An empirical examination of the pricing policies and their antecedents in the services sector

Purpose – The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the pricing policies that service companies adopt in order to set their prices along with the service, organizational and environmental characteristics that influence these policies. Moreover, the extent to which these policies and characteristics are varied across different service industries is also examined. Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve the research objectives, data were collected from 170 companies operating in six different service sectors in Greece through personal interviews. Moreover, a qualitative research through 38 in‐depth interviews was also conducted. Findings – The study found that the pricing policies tend to be influenced by a number of different service, organizational and environmental characteristics, while different patterns of pricing behavior were clearly identified across different service industries. Research limitations/implications – The practical implications of the findings refer to the fact that there does not seem to be a “one and only” recipe for pricing decisions, which can be applied to all circumstances and service contexts. Formulating the pricing strategy seems to be a “situation specific” business activity. The significance of these findings notwithstanding, the context of the study (Greece) is the most important caveat, since it limits the ability to generalize the results to other countries. Originality/value – The contribution of the paper lies in the fact that it presents the first attempt to empirically examine the potential impact of the aforementioned characteristics on the pricing policies used especially across different service contexts.