A Review of the Empirical Evidence on PWYW Pricing

Abstract

ABSTR ACT: The purpose of the paper is to review recent studies on Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) pricing and to identify research gaps in the recently mushrooming literature on the topic. We examine a total of 53 empirical studies published between 2009 and 2016. In contrast to previous reviews we classify the research according to the type of study, i.e., the applied research methodology. That is why we discuss separately laboratory experiments, field experiments, survey experiments and case studies. Based on this descriptive review we identify the following two gaps in the study on PWYW pricing: (1) studies on PWYW pricing for high cost goods, and (2) studies on the long-term effects of PWYW pricing.