Participative pricing demonstrates the basic idea of allowing customer participation in price-setting process. Nottingham Playhouse, IBIS Singapore, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wiener Deewan, Girl Talk, 8k, Zest consulting, Radiohead band and many more have successfully implemented pay-what-you-want (PWYW), the most innovative form of participative pricing. Based on the degree of participation, PWYW is the highest form that allows buyers to select any price they want to pay for a product/service, including zero. The present study examines how customers lower their motivation to pay more for products offered under PWYW by morally disengaging themselves from reciprocity concerns. It focuses on one mechanism of moral disengagement—displacement of responsibility and tests the proposed hypotheses in PWYW context. 284 responses were gathered using structured questionnaires at a reputed public university. Data were analysed using partial least-squares structural equation modelling. Findings indicate that customers’ moral disengagement via displacement of responsibility towards reciprocity concerns is negatively associated with willingness-to-pay more (WTPM). Results corroborate the attenuating role of perceived control on the negative association between displacement of responsibility towards reciprocity concerns and WTPM. However, relaxation from monetary commitments does not have a significant moderating effect on the negative relationship between moral disengagement and WTPM. This study is possibly the first to empirically investigate the interplay among individuals’ cognitive mechanisms, moral disengagement from reciprocity concerns and socio-demographic variables under participative pricing. Findings empirically substantiate the theory of moral disengagement, moral self-regulation and social cognitive theory. Practitioners should actively engage customers’ moral self-regulation process and provide more sense of perceived control while designing participative pricing offerings.

参与式定价演示了允许客户参与定价过程的基本思想。诺丁汉剧场，新加坡IBIS，大都会艺术博物馆，维纳·迪万，Girl Talk，8k，Zest咨询公司，Radiohead乐队等都成功地实施了按需付费（PWYW），这是最具创新性的参与性定价形式。根据参与程度，PWYW是允许购买者选择他们想要为产品/服务支付的任何价格的最高形式，包括零。本研究调查了消费者如何通过道德上使自己摆脱对等互惠的关注而降低了他们为PWYW提供的产品支付更多价格的动力。它着重于道德脱离接触的一种机制-责任转移，并在PWYW语境中检验了提出的假设。在著名的公立大学中，使用结构化问卷收集了284份答复。使用偏最小二乘结构方程模型分析数据。调查结果表明，通过将责任转移到互惠问题上，客户在道德上的脱节与更高的支付意愿（WTPM）负相关。结果证实了感知控制对互惠关注的责任转移与WTPM之间负相关关系的减弱作用。但是，放松货币承诺不会对道德脱离和WTPM之间的负面关系产生重大的调节作用。这项研究可能是第一个以实证研究个人认知机制之间相互作用的研究，参与式定价下的互惠关怀和社会人口变量导致道德脱离。这些发现从经验上证实了道德脱离接触理论，道德自我调节理论和社会认知理论。从业者应积极参与客户的道德自我调节流程，并在设计参与式定价产品时提供更多的感知控制感。