Service pricing: a multi‐step synthetic approach

Examines the advantages and disadvantages of six service pricing approaches in the service literature including: traditional cost‐oriented approach; traditional competitive‐oriented approach; extended cost‐oriented approach; differentiation premium approach; client‐driven approach; and bundle pricing approach. Proposes a multi‐step synthetic pricing approach and a framework to deal with the complexity of service pricing. Compared with other pricing approaches, the multi‐step synthetic service pricing approach has the advantages of considering simultaneously the crucial aspects of service pricing: market competitiveness; internal cost‐profit structure; bundling and unbundling service pricing; service characteristics premium; price standard limits; client‐oriented price/demand sensitivity; and client‐oriented profit maximization. Provides an example to demonstrate the managerial application of the proposed approach.