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In this brief paper, the aim is to highlight three important pricing areas: the business strategies and pricing models that have evolved over the past 20 years of research, the customers that have been targeted, and the role of the internet on pricing. The advent of social media, mobile marketing and display technologies are likely to encourage researchers to pursue additional research on these topics.

The current paper is an essay aimed at stimulating pricing research in three major domains.

The authors review illustrative current practices and research findings pertaining to emerging pricing business models, customer target marketing and price dispersion on the web.

The paper highlights areas that need empirical investigation.

Managers need to explicitly understand the role of these emerging technologies (e.g. social media, mobile media, and web‐application) and appropriately incorporate them into their pricing strategies.

The paper's central contribution is to stimulate additional research on key pricing areas.

This paper aims to outline a decision process for how consumers choose among two‐part tariffs which consist of a flat fee plus a per unit charge for usage over an allowance. The paper also seeks to examine what types of decision aids help consumers choose lower cost tariffs.

The approach used is two experimental studies.

Most consumers do not choose a tariff by calculating an expected cost because of usage uncertainty. They instead rely on simple comparisons of the overage rate, usage allowance, and flat fee attributes. These heuristics lead to systematic biases, beyond what actual true cost justifies, for favorable comparisons on these attributes. An online calculator improved choice of the lower cost option from 65 percent to 80 percent, yet this increased to 91 percent if people were also forced to consider a range of usage levels.

Consumers struggle to choose the lowest cost tariff, especially with uncertain usage. Consumers should realize the biases in their decision shortcuts and use the presented decision aids. Firms can leverage these biases by offering larger usage allowances (often done) and smaller overage rates (often not done), or correct them with decision aids.

Much work on tariffs assumes consumers calculate a cost, but the authors question this assumption, and show that consumers instead use simple attribute comparisons to deal with uncertain usage. An understanding of the specific heuristic consumers use allows the authors to better account for past effects, predict and establish new effects, and design effective decision aids. Results indicate tariff biases largely result from information processing shortcomings.

The paper seeks to propose and test a theory of the psychological impact of price bundling that is derived from bundling's economic impact. It is called the inferred bundle saving hypothesis. In the absence of explicit information about bundle savings, consumers infer a bundle saving when presented with a bundle offer. It is suggested that inferred bundle saving provides a simple, parsimonious explanation for pre‐ and post‐purchase bundle effects.

The theory is tested in two laboratory studies that employ partial replications of two prior price bundle studies.

The results show that the inferred bundle saving effect is robust in both product and service contexts, and can potentially explain the bundle effects found in these two studies.

Additional experimental studies are recommended to further test the proposed theory.

First, contrary to convention, it is not always optimal for firms to integrate price information in a single bundle price. Second, firms may sometimes use the price‐bundling format to signal a bundle saving without actually offering one. Third, firms can manage consumption and expected refund of bundles by manipulating consumer perception of bundle saving.

It is intuitive that consumers expect a bundle saving. However, this paper is the first to establish empirically the existence of this inferred bundle saving and demonstrate its potential as a theoretical explanation for various bundle effects. The research challenges the extant view that price bundling per se always enhances consumer pre‐purchase evaluation. Moreover, it connects economic and psychological research, as well as pre‐ and post‐purchase analysis, of bundle effects.

The purpose of this research paper is to examine the role corporate and individual risk (from the point of view of the pricing manager) plays in developing pricing strategies.

Managerial professionals in two graduate business programs were used to assess riskiness associated with pricing strategies. Grounded in attribution theory, t‐tests were used to compare the different types of risk associated with the various pricing strategies.

The findings suggest that pricing managers will view risk from different perspectives (i.e. corporate and individual) and that this “point of view” should have an impact on the pricing strategies selected.

Research limitations include the use of graduate students in lieu of actual pricing managers. However, this research is a first step in examining the different perspectives of risk that may be taken by managers.

Pricing managers and organizations alike should be made aware of how a point‐of‐view perspective regarding risk can have a significant impact on selecting pricing strategies. The results of the study could provide guidance for corporations so that they can make sure pricing managers have the “correct” point of view regarding the riskiness of pricing strategies.

The research is the first to identify and examine the different risk perspectives. This provides value for academic research because it is the first in the area of risk regarding the different perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to review and understand the underlying structure of price perception, to recognize how cultural factors influence price perception, and to develop and empirically test a model of cultural differences and price perception.

This project gathered data from both China and the USA. Using the LISREL 8.52 program, a proposed model was tested and modified in order to obtain a parsimonious underlying structure explaining cultural influences on consumers' price perceptions.

Results of the data analysis show that culture factors do have significant effects on price perception. Internal reference price has a consistent and negative effect on the overall price perception of both goods and services purchase and durable and non‐durable goods purchase. However, the significant associations between price perception factors and overall price perception were only found in the services and non‐durable goods purchase but not in the durable goods purchase.

This study helps international marketers understand the cross‐cultural consumer behavioral differences in general and the price perception differences in particular. It also provides a series of guidelines for international pricing strategy and international promotion strategy on an operational level.

Theoretically, the paper integrates the solid base of work on domestic pricing from the Lichtenstein et al. study on price perception as well as work on culture from anthropology and sociology, international business, international marketing, and Hofstede's culture theory.

The objective of this study is to analyze price dispersion in the context of internet based shopping malls and assess which of the main informational elements available online about sellers affect online price dispersion.

The author collected data for 100 models of watches from seven major brands and 100 models of cameras from nine major brands available for sale on Amazon. Statistical regression of price dispersion against average price, number of stores, shipping charge variation, average number of customer reviews, variation in the percentage of positive reviews and a dummy variable of product type were performed.

It is shown that price dispersion is present even in an online shopping mall. The conclusion significantly adds to the online pricing research, by showing that price dispersion is influenced by the average product price and product type and shipping charges. The number of stores does not affect price dispersion because there is no obstacle impeding the customer from finding the prices for all stores. A key finding is that the number of customer reviews significantly influences online price dispersion.

The study only analyzes price dispersion for two products using secondary data. Future studies can analyze different types of goods and focus on which elements affect the buyers' store selection by using primary data.

Managers can see that there are numerous other elements of information besides price that influence buying decisions. Practitioners need to note the importance of customer reviews in online settings, including the significance of the number of reviews as signal of experience and reliability.

The paper shows that online price dispersion exists even in the context of practically inexistent search costs. Even though the buyers have instant access to all prices of a product, they use a combination of elements in order to decide the seller selection. A key contribution of the study shows that the amount of information available about the seller and the customer reviews significantly influence online price dispersion.

Social enterprise has the potential to serve as a mechanism of social and economic opportunity for persons experiencing homelessness. This paper aims to identify potential outcomes of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) for people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or transitioning out of homelessness.

Searches of 14 databases were completed using keywords and subject headings pertaining to homelessness, social enterprise and employment, respectively. These searches were then combined to identify literature concerning WISEs with homeless populations. The initial search yielded 784 unique articles. Through screening, 29 articles were selected and independently coded to establish themes.

The analysis identified the potential for WISEs to contribute positively to the lives of the target population in the areas of connection to the community, employment skill building, mental health, personal agency and empowerment, relationship-building, structure and time use, financial stability and housing. There were less positive and mixed findings regarding substance use, crime/delinquency, physical health and transition to mainstream employment. Future research should further explore causal relationships between WISE approaches and strategies and their potential implications for persons emerging from homelessness.

Prior to this research, there have not been any recent publications that synthesize the existing body of literature to evaluate the potential outcomes of WISE participation for homeless populations. This paper lays the groundwork for future empirical studies.

Young people can often “fall through the gaps” between Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS) and Adult Mental Health services (AMHS). This discursive viewpoint study aims to reflect a conversation among the authors on how CAMHS and AMHS psychiatry came together to develop and embed a UK community “Youth Mental Health Service”.

This reflective viewpoint study explores the perspectives of three of the lead CAMHS and AMHS psychiatrists from the implementation phase of a community youth mental health service. It explores, in a discursive way, these individuals’ views on some of the key facilitators and barriers in the development of the service that aimed to “bridge the gap” for young people.

These clinicians’ reflections recognise the importance of strong clinical leadership in enabling a youth/young adult model of mental health to be implemented. They also recognise how culture internal and external to a service has a key role to play in the success and sustainment of implementing an innovative model. This study describes a merging of CAMHS and AMHS psychiatry to meet the needs of young people in the most developmentally appropriate way.

This reflective study highlights the need for services and systems to think creatively about how they can allow flexibility for CAMHS and AMHS psychiatrists to learn and plan together, as well as gain experiences across the age ranges, to facilitate collaborative working that is developmentally appropriate and meets the needs of young people in a way that is accessible to them.

This paper reports on a pilot project to develop a 32-acre site made available by the City of Kampala for housing with the express purpose of promoting urban agriculture. Started in 2004 under the leadership of a city agronomist, with the aid of research teams from McGill University, Montreal, Makerere University, Kampala, and financial support from IDRC, the project is still ongoing. The process is one of participatory planning with the future residents, a group of mixed ethnicity and religions from all parts of the city, and includes training in house construction and agricultural techniques. Project implementation has been slower than anticipated due to unforeseen hazards such as mislaid title deeds, unavailability of government resources, communication shut-downs, the time required to transact business, acquire permissions, permits and the like, and most recently by the threat of a major power line from the Bujagali Falls to serve Kampala being thrust through the site. We nevertheless remain optimistic of ultimate success.