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2018/2019  BA-BHAAV7026U  Pricing Management

English Title
Pricing Management

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course Third Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 50
Study board
Study Board for BSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Sof Thrane - Department of Operations Management (OM)
The course will be taught by Assistant Professor Giulio Zichella and professor (mso) Sof Thrane
Main academic disciplines
  • Managerial economics
  • Marketing
  • Organisational behaviour
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 09-02-2018

Relevant links

Learning objectives
The purpose of the course is to give students a theoretical and practical understanding of the fundamentals of pricing:
  • Ability to critically view pricing from various perspectives such as managerial and behavioral economics, marketing and organisation theory.
  • Ability to reflect on and identify pricing opportunities and challenges in a global business environment.
  • Ability to apply pricing theory to real- life contexts, and to derive managerial implications from research findings.
  • Knowledge of state-of-the-art pricing research.
Course prerequisites
Good understanding of English, oral and written, is an advantage. Basic knowledge of managerial economics, finance, marketing and sales is beneficial, but is not a prerequisite, as we will look at pricing from all these different perspectives. Students attending this class will get an understanding of how pricing can be applied for capturing customer value and boosting firm profitability.

Please note that the elective course is reserved for HA students, who wish to write their bachelor project in this elective course.
Examination
Pricing Management:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance.
Individual or group exam Individual oral exam based on written group product
Number of people in the group 2-3
Size of written product Max. 5 pages
It is possible to write the project individually without applying for exemption.
1 person max 3 pages.
Assignment type Synopsis
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Spring
Aids Closed book
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content and structure

Price setting is one of the most powerful levers for improving firms’ profitability. Therefore pricing is moving up the strategic agenda in many firms and firms devote considerable effort to the management of their pricing process. Pricing management is a complex task that involves multiple departments and that uses a variety of techniques and diverse sets of information.

 

In this course, we look at pricing management as a tool to tackle and find solutions to three challenges. The first is to generate and analyze customer, market and cost information. The second is to control price setting and price discounting behavior. The third is to coordinate interdependencies between functions and markets in pricing.

 

In order to supply a comprehensive understanding of how firms may deal with these challenges, the course investigates the challenges and their solutions in an interdisciplinary perspective. The course draws on insights from marketing, managerial and behavioral economics and organization theory. This approach will allow you to acquire hands-on experience on the techniques of pricing, give you an understanding of the organizational practices and processes and give you models and theories to analyze the three pricing challenges. 

 

The pedagogical approach in the course is the following. In general, each session starts out with discussing a particular challenge as well as models and techniques for analyzing and solving them. Following this, the session will move on to more detailed work on challenges and solutions through simulations, exercises, casework, and workshops.

 

The course will make use of guest lectures to illustrate the practice applications of the models and theories of the course. Around three guest lecturers are invited from different industries to share their experiences and explain how they apply pricing theories in practice. Last year, we had presentations from the head of pricing of a global pharma company, as well as from a senior consultant and partner of two well-renowned consultancy firms.

 

The content of the course is divided into 5 modules:

 

1. Introduction to Pricing & Pricing techniques

This module lays the foundation for the course in terms of the technical basis of pricing. The focus will be on introducing the concept of pricing and its importance in several disciplines (e.g. managerial economics, marketing). Furthermore, several pricing techniques are introduced (e.g. the construction of list prices, price waterfall, cost-plus, value, and competitor based pricing)

 

2. Information problem  

This module analyzes how firms can use market, cost and competitor information in pricing. The focus will be on information acquisition and elaboration (e.g. price sensitivity, conjoint analysis, key buying factor analysis, willingness-to-pay, dynamic pricing). Furthermore, several problems linked with pricing information are presented (e.g. irrationality and use of intuition in pricing from a behavioral economics perspective)

 

 

3. Control problem

This module addresses the problems of controlling pricing decisions. The focus will be on implementation of pricing decisions (e.g. sales force management, negotiations, and incentives) and the control of pricing decisions (e.g. discount management, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), use of pricing softwares).

 

 

4. Coordination problem

This module discusses organizational issues in pricing. The focus will be on coordination efforts for pricing (e.g. new product pricing, target costing) and effective communication practices.

 

 

5. Pricing Perspectives and future outlook

This module discusses the various perspectives covered in the course further explicating their basic assumptions and relevance. There will also be a session on emerging topics in pricing (e.g. pricing in startups) from a research and a practitioner perspective. 

Description of the teaching methods
The course consists of 36 lecturing hours with one lecturing hour being equal to 45 minutes. Each lecture consists of 3 lecturing hours. There are 9 lectures and 3 workshops.
The course will require active class participation in the lectures and case solving. Sessions include discussions and oral presentations of specific cases, models or articles by the students in groups. Each group will have to give one oral presentation and hand in essays for each workshop.

Each group have an opportunity to give one oral presentation that focus on a particular pricing problem that the students want to analyse in their project. The presentation is thus intended to be an option for feedback on the project. It is expected that many of the students will also write bachelor thesis in pricing. The presentation and project exam may be used to develop ideas and data that can be further elaborated upon in the bachelor thesis.
Feedback during the teaching period
The students will receive feedback on the workshop reports and presentations.

The student will receive feedback on the proposed topic for the essay / mini project.
Student workload
Class and exam preparation 179 hours
Teaching 27 hours
Expected literature

The overall course textbook:

  1. Thomas Nagle, John E. Hogan & Joseph Zale: “The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing”. 5th edition, Pearson International Edition, 2013, 345 pages, 9781292023236.

All required readings as well as all slideshows from the lectures and the workshops are curriculum.

Selected articles from academic journals will be uploaded on CBS Learn in due time, i.e. one week before each lecture.

Last updated on 09-02-2018