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The pay-what-you-want business model: Warm glow revenues and endogenous price discrimination

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  • Isaac, R. Mark
  • P. Lightle, John
  • A. Norton, Douglas

Abstract

We explore the potential benefits of an up-and-coming business model called “pay-what-you-want” in an environment where consumers experience a warm glow by patronizing a particular firm. We show that, given a social norm regarding minimum contributions, a pay-what-you-want firm should announce a minimum suggested contribution, which is positive—but smaller than the profit-maximizing single price—so as to benefit from “endogenous price discrimination,” whereby consumers differentially contribute more than the suggested minimum. Furthermore, a pay-what-you-want scheme can improve market efficiency and, in special cases, generate more profit than a standard posted price scheme. These results are robust to alternate motivations for generosity, including gift-exchange.

Suggested Citation

  • Isaac, R. Mark & P. Lightle, John & A. Norton, Douglas, 2015. "The pay-what-you-want business model: Warm glow revenues and endogenous price discrimination," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 215-223.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:215-223
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2015.02.003
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    3. Epstein, D.S. & Barton, C. & Mazza, D. & Woode, M.E. & Mortimer, D., 2020. "Patient chosen gap payments in primary care: Predictions of patient acceptability, uptake and willingness to pay from a discrete choice experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
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    7. Britta Butz & Christine Harbring, 2022. "Tipping for charity: a field experiment in charitable giving on free walking tours," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(5), pages 781-808, July.
    8. Roggentin, Agnes Sophie, 2019. "Applicability of Pay-What-You-Want to High-Value Goods – A Case Study," Marketing Review St.Gallen, Universität St.Gallen, Institut für Marketing und Customer Insight, vol. 36(5), pages 56-63.
    9. Gerpott Torsten J., 2016. "A review of the empirical literature on Pay-What-You-Want price setting," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 11(4), pages 566-596, December.
    10. Samahita Margaret, 2020. "Pay-What-You-Want in Competition," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 1-16, January.
    11. Chao, Yong & Fernandez, Jose & Nahata, Babu, 2019. "Pay-what-you-want pricing under competition: Breaking the Bertrand Trap," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
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    13. Weisstein, Fei L. & Choi, Pilsik & Andersen, Peter, 2019. "The role of external reference price in pay-what-you-want pricing: An empirical investigation across product types," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 170-178.
    14. Rafael Luis Wagner, 2019. "Lowering consumers’ price image without lowering their internal reference price: the role of pay-what-you-want pricing mechanism," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(4), pages 332-341, August.
    15. Yuxin Chen & Oded Koenigsberg & Z. John Zhang, 2017. "Pay-as-You-Wish Pricing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(5), pages 780-791, September.
    16. Ali Sabbaghnia & Jafar Heydari & Jafar Razmi, 2023. "Participative pricing and donation programs in a socially concerned supply chain," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 146-164, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Warm glow; Price discrimination; Social norm; Charity; Monopoly;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • D42 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Monopoly
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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