• Calculate the range of admissible prices for products
• Estimate price sensitivity
• Evaluate the financial impact of changes in prices
• Choose strategies for communicating value and prices in different environments
• Understand the legal and ethical limitations to pricing practices

Pricing is one of the most powerful tools that managers have available for increasing profits and the value of their firms. Pricing is a critical tool for companies to appropriate part of the value that they create through innovations. However, this potential often remains unexploited, as many managers lack a clear understanding of how to improve upon their firm's customary pricing practices.

During the course, students will learn to assess the value of products and the role that value plays in the pricing process. They will learn how to assess price sensitivity and evaluate the financial implications of price changes. They will learn how communication of value and prices can influence the perceptions and behaviors of clients and competitors. The course will conclude with a discussion on the legal and ethical limits to pricing.

Overall, the course prepares you for addressing both strategic and tactical pricing issues and for identifying changes in pricing practices that can lead to improvements in firm profits. This should be relevant for a wide number of jobs that you may hold throughout your careers, such as product and marketing manager, but also business unit manager, management consultant, and entrepreneur.

3-week course that cannot be combined with other courses.

Preliminary assignment:  The course coordinator uploads Preliminary Assignment on Canvas at the end of May. It is expected that students participate as it will be included in the final exam, but the assignment is without independent assessment and grading.

The basic textbook for this course is: 

Thomas T. Nagle, Georg Müller,  The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing , 6th edition, 2018, Routledge.

The following articles can be used to go more in-depth over the different topics covered:

Enz, CA, Canina, L. and Lomanno, M., 2009. Competitive pricing decisions in uncertain times. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 50(3), pp.325-341.

Garrison, LP and Towse, A., 2017. Value-based pricing and reimbursement in personalized healthcare - introduction to the basic health economics. Journal of Personalized Medicine, 7(3), p.10.

Grewal, D., Ailawadi, KL, Gauri, D., Hall, K., Kopalle, P. and Robertson, JR, 2011. Innovations in retail pricing and promotions.  Journal of Retailing ,  87 , pp.S43-S52.

Hinterhuber, A., 2004. Towards value-based pricing—An integrative framework for decision making.  Industrial marketing management ,  33 (8), pp.765-778.

Homburg, C., Jensen, O. and Hahn, A., 2012. How to organize pricing? Vertical delegation and horizontal dispersion of pricing authority. Journal of Marketing, 76(5), pp.49-69.

Johansson, M., Hallberg, N., Hinterhuber, A., Zbaracki, M. and Liozu, S., 2012. Pricing strategies and pricing capabilities. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 11(1), pp.4-11.

Kienzler, M., 2018. Value-based pricing and cognitive biases - An overview for business markets. Industrial Marketing Management, 68, pp.86-94.

Kucher, E. and Hilleke, K., 1993. Value pricing through conjoint measurement: A practical approach.  European Management Journal ,  11 (3), pp.283-290.

Mandal, PC, 2021. Pricing and Ethical Issues for Global Markets - Strategies and Initiatives. International Journal of Business Strategy and Automation (IJBSA), 2(2), pp.1-15.

Noble, PM and Gruca, TS, 1999. Industrial pricing - Theory and managerial practice. Marketing science, 18(3), pp.435-454.

Palazon, M. and Delgado‐Ballester, E., 2009. Effectiveness of price discounts and premium promotions. Psychology & Marketing, 26(12), pp.1108-1129.

Pesendorfer, M., 2002. Retail sales - A study of pricing behavior in supermarkets. The Journal of Business, 75(1), pp.33-66.

Tan, Q. and Sousa, CM, 2011. Research on export pricing - Still moving towards maturity. Journal of International Marketing, 19(3), pp.1-35.

van der Rest, JPI, Sears, AM, Miao, L. and Wang, L., 2020. A note on the future of personalized pricing - Cause for concern. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 19(2), pp.113-118.

Yelkur, R. and DaCosta, MMN, 2001. Differential pricing and segmentation on the Internet - the case of hotels. Management Decision, 39(4), pp. 252-261

For the purpose of in-class discussion, other readings, such as cases, press articles, and short exercises will be indicated before and during the course.