Understanding Pay-what-you-want Pricing: the Impact of Situational, Cognitive and Emotional Factors on Behavioral Outcomes

Pay-what-You-want is a participative pricing mechanism that has gained increased interest from practice and academia. while previous research focused on situational factors and neglected cognitive and emotional aspects involved in consumers´ price determination process, this study is the first one with an integrated approach (situational, cognitive and emotional aspects) for a better understanding of the price determination process in PwYw situations. The author shows that consumption occasion, normative social influence and customer satisfaction have an impact on consumers´ price determination and that cognitions, positive and negative emotions are involved in this process, too. furthermore, PwYw can lead to higher revenues for the seller, mainly driven by new customers.