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The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the way industrial service firms price the services they render in the market, with particular emphasis on the pricing practices of pricing‐competent firms.

In order to achieve the study's research objectives, data were collected through a mail survey from 129 transportation and 48 information technology companies. Moreover, 20 in‐depth personal interviews were conducted in the initial phase of the research.

The study found that pricing‐competent firms have developed a “holistic” and multi‐faceted pricing approach, paying attention to both company‐ and market‐related pricing objectives, methods, policies, and information.

These findings underline the multidimensionality that characterizes pricing decisions, necessitating a systematic approach triggered by the thorough examination of both company‐ and market‐related characteristics. The significance of these findings notwithstanding, the narrow context of the study does limit generalization of its findings to other service sectors and national contexts.

The paper constitutes the first attempt to examine empirically the concept of pricing performance in an industrial service context.

The paper aims to test seven marketing‐orientated factors that have the potential to discriminate between the setting of successful high and low prices. The significant factors are then applied by means of a decision support model that can be used by managers to aid their price decision‐making.

Following exploratory research, a mail survey was conducted using a questionnaire based on the dual scenario technique.

Six marketing‐orientated factors – i.e. ability of customers to pay, brand value, degree of competition, price acting as a barrier to entry, demand compared to supply, and the use of a building market share objective – significantly discriminated between the use of successful high versus low price strategies. Using these variables, a highly statistically significant model was developed based on discriminant analysis.

The sample excludes services and is based on responses from managers. Cost‐orientated factors were excluded from investigation to provide focus. The study demonstrates the potential for using the dual scenario technique in survey research, provides measures for seven constructs and highlights the dangers of using reverse‐polarity items to measure constructs.

The decision support model can be used by managers to aid their price decision‐making. The significant factors can also be helpful in market segmentation and targeting analysis.

The study supports a marketing‐orientated theory of price determination based on market, customer and competitor factors. It is the first to provide a systematic and cogent analysis of marketing‐orientated variables that have the potential to affect the high versus low pricing decision. By applying these variables in a decision support model, marketers have access to a tool that can aid their marketing decision‐making.

In this paper, we examine the elements of pricing approaches in export businesses and their performance in an international environment. The elements of pricing approaches consist of cost-based, competitor-based, and value-based decisions made by different levels of management. By providing an integrated, holistic view, we investigate how different types of export-pricing strategies influence export performance, and which elements strengthen or attenuate the outcomes of strategic actions.

Using data from a survey of 172 export managers, we test our hypotheses in a two-step approach. First, we use an unsupervised approach to group the export companies and to validate the cluster solution internally and externally. Second, we test our hypotheses regarding export performance.

The results show that the types of export-pricing strategies are unequally distributed, and the elements of the strategies have different complexities. Export performance varies significantly by type of pricing orientation used.

The purpose of this paper is to understand what sales management practices (SMPs) are being used by managers in the current market place, changes over time, insights that can be gained and future research needs.

Data for this paper were collected via a cross-sectional internet-based survey using a sampling frame provided by a professional sales publication. ANOVA was used to analyze 159 sales manager respondents.

Empirical results indicate that several differences are evident across the 68 SMPs items gathered, especially in terms of the size of the sales force and establish some data on using technology in sales management. However, in spite of significant changes in the sales environment, many SMPs have had limited change.

The limitations of this paper include a sample frame drawn from a single source and via the internet and, thus, may have excluded some possible respondents from participation and somewhat limit generalizability.

The results of this paper raise a number of important issues for sales managers to consider. First, which SMPs should they be using? Managers need to give serious thought as to which practices they choose to use. Second, why are so many of them not making more extensive use of sales force technology? Third, is it wise for sales managers to be relying on executive opinion as their most extensively used forecasting method or should they be emphasizing another approach? A fourth issue is the continued heavy emphasis on generating sales volume as opposed to profits.

The data provide a rare and updated understanding of the use of SMPs by sales managers.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into how service firms price the services that they render in the market. In particular, the association between the pricing objectives that they pursue and the organizational and environmental characteristics that influence pricing decisions are investigated.

Data are collected from 170 companies operating in six different service sectors in Greece through personal interviews. Moreover, qualitative research through 26 in‐depth interviews is also conducted.

Following the classification scheme put forward by Avlonitis and Indounas, it can be concluded that a combination of different organizational and environmental characteristics leads to each one of the eight pricing objectives examined in the study.

The above findings indicate the need to treat pricing decisions using a contingency approach. Formulating a specific pricing objective requires an examination of certain organizational and environmental concerns. The significance of these findings notwithstanding, the context of the study (Greece) is the most important caveat, since it limits the ability to generalize the results to other countries.

This paper represents the first attempt to empirically examine the potential association between the aforementioned pricing objectives and characteristics.

The purpose of the present study is to explore the pricing methods that service companies adopt in order to set their prices, along with the service, organizational and environmental characteristics that influence these methods.

To achieve the research objectives, data were collected through personal interviews in 170 companies operating in six different services sectors in Greece.

The study concluded that the two most popular pricing methods are the traditional “cost‐plus” method and “pricing according to the market's average prices”, while all the other methods (including customer‐based methods) are adopted by a small number of companies in the sample. Similarly, “service cost” along with “competitors' prices” were found to be the two most important characteristics that are taken into consideration when setting prices.

Despite the importance attached to cost and competitive issues when setting prices, pricing decisions need to be treated from a more “holistic” approach, where apart from cost and competition, emphasis will also be placed on other company and environmentally related characteristics, including customers. The significance of these findings notwithstanding, the context of the study is a caveat, since it limits the ability to generalize the results to other countries.

The contribution of the paper lies in the fact that it presents the first attempt to examine empirically the potential impact of these characteristics on the pricing methods used.

Survey research of top managers is critical to addressing many contemporary research questions in the field of strategic management. Yet, the threat of low response rates has discouraged many researchers from attempting this type of work, steering the field of strategic management away from issues related to strategic process. This article provides an empirical examination of factors that determine the likelihood and quality of response to top management surveys. More generally, we advance a theoretical perspective on survey response rooted in social influence theory that should help researchers make better choices about the design of their survey questionnaires.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between pricing and ethics in two industrial service contexts. In particular the pricing practices that lead to non‐ethical pricing behavior along with the factors that could reduce such a behavior are examined. Moreover, the extent is addressed to which companies that do perceive that pricing decisions entail ethical considerations are differentiated from those companies that do not hold such a perception in terms of the pricing objectives that they pursue in order to set their prices.

In order to achieve the study's research objectives, data were collected from 177 companies, operating in the transportation and information technology industries through a mail survey. Moreover, 20 in‐depth personal interviews were conducted in the initial phase of the research.

The main pricing practices that were perceived as being non‐ethical by respondents are related to determination of prices that lead to excessive profits, take advantage of a customer's needs and are below cost. Regarding the factors that could reduce such a behavior, the study concluded that a corporate culture that facilitates a customer orientation towards pricing decisions, the market's own mechanisms and the agreements between companies are more effective than governmental intervention. Furthermore, companies that do perceive that pricing decisions are related to ethical considerations tend to follow a more balanced approach when setting prices by pursuing both customer‐ and competition‐oriented pricing objectives, without, however, overlooking financial objectives.

The practical implications of the findings refer to the fact that managers might have a lot to gain by avoiding pricing practices that raise ethical considerations and endeavoring to understand the potential ethical implications of these practices. The significance of these findings notwithstanding, the context of the study is the most important caveat since it limits the ability to generalize the results in other sectors and countries.

The contribution of the paper lies in the fact that it presents the first attempt to empirically examine the relationship between pricing and ethics in an industrial service context.

The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the extent to which companies that operate in business-to-business (B2B) financial service markets adopt any form of pricing research along with the different pricing objectives that they pursue in comparison with companies that do not adopt such kind of research.

To achieve the research objectives, data were collected from 143 companies operating in three different B2B financial service industries.

The findings of the study indicate that companies that adopt any form of pricing research are mainly based on historical sales data and personal in-depth interviews. Moreover, they focus more on both company and market related pricing objectives than those companies that do not adopt such pricing research methods when setting their prices.

The above findings indicate that the managers responsible for setting prices within their firms might have to gain a lot by adopting a research orientation when setting their prices, since such orientation may lead them to a more holistic approach regarding pricing decision-making by focusing on both company and market related issues.

Given the lack of similar studies in the existing B2B financial services literature, the value of the paper is that it represents one of the first attempts to empirically examine this issue.