Exploring the Role of Spotlight Effect in Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) Pricing – An Anchoring and Adjustment Perspective

This paper investigates social influences on Pay‐What‐You‐Want (PWYW) pricing decisions by combining a socio‐psychological phenomenon, called “spotlight effect” (defined as an egocentric bias while estimating the salience of one's own behavior and external appearance), with the well‐established...

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Main Authors: Roy, Rajat, Sharma, Piyush, Chan, Ricky YK, Potdar, Vidyasagar
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2021
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/82657
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author Roy, Rajat
Sharma, Piyush
Chan, Ricky YK
Potdar, Vidyasagar
author_facet Roy, Rajat
Sharma, Piyush
Chan, Ricky YK
Potdar, Vidyasagar
author_sort Roy, Rajat
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper investigates social influences on Pay‐What‐You‐Want (PWYW) pricing decisions by combining a socio‐psychological phenomenon, called “spotlight effect” (defined as an egocentric bias while estimating the salience of one's own behavior and external appearance), with the well‐established “anchoring and adjustment” perspective. We test our hypotheses with one field study and two lab experiments. Findings show that when making a payment in PWYW setting, customers perceive greater attention on self (vs. others) and in the presence of distant (vs. close) others, which makes them initially anchor the price they are willing to pay on their internal reference price. However, this anchoring effect is adjusted downwards (i.e., reduced) in the presence of external reference prices. Our findings would help managers understand the factors influencing customers' PWYW pricing decisions, based on their internal and external reference prices. Managers can further use this knowledge to develop more effective strategies to drive higher PWYW prices.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2021
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-826572023-04-14T03:13:13Z Exploring the Role of Spotlight Effect in Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) Pricing – An Anchoring and Adjustment Perspective Roy, Rajat Sharma, Piyush Chan, Ricky YK Potdar, Vidyasagar This paper investigates social influences on Pay‐What‐You‐Want (PWYW) pricing decisions by combining a socio‐psychological phenomenon, called “spotlight effect” (defined as an egocentric bias while estimating the salience of one's own behavior and external appearance), with the well‐established “anchoring and adjustment” perspective. We test our hypotheses with one field study and two lab experiments. Findings show that when making a payment in PWYW setting, customers perceive greater attention on self (vs. others) and in the presence of distant (vs. close) others, which makes them initially anchor the price they are willing to pay on their internal reference price. However, this anchoring effect is adjusted downwards (i.e., reduced) in the presence of external reference prices. Our findings would help managers understand the factors influencing customers' PWYW pricing decisions, based on their internal and external reference prices. Managers can further use this knowledge to develop more effective strategies to drive higher PWYW prices. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/82657 10.1002/mar.21474 Wiley-Blackwell fulltext
spellingShingle Roy, Rajat
Sharma, Piyush
Chan, Ricky YK
Potdar, Vidyasagar
Exploring the Role of Spotlight Effect in Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) Pricing – An Anchoring and Adjustment Perspective
title Exploring the Role of Spotlight Effect in Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) Pricing – An Anchoring and Adjustment Perspective
title_full Exploring the Role of Spotlight Effect in Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) Pricing – An Anchoring and Adjustment Perspective
title_fullStr Exploring the Role of Spotlight Effect in Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) Pricing – An Anchoring and Adjustment Perspective
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the Role of Spotlight Effect in Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) Pricing – An Anchoring and Adjustment Perspective
title_short Exploring the Role of Spotlight Effect in Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) Pricing – An Anchoring and Adjustment Perspective
title_sort exploring the role of spotlight effect in pay-what-you-want (pwyw) pricing – an anchoring and adjustment perspective
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/82657