Pay what you want (PWYW) is a new participative pricing mechanism in which consumers have maximum control over the price they pay. Previous research has suggested that participative pricing increases consumers' intent to purchase. However, sellers using PWYW face the risk that consumers will exploit their control and pay nothing at all or a price below the seller's costs. In three field studies, the authors find that prices paid are significantly greater than zero. They analyze factors that influence prices paid and show that PWYW can even lead to an increase in seller revenues.

Pay what you want (PWYW) is a new participative pricing mechanism in which consumers have maximum control over the price they pay. Previous research has suggested that participative pricing increases consumers' intent to purchase. However, sellers using PWYW face the risk that consumers will exploit their control and pay nothing at all or a price below the seller's costs. In three field studies, the authors find that prices paid are significantly greater than zero. They analyze factors that influence prices paid and show that PWYW can even lead to an increase in seller revenues.

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This study of the influence of the marketing department (MD), as well as its relationship with firm performance, includes seven industrialized countries and aims to generalize the conceptual model presented by Verhoef and Leeflang (2009). This investigation considers the antecedents of perceived MD influence, top management respect for the MD, and MD decision influence, as well as the relationships of these three influence variables with market orientation (MO) and business performance (BP). Meta-analytic procedures reveal initial empirical generalizations: Accountability, MD innovativeness, and the customer connection capabilities of the MD relate consistently to all three studied MD influence measures. The generalization also shows that MD influence contributes to BP indirectly through its positive relationship with MO and directly through its positive direct relationship with BP.

An important aspect of customer relationship management is the targeting of customer segments with tailored promotional activities. While most contributions focus on the selection of promising customers for targeting, only few authors address the question of which specific differential offers to direct to the selected target groups. We focus on both issues and propose a flexible, two-stage approach for dynamically deriving behaviorally persistent segments and subsequent target marketing selection using retail-purchase histories from loyalty-program members. The underlying concept of behavioral persistence entails an in-depth analysis of complementary cross-category purchase interdependencies at a segment level. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed procedure are demonstrated in a controlled field experiment involving the targeting of several thousands of customers enrolled in the loyalty program of a “do-it-yourself” retailer. Our empirical findings provide evidence of significant positive impacts on both profitability and sales for segment-specific tailored direct marketing campaigns.

New restaurants often do not manage to succeed within a reasonable amount of time. Exotic restaurants especially face the problem that price promotions may not attract new customers because prospective customers might associate very low prices for unfamiliar food with a high functional risk. This paper describes how Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW), a new pricing mechanism, was successfully implemented at Kish, a moderately priced Persian restaurant in downtown Frankfurt. After the initial testing phase, which had the characteristics of a promotional offer, the restaurant decided to permanently offer its buffet lunch under PWYW conditions. We report the long-term effects of this decision as well as a simulation demonstrating that profitability is mainly based on 'trading up' the continuous inflow of new customers to the more profitable dining offer where prices are fixed.

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