Role of market turbulence in shaping pricing strategy

Several authors have highlighted the need for research into the strategy of firms operating in turbulent markets, characterized by both environmental complexity and uncertainty, which typify the "high technology" firms of tod ay. Similarly, while pricing is a major marketing decision problem faced by managers in these high technology industrial firms, relatively little rese arch is available that addresses the issues that lend to the choice of one pricing strategy over another. We examine three broad pricing problems: (I) pricing over the product life cycle; (2) use of reference price; and (3) f irm's tendency to offer as well as charge price premiums. We rest our theor y-driven hypotheses through a research study conducted on a national indust ry sample of purchasing managers. Our research integrates the evidence avai lable from consumer-level pricing research, and results in several importan t implications for managers of high technology industrial firms which we al so outline. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.