پرداخت آنچه می خواهید برای خدمات با ارزش قیمتی بالا: تفاوت بین مشتریان بالقوه، جدید و تکراری  Pay-what-you-want for high-value priced services: Differences between potential, new, and repeat customers

1. Introduction Pricing is the only element of the marketing mix that generates profit. Setting prices low enough for customers to perceive the purchase as valuable and high enough to generate profits for the seller is an art (Palmer, 2011). Pay-what-you-want (PWYW) is a participative pricing method that allows customers to pay the price they want, thereby taking away the seller’s ability to set the price. As such, the customer is free to set any price (even zero) and the seller has to accept the offering (Kim, Natter, & Spann, 2009). Existing research on participative pricing approaches examines their impact on customers’ fairness perceptions (Haws & Bearden, 2006), willingness to pay (Spann, Skiera, & Schäfers, 2004), and purchase intentions (Chandran & Morwitz, 2005). PWYW literature also provides insights into why the approach works in certain societies (Gneezy, Gneezy, Riener, & Nelson, 2012), which factors impact on the PWYW price people pay, and profitability level for various services (Chao, Fernandez, & Nahata, 2015; Kim et al., 2009; Schons et al., 2014). PWYW is more effective than traditional pricing approaches for services that tend to follow an economy pricing strategy (Schons et al., 2014) and when customers are aware of the cost structures (Greiff, Egbert, & Xhangolli, 2014). Apparently, PWYW is a poor strategy for luxury goods (Balan, 2014). Studies that directly compare the profitability of PWYW for different customer groups for high-value priced service settings are absent from the literature. A high-value service is positioning a service as high quality but sold at a medium price (Kotler & Armstrong, 2001). Accordingly, the question informing this study’s research objective is whether different customer groups will pay different PWYW prices in comparison to traditional list prices. As such, the study’s contribution is two-fold. First, this study identifies price margin differences (i.e., minimum, maximum, and PWYW prices) and profitability for three groups of customers (potential, new, and repeat). Further, unlike studies which reveal PWYW profitability by contrasting PWYW prices with oneprice-fits-all prices determined by the service provider (e.g., Kim et al., 2009), this research compares PWYW with a more sophisticated traditional list price structure (i.e., various price groups and discounts). Second, this study identifies PWYW price differences regarding price perception/consciousness and quality/value perceptions to customers. These variables are relevant to customers’ willingness to pay different prices in the context of PWYW.