New B2B product pricing

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics that lead to the adoption of the three new business-to-business (B2B) product pricing strategies, namely, skimming pricing (i.e. a high initial price), penetration pricing (i.e. a low initial price) and pricing similar to competitive prices.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve the study’s research objectives, data were collected through a mail survey from 116 B2B firms, operating in four different sectors.

Findings

The adoption of skimming pricing and penetration pricing is triggered by company-related factors that are associated with the company’s corporate and marketing strategy and the product characteristics, while the adoption of pricing similar to competitive prices is influenced by market-related factors that are associated with customers’ and competitors’ characteristics.

Practical implications

The above findings indicate that the managers responsible for setting prices for new B2B products should follow a “situation-specific approach” and be guided by the unique characteristics of their internal and external environment.

Originality/value

Its contribution lies on the fact that, building upon quests within the existing literature, it constitutes one of the first attempts to examine empirically the aforementioned issue.

Citation

Indounas, K. (2020), "New B2B product pricing", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 11, pp. 1861-1869. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-05-2019-0187