An Insight into Pay-what-you-want Pricing
Purpose: Extant literature on pricing posits that consumers’ internal reference price (IRP) drives willingness to pay (WTP), when external pricing cues are available. This positive IRP–WTP relationship is further moderated by involvement and price consciousness. The current research was designed to...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/42756 |
| _version_ | 1848756506617446400 |
|---|---|
| author | Roy, Rajat |
| author_facet | Roy, Rajat |
| author_sort | Roy, Rajat |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Purpose: Extant literature on pricing posits that consumers’ internal reference price (IRP) drives willingness to pay (WTP), when external pricing cues are available. This positive IRP–WTP relationship is further moderated by involvement and price consciousness. The current research was designed to test how the IRP–WTP relationship will be moderated by involvement and price consciousness, albeit in the pay-what-you-want (PWYW) context. In the PWYW setting consumers can pay any amount of money (including nothing) and no external pricing cues are provided. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was engaged to measure the key variables, and the data was analysed using hierarchical multiple regression with spotlight analyses. Findings: In the normal everyday pricing context, involvement strengthens the IRP–WTP relationship, while price consciousness weakens it. Contrary to this normal pricing wisdom, in the PWYW context, it was found that both involvement and price consciousness weaken the IRP–WTP relationship, thereby driving down consumers’ WTP. Research limitations/implications: Future studies should use experimental design to manipulate some of the independent variables used in the study, focus on the mediating processes that underlie PWYW decision-making and extend the findings in the context of wider demographics. Practical implications: Managers should focus on segmentation, branding and product experiences to ensure higher returns of PWYW businesses. Originality/value: This paper addresses lack of overall research in the PWYW area, and also addresses some key gaps left by extant research of Kim, Natter and Spann (2009) that was published in the Journal of Marketing. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:13:17Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-42756 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:13:17Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Emerald Group Publishing Limited |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-427562017-09-13T14:30:07Z An Insight into Pay-what-you-want Pricing Roy, Rajat Purpose: Extant literature on pricing posits that consumers’ internal reference price (IRP) drives willingness to pay (WTP), when external pricing cues are available. This positive IRP–WTP relationship is further moderated by involvement and price consciousness. The current research was designed to test how the IRP–WTP relationship will be moderated by involvement and price consciousness, albeit in the pay-what-you-want (PWYW) context. In the PWYW setting consumers can pay any amount of money (including nothing) and no external pricing cues are provided. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was engaged to measure the key variables, and the data was analysed using hierarchical multiple regression with spotlight analyses. Findings: In the normal everyday pricing context, involvement strengthens the IRP–WTP relationship, while price consciousness weakens it. Contrary to this normal pricing wisdom, in the PWYW context, it was found that both involvement and price consciousness weaken the IRP–WTP relationship, thereby driving down consumers’ WTP. Research limitations/implications: Future studies should use experimental design to manipulate some of the independent variables used in the study, focus on the mediating processes that underlie PWYW decision-making and extend the findings in the context of wider demographics. Practical implications: Managers should focus on segmentation, branding and product experiences to ensure higher returns of PWYW businesses. Originality/value: This paper addresses lack of overall research in the PWYW area, and also addresses some key gaps left by extant research of Kim, Natter and Spann (2009) that was published in the Journal of Marketing. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/42756 10.1108/MIP-06-2014-0118 Emerald Group Publishing Limited fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Roy, Rajat An Insight into Pay-what-you-want Pricing |
| title | An Insight into Pay-what-you-want Pricing |
| title_full | An Insight into Pay-what-you-want Pricing |
| title_fullStr | An Insight into Pay-what-you-want Pricing |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Insight into Pay-what-you-want Pricing |
| title_short | An Insight into Pay-what-you-want Pricing |
| title_sort | insight into pay-what-you-want pricing |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/42756 |