In leading strategy theories like industry analysis and value capture theory, maximizing bargaining power with transaction partners is a critical driver of profitability. But in recent years, a new business model has emerged that contradicts this fundamental precept: With pay-what-you-want (PWYW) pricing, a seller allows a buyer to name any non-negative price, even zero, for the seller’s product or service, and yet, enough buyers make voluntary positive payments, and of sufficient magnitude, that the seller may earn a substantial profit. Motivated by this development, we develop a theory of how value creation and value capture—though generally treated as distinct processes in strategy theory—are in fact strongly connected through the socio-psychological framing of a transaction: If a transaction is framed as a social exchange between the buyer and seller, the seller may capture more value with PWYW than if the seller posts a price or haggles with the buyer over terms in a market-based exchange. Our theory not only offers testable predictions about the conditions determining when PWYW will be successful but also extends strategy theory to consider social exchange as a mechanism for creating and capturing value.

中文翻译：

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“按需付费”定价：通过社交交换创造和获取价值

在行业分析和价值捕获理论等领先的战略理论中，最大化与交易伙伴的议价能力是盈利能力的关键驱动力。但近年来，出现了一种与这一基本原则相矛盾的新商业模式：通过按需付费 (PWYW) 定价，卖家允许买家为卖家的产品命名任何非负价格，甚至为零或服务，然而，有足够多的买家自愿支付积极的款项，而且金额足够大，以至于卖方可以获得可观的利润。在这一发展的推动下，我们发展了一种理论，即价值创造和价值获取——尽管在战略理论中通常被视为不同的过程——实际上是如何通过交易的社会心理框架紧密联系在一起的：如果交易被定义为买卖双方之间的社交交流，那么与卖方在基于市场的交易中发布价格或就条款与买方讨价还价相比，卖方可能会通过 PWYW 获得更多价值。我们的理论不仅提供了关于确定 PWYW 何时成功的条件的可测试预测，而且还扩展了战略理论，将社会交换视为创造和获取价值的机制。