KC ’13 Publishes Article in Journal of Marketing

Business professor Raghabendra KC ’13 recently published an article in the Journal of Marketing that examines the timing effects of payment requests in pay-what-you-want pricing situations.

KC worked with co-authors from the University of Cambridge and Harvard University on the project, titled “Before or After? The Effects of Payment Decision Timing in Pay-What-You-Want Contexts.”

Pay-what-you-want is a pricing mechanism where consumers can decide how much to pay for a product or service and has been utilized more widely over the years.

“Our research investigates whether consumers’ payments differ depending on when they are asked to make their payment decision, before or after receiving the unconditionally offered product, and, if a difference exists, why it occurs and under what conditions,” says KC. “We found that people pay different amounts depending on the timing of their payment decision, even when there is minimal change in uncertainty regarding the value of the product at different timings.”