Abstract
Purpose – In the mainstream normative pricing literature, value assessment is virtually non-existent. Although the resource-based literature recognizes that pricing is a competence, value-informed pricing practices are still weakly grounded in theory. The purpose of this paper is to strengthen the theoretical grounds of such pricing practices.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies the emerging service-dominant logic of marketing to pricing. More specifically, it apples the ten foundational premises of service-dominant logic to pricing and it places pricing in the frameworks of one of the major building blocks of service-dominant logic, namely the resource-advantage theory of competition.
Findings – From a service-dominant perspective, price is the reward for the application of specialized knowledge and skills. Pricing is an operant resource, or competence, that assesses customer value, applies it in multi-dimensional price propositions, and implements it in processes of co-creating prices with customers. Value-informed pricing is the central pricing practice within such competences.
Practical implications – Prices vary among others between “good” and “bad”, firms generate competitive advantage not only through value creation, but also through pricing. Learning is key to develop pricing competences.
Originality/value – This paper is the first to ground value-informed pricing at high levels of abstraction in general marketing theory.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 33-53 |
Journal | Management Decision |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- resource-advantage theory
- managerial practice
- decision-making
- competition
- perceptions
- perspective
- strategies
- framework
- companies
- quality