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Research Article

A Study on the Verification of Profit Determinants by Pricing Type

Yoo, Pilhwa1 · Kwak, Yeongsik2

1 Sungkyunkwan University, 2 Daewoo Economic Research Institute

Published: January 2001 · Vol. 30, No. 1 · pp. 183-212
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Abstract

In many cases, optimal pricing entails determination of not only what price to charge but also how to present it. Price bundling is one of the methods a company can use to present its prices in a profitable way. Price bundling abounds in practice because it is a potentially powerful pricing method to exploit consumer surplus. In this paper, the researchers investigate profit determinants of three forms of pricing bundling. Although the merits of pricing bundling are well documented, the attempt to test the determinants of profit of different forms of pricing bundling has been relatively rare. The researchers aims to try to fill this gap by developing a practice-oriented simulation model that can be applied to many industries and by exploring the significance of the determinants of profit of diverse price bundling forms. The methodology consists of three parts, namely conjoint measurement, regression analysis, and simulation model. The simulation program generates individual customers` maximum prices by iteration method. And it enables to calculate near optimal pricing schedule for different forms of pricing strategy such as unbundling, pure price bundling, and mixed joint price bundling. Further, the resulting profits of three different pricing strategies are compared. From the review of the literature on price bundling, we could identify three relevant factors which impact the profitability of various pricing bundling strategies: whether the correlation(ρ) of customers` maximum prices for two individual product is negative or not, how much customers` average maximum prices is higher than marginal cost(α), and the degree of complementarity(θ) of two individual product. The researchers demonstrate the feasibility and the superiority of our model by applying it to six industries and 50 bundling packages. Our empirical analysis shows that mixed-joint bundling generates more profit than unbundling and pure price bundling at 50 subject bundles. In addition, the regression results show that the correlation(ρ) of customers maximum prices and the degree of complementarity(θ) are the profit differentiatos between pure price bundling and unbundling.
Keywords: 판매관리가격매김다발가격매김개별가격매김혼합다발가격매김