses the participative pricing mechanism of Pay-What-You-Want pricing as related to Marcel Mauss’s concept of the Gift. Reciprocity is a behavioural pattern imminent to the Gift as well as to Pay-What-You-Want pricing. The paper refers to results from behavioural economics in order to identify factors that positively influence reciprocity. It is argued that the aspects elaborated on in the Gift are also relevant to the PWYW pricing mechanism when it comes to implementations of the latter as one of the corporate pricing strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Egbert, Henrik, 2017. "The Gift and Pay-What-You-Want Pricing," MPRA Paper 82066, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:82066
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Egbert, Henrik, 2017. "The Gift and the Centipede," MPRA Paper 80324, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gift; Marcel Mauss; Pay-What-You-Want; PWYW; Pricing; Reciprocity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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