Illustrations of Price Discrimination in Baseball

Price discrimination of this nature, focused on differing degrees of quality, bundled goods, volume discounts, and other forms of second-degree price discrimination, is commonplace in MLB. Indeed, it is safe to say that every single MLB ticket is sold under some form of price discrimination. As teams grow increasingly sophisticated in their pricing strategies, price discrimination is becoming more precise, more wide-spread, and more profitable, while at the same time providing for more opportunities for more fans to find tickets at a price they are willing to pay. Unlike a baseball game, where one team must lose and one must win, price discrimination allows for win-win economic outcomes for teams and fans alike.price discrimination; bundling; variable pricing; dynamic pricing; secondary ticketing; two-part tariff; loaded ticket

Smart Retailing: a model to assess the economic sustainability of smart shelf-enabled dynamic pricing

Smart Retailing, a new approach to retail management that leverages digital technologies, is gaining much attention, as it enables innovation and improvements in consumers’ quality of life. However, the potentialities stemming from the application of such technologies are still not fully explored. Investment analyses addressing specific technologies could be useful to fill the academic gaps and guide retailers in their digital transition. This paper aims thus at evaluating the economic sustainability of investment in smart shelves, which are employed to perform dynamic pricing in presence of perishable goods. A model simulating the pricing variation in different scenarios was built and economic and financial analyses were performed to evaluate the sustainability of the investment. Data to feed the model were collected through semi-structured interviews with a smart shelf technology provider and three grocery retailers. The results show that the employment of smart shelves allows retailers to increase their profits. First, they are always able to assign to the product the price which most accurately reflects the customers’ willingness to pay. Second, the costs related to misplacement issues are reduced. This study contributes to the knowledge in this unexplored field by providing a model that simulates the dynamic pricing policy after the introduction of smart shelf technology and evaluates its economical sustainability. It also provides retailers who want to join the digital transformation of the stores with a useful tool to guide their investments

Definition, Measurement and Determinants of the Consumer's Willingness to Pay: a Critical Synthesis and Directions for Further Research

Differentiated prices, bundling, Web auctions : firms' pricing practices are evolving. When there is no market or for customised pricing, the willingness-to-pay concept seems to be interesting. This article aims at presenting a synthesis of the marketing research stream relative to willingness to pay. First, a definition of the concept is given and compared to other similar concepts, notably reference price and acceptable price. Then the methods of measurement are presented, compared to those used to measure elasticity and criticized. Furthermore, the research on external determinants of willingness to pay is commented. Finally, numerous directions for further research are proposed.willingness to pay, price elasticity, reference price, acceptable price, conjoint analysis, contingent valuation, Vickrey auctions, BDM lottery, prices

Harmful Freedom of Choice: Lessons from the Cellphone Market

This article focuses on the relationship between provider and customer, specifically on the complexity of available contracts in the cellphone market and the ways this complexity might be harmful to consumers. This article aims to elucidate the issues, fleshing them out both as a general phenomenon and as a specific implementation in the cellphone context. The aim is not to provide ultimate solutions, but to show the directions these solutions might take and the difficulties involved

Revenue Management in the Sport Industry: an Examination of Forecasting Models and Advance Seat Section Inventory in Major League Baseball

Technological advances in data storage and processing have led to more sophisticated ticket pricing strategies in professional sport. Sport organizations are beginning to adopt a form of revenue management known as dynamic ticket pricing. Effective pricing strategies such as dynamic ticket pricing require an in-depth understanding of the nature of advance ticket inventory and accurate forecasting models to predict remaining inventory at various time horizons prior to game time. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the nature of advance seat section ticket inventory. The study built on and contributed to work in sport revenue management. Although studies of sport revenue management have examined the applicability of revenue management in a sport context, there has not been a study of advance seat section ticket inventory despite the fact that sport organizations utilize price discrimination strategies at the seat section level. As such, this study provided additional insight into the applicability and potential effectiveness of a sport revenue management strategy. The methodological focus on forecasting models and accuracy enabled another contribution. A 3x3x6x7 full factorial research design examined the accuracy of various forecasting models under different data strategies, time horizons, model parameters, and levels of the values of T and K used in the moving average and exponential smoothing forecasting models. Statistically reliable differences existed between data strategies with the classical pickup data strategy providing the best forecasts of final game day inventory. Within the classical pickup strategy, no reliable differences in forecast models were detected nor were forecasts found to significantly differ when changing the value of T or K. Finally, forecast accuracy was shown to follow the theoretically predicted best to worst pattern as days out increased. A profile analysis of seat section ticket inventory showed seat sections exhibit different slopes and changes in slope over time. The general pattern of ticket inventory followed a linear trend but with varying slopes. Steeper slopes were found at 20, 10, and 5 days out followed by a leveling out between 5 and 3 days out which was then followed by steeper slopes from 3 days to game day. This finding suggested that optimizing a sport revenue management plan should include forecasting at the seat section level

Multi-energy retail market simulation with autonomous intelligent agents

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores. 2005. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Port

Definition, Measurement and Determinants of the Consumer's Willingness to Pay: a Critical Synthesis and Directions for Further Research

International audienceDifferentiated prices, bundling, Web auctions : firms' pricing practices are evolving. When there is no market or for customised pricing, the willingness-to-pay concept seems to be interesting. This article aims at presenting a synthesis of the marketing research stream relative to willingness to pay. First, a definition of the concept is given and compared to other similar concepts, notably reference price and acceptable price. Then the methods of measurement are presented, compared to those used to measure elasticity and criticized. Furthermore, the research on external determinants of willingness to pay is commented. Finally, numerous directions for further research are proposed

Illustrations of Price Discrimination in Baseball

Price discrimination of this nature, focused on differing degrees of quality, bundled goods, volume discounts, and other forms of second-degree price discrimination, is commonplace in MLB. Indeed, it is safe to say that every single MLB ticket is sold under some form of price discrimination. As teams grow increasingly sophisticated in their pricing strategies, price discrimination is becoming more precise, more wide-spread, and more profitable, while at the same time providing for more opportunities for more fans to find tickets at a price they are willing to pay. Unlike a baseball game, where one team must lose and one must win, price discrimination allows for win-win economic outcomes for teams and fans alike