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In this study, we examine the influence of different components of dynamic capabilities on value-based pricing and export performance. We develop a research model investigating the three component factors of dynamic capabilities, that is, adaptive capability, absorptive capability, and innovative capability, and their respective influence on value-based pricing and export performance. Furthermore, we hypothesize a relationship between value-based pricing and export performance. Building upon a sample of 172 Austrian CEOs and marketing managers, we test our hypotheses through structural equation modeling using partial least squares. The results reveal that a firm’s adaptive capability and innovative capability both positively influence value-based pricing. Furthermore, our results show that adaptive capability has a positive influence on export performance. The relationship between value-based pricing and export performance could not be supported. Hence, we conclude that a firm’s adaptive capability plays a central role in international pricing and leads to enhanced export performance.

This study aims to propose and test a theoretical model that contemplates antecedent constructs of organizational performance, as well as the interaction among them.

A survey was conducted with 151 Brazilian exclusive stores in the planned furniture segment. The data analysis was performed using two statistical techniques, focused on hierarchical regression and mediation and moderation tests.

Among the main results of the survey are the direct and significant effects of value-based pricing and innovation strategies and the indirect effect of market orientation on market performance. As for moderation, the authors identified that profitability moderates the relationship between value-based pricing and market performance, and the degree of sales projection moderates the relationship between market orientation and market performance.

The insertion of value-based pricing as a variable in quantitative analysis of market performance meets the lack of academic research. When the constructs are combined or interacted with each other, they have a stronger and more significant effect on performance. In addition, this work proposes two moderating variables that can interfere in the relationship between the analyzed constructs (profitability and sales projection). It was identified that the relationships between the constructs and that the orientation towards the market (despite not directly impacting market performance) interfere with the relationship based on mediation of variable innovation strategies and value-based pricing.

Customer value‐based pricing is increasingly recognised by academics and practitioners as the most effective approach to pricing for companies wishing to achieve increased profitability and sustained success. However, despite this apparent support for the implementation of value‐based pricing, the practical reality is that more than 80 percent of companies continue to price their products and services primarily on the basis of costs and/or competitive price levels. The present study investigates this phenomenon and identifies the main reasons for this gap between aspiration and reality.

A two‐stage empirical approach is employed: first, in a qualitative research, the phenomenon of implementation of value‐based strategies with groups of business executives participating in pricing workshops is explored. The result of this qualitative stage was then used to develop a questionnaire which was tested upon a significantly larger and more stratified population. Finally cluster analysis to summarize the results of this quantitative research stage was employed.

Based on a survey of 81 executives representing a wide range of B2B and B2C industries in Germany, Austria, China, and the USA, five main obstacles to the implementation of value‐based pricing strategies have been identified: deficits in value assessment; deficits in value communication; lack of effective market segmentation; deficits in sales force management; and lack of support from senior management. The paper also provides a range of remedies to overcome these obstacles.

In extant literature there exists a gap between: the widespread understanding of the superiority of customer value‐based pricing strategies; and the circumstance that customer value‐based pricing strategies are currently the least widely diffused major pricing approach. We cover thus gap by highlighting which obstacles exist to the implementation of value‐based pricing strategies and provide a series of remedies to overcome these obstacles.

How do pricing methods affect firm performance? From both an academic as well as a managerial perspective this question is important. The literature is silent on the relationship between pricing approach and company performance. The aim of this paper is to address this research gap.

To address this practical and theoretical deficit, the authors surveyed 1,812 professionals involved in pricing to measure the influence of pricing approach on firm performance.

The authors find a positive relationship between value‐based pricing (but not competition‐based pricing) and firm performance. Furthermore, the authors find that the three pricing orientations differently influence firm pricing capabilities, which in turn are positively related to firm performance. This paper is thus the first paper documenting a positive relationship between value‐based pricing and firm performance through a quantitative research design.

These findings have important theoretical as well as practical implications and suggest that all firms, regardless of size, industry or geography, benefit from value‐based pricing.

While the gap between economic theory and companies’ practice, regarding to the pricing setting, has been extensively explored and explained, the new gap between the marketing normative view and companies’ practice needs further clarification. In this way, the paper aims to investigate whether marketing researchers’ claim that the use of cost-based price approach prevails over the use of value-based price approach is pertinent.

The paper is guided by the following research question: “Does price-setting based on cost plus margin go against the value-based price approach?” The answer to this question is grounded in reflections on results of previous research studies and in a case study conducted in an industrial company. Because of the qualitative focus of the present study, hypotheses are not established, but rather the following proposition: certain companies use the mechanics of cost plus margin in the sale price-setting process, but it does not necessarily mean that these companies set prices based on cost.

The arguments, propositions and the case study findings provide the logical sequence and the support required to conclude that price-setting based on cost plus margin does not always conflict with the value-based price approach. As a result, it may be claimed that the general proposition established is theoretically valid, i.e. using a price formula that contains the elements cost and margin does not necessarily mean that the company sets prices based on cost.

The key contribution of this paper is demonstrating that in certain business environments, such as, B2B, using the price formation mechanics based on cost plus margin is the way found by companies to enable the approach adopted. The approach may be cost-based or value-based price. This is the first study that explicitly reveals how B2B companies may set prices based on value while simultaneously preserving the simplicity of cost plus margin formulas. Researchers have significant misconceptions about these formulas: in previous studies, they classified all price-making companies as those adopting the cost-based price approach simply because they used formulas containing the element cost.

Empirical studies have found that cost-based pricing remains dominant in pricing practice and suggest that practice conflicts with marketing theory, which recommends value-based prices. However, empirical studies have yet to examine whether cost-plus formulas represent the pricing approach or essence.

This study aims to address the factors that explain price setting whereby the cost-plus formula is not just the pricing approach but also the pricing essence. This examination is grounded in a survey conducted on 380 Brazilian industrial companies.

The results show that, for price-makers, the cost-based pricing essence is positively associated with four factors (two obstacles to deploying value-based pricing, company size and differentiation), but it is negatively related to one factor (premium pricing strategy). For price-takers, the cost-based pricing essence is positively associated with four factors (two obstacles to deploying value-based pricing, coercive isomorphism and use of full costs), but it is negatively related to five factors (one obstacle to deploying value-based pricing, company size, competitors’ ability to copy, normative isomorphism and experience).

The key contribution of this paper is demonstrating that cost-plus formulas do not go against the incorporation of competitors and value information. This study reveals that it is possible to set prices based on either value or competitors’ prices while simultaneously preserving the simplicity of the cost-plus formulas. Via the margin, firms may connect costs to information about competition and value. The authors also demonstrate the drawbacks of not segregating companies into price-makers and price-takers and an excessive focus on the pricing approach at the expense of pricing essence.

This paper seeks to examine the influence of pricing orientation on the price‐setting process in industrial firms.

The authors designed a qualitative inquiry based on the principles of grounded theory with 44 managers in 15 industrial firms located across ten US states. These managers included CEOs, pricing and marketing professionals, and financial professionals working in three industries (automotive, building products and chemicals).

The study's results reflect similarities and differences in the experiences of managers in industrial firms using all three pricing orientations. It reveals stark contrasts by pricing orientation with respect to how firms organize for pricing, manage the pricing process, make product pricing decisions, manage the transition to more advanced pricing orientations, and develop internal capabilities to face uncertain and ambiguous decisions. The findings also uncover contrasting price‐setting processes by pricing orientation and the balanced used of scientific versus intuitive decision‐making processes.

Pricing is often a neglected element of the industrial marketing mix. This study offers a variety of organizational practices by pricing orientation. The results highlight how best‐in‐class companies that adopted modern pricing practices to derive product prices are organized and how they reach pricing decisions.

This study studies the commonly accepted pricing orientations and links them to organizational structure and decision‐making theory. This study contributes to bridging pricing and organizational theories.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the concept of higher education institutions (HEIs) offering educational services based on value for money. The value is determined based on customers’ (i.e. students) expectations of the service and the costs in comparison to the competitors. Understanding the value and creating customer value are a means to attain competitive advantage and constitute the basis of price setting. Drawing upon this belief, as an initial step towards value-based pricing method, the possible value factors are suggested for calculating educational programme prices across HEIs.

This is a conceptual paper introducing the value-based pricing approach in setting HEI tuition fees. Extending prior discussion on the demand for quality education and current financial challenges faced by HEIs, it introduces the concept pricing based upon customer perceived value (student/industry). Value-based pricing is deemed appropriate in view of the value of short tangible and intangible investment by both parties (students and HEIs) to differentiate in terms of setting the right price for the right university for the right student.

The primary aim is to suggest the applicability of value-based pricing for HEIs, which is likely to be both relevant and fruitful for the sustainability of the sector. It represents a personal point of view; building upon a review of the literature, the paper extends the established knowledge one step further in terms of setting the right price for the right university, which is deemed worthy of further study and development.

The paper will be of use to the management and policymakers in the education sector in searching for a contemporary pricing mechanism for higher education.

Steve Meyer, the chief marketing officer at Trilogy, was evaluating the best way to move forward with an innovative, customer value-based pricing approach for its enterprise software solutions. Trilogy had radically transformed its business from a product-centric organization to a customer-centric one, and value-based pricing was a pillar of this transformation. Meyer had to evaluate three pricing approaches: traditional license based, subscription based, and gain sharing. He had to assess which pricing approach Trilogy and Trilogy's clients would prefer and the conditions under which gain-sharing pricing would work. Meyer also had to address several adoption barriers that prevented customers from embracing the gain-sharing pricing approach.

The paper seeks to fill a research gap that concerns empirical studies on value‐based pricing in durable consumer goods. It aims to analyse the relationship between value for the customer and market prices in the washing machines market.

The customer value of a sample of 129 washing machine models is assessed through the conjoint analysis technique. It is then compared through a regression analysis to the market prices of the products.

The regression analysis reveals that the alignment between price and value for the customer is limited (only one of the two subsamples presents a positive dependence among the variables).

The study lacks explanatory power about the reasons for the misalignment between price and customer value in the investigated sector. The results, moreover, refer to a specific product category and a specific national market, although their representativeness as a mature durable in a mature market suggests a broader relevance of the implications. The size of the samples of the empirical research is also limited.

The paper provides an example and guidelines to practitioners on how to implement a customer value assessment. It provides practitioners a deeper understanding of the consequences of misaligned pricing, and of the potential of understanding the actual value sources for the customers.

The study empirically assesses the relationship between value for the customer and market prices of a category of mature durable goods. The results support the claim that value‐based pricing, although believed to be superior to other pricing policies, is still not established as a prominent practice. Moreover, the findings contribute to the discussion on the value of environment‐related attributes and their lifecycle monetary impact on the customers. It also identifies another possible obstacle to the adoption of value‐based pricing, i.e. the structure of the market, to be added to the ones reviewed in the literature.