Context

Pricing is an essential element of software business strategy and tactics. Informed pricing decision-making requires the involvement of different stakeholders and comprehensive data analysis. Achieving both appears to be challenging, and pricing remains one of the most under-managed processes in the software business. Simultaneously, a coherent SaaS pricing body of knowledge and verified solutions to assist SaaS providers while designing and implementing pricing are missing.

Objective

There is a lack of integration among different research areas focused on SaaS pricing and, more importantly, between academia and industry. The primary aim of this paper is to clarify this misconception by classifying, thematically analyzing, and putting in correspondent academic state-of-the-art and industrial state-of-the-practice of SaaS pricing.

Method

A multivocal literature review (MLR) approach was used for the study, exploring both “white” literature as well as “grey” literature. The body of literature of 387 bibliography items was collected using a formal protocol. Of these, 57 were white literature items, and 330 were grey. A multistage content analysis process was implemented to classify the rich literature body across multiple dimensions with further mapping, synthesis, and reporting.

Results

A taxonomy of pricing-related concepts was created. It classifies SaaS pricing aspects, affecting factors, and challenges facing SaaS providers. The findings and interpretations are summarized to emphasize the major research themes and practical challenges of SaaS pricing practices’ transformation and provide further research guidelines in this area.

Conclusion

SaaS pricing is a maturing and prominent area of research that requires further investigation. The conducted MLR formed a clear picture of SaaS pricing research and practice and identified different SaaS pricing aspects and affecting factors. The study will enable both scholars and practitioners to assess the current state-of-the-art in research and practice.

中文翻译：

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跨接SaaS定价的最新技术与实践：多语言文献综述

语境

定价是软件业务战略和策略的基本要素。明智的价格决策需要不同利益相关者的参与和全面的数据分析。实现这两者似乎都具有挑战性，而定价仍然是软件业务中管理最不完善的流程之一。同时，缺少了一个统一的SaaS定价知识体系和经过验证的解决方案来帮助SaaS提供商设计和实施定价。

目的

在专注于SaaS定价的不同研究领域之间，更重要的是在学术界和行业之间，缺乏整合。本文的主要目的是通过对SaaS定价的学术最新技术水平和行业最新实践进行分类，主题分析和提出相应的知识，以澄清这种误解。

方法

该研究采用了多声文学评论（MLR）方法，探索了“白人”文学和“灰色”文学。使用正式协议收集了387个参考书目项目的文献。其中57件是白人文学作品，330件是灰色文学作品。实施了一个多阶段内容分析过程，以通过进一步的映射，合成和报告在多个维度上对丰富的文献进行分类。

结果

创建了与定价相关的概念的分类法。它对SaaS定价方面，影响因素以及SaaS提供商面临的挑战进行了分类。总结发现和解释，以强调SaaS定价实践转型的主要研究主题和实际挑战，并在此领域提供进一步的研究指南。

结论

SaaS定价是一个成熟且突出的研究领域，需要进一步调查。进行的MLR清晰描述了SaaS定价研究和实践，并确定了不同的SaaS定价方面和影响因素。该研究将使学者和从业人员都能够评估当前的研究和实践最新水平。