D46 - Value TheoryReturn

Several researchers suggest that value-based pricing (VBP) is one of the most profitable pricing methods for companies competing in today's business environment. Interestingly, the implementation rates of VBP are, however, rather low. Numerous barriers to the implementation of value-based pricing have been found by researchers already. Although, a theoretical model for determining whether value-based pricing may be a suitable pricing method for a business is yet to be found in the literature. This study aims to introduce a theoretical model to aid pricing executives in their pricing method selection. For this purpose, 20 semi-structured in-depth expert interviews with German pricing experts were conducted as part of qualitative data analysis. The experts were selected using a purposive selection method. Pricing experts were asked to describe the most important factors for determining whether a company may implement value-based pricing.  We identified two main factors as being necessities for using VBP. The first factor named by the authors was the brand advantage (BA), and the second factor was represented by the delivered product benefits (DB) as perceived by the customer. Based on these two factors, a two-dimensional, quadrant-based theoretical model was developed and was named the VBP Determination Matrix. The matrix now evaluates a company's position within the matrix based on the factors BA and DB. It leads to direct calls-to-action for properly choosing the most suitable pricing method. This study's theoretical contribution was the development of a so far non-existing two-dimensional model for the determination of the suitability of value-based pricing. Business practitioners are now provided with an easy-to-use and highly applicable model to determine the initial suitability of implementing VBP. Senior management is given direct calls-to-action, whether an investment to implement VBP shall be made and whether to allocate resources.
Implications for Central European audience: The VBP Determination Matrix is a highly applicable model recommended especially for business practitioners in pricing, marketing and management. Central European companies are recommended to utilise the model to benefit from its strategic recommendations to properly select the most suitable pricing method for profit maximisation and competitiveness optimisation.

The reality of the market has shown that traditional brand management theory lacks success. There is a need to provide a revision to this theory with an emphasis on behavioral approach. In contemporary times, the theory has been limited mainly in this criterion and to avoid from the exact identification of specific brand value sources in conditions of particular nations. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify relevant brand value sources which are significant for Slovak socio-cultural profile and to propose an effective innovative model of brand value building and management. The data used in the presented study were obtained by our own survey carried out on the sample of 2000 respondents (citizens of the Slovak Republic older than 15 years). The given data was statistically evaluated by the so-called factor analysis supported by implementation of the KMO Test, Barlett's test of sphericity and calculation of Cronbach's Alpha (for individual brand value sources and their components in general as well as on the example of sportswear brands). The specificities of the national socio-cultural profiles were found to be identical in the priority of the components of the individual, subjectively perceived sources of the brand value. In contrast, the order of importance of brand sources is different and reflects the specificity of the branded product category. Therefore, the specifics of the national socio-cultural profile affect the priority of the components of the individual brand value sources, while the specifics of the product categories affect the priority of the brand value sources itself.