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Top1. Introduction
Price of a product is one of the determining factors which decide whether a product will get sold in the market or not (Glass & Tardiff, 2017). Customers reveal their intention to buy a product based on its price. Price competition is a core element of free-market economy (Gui, Tang, & Yin, 2019). A number of factors need to be analyzed before setting the price of a product. Also, companies cannot set a price which they wish to. Companies require analyzing a number of public policy issues before setting prices of products. The study presents the public policy issues related to pricing of products. Governments of countries set a number of laws which govern the setting of prices for products. The laws try to ensure that pricing is fair for products. Several federal, state, and even local laws are enforced to ensure this (Blank, 2019). Companies also require analyzing the societal impacts of pricing before setting prices. For example, before setting their prices, pharmaceutical companies should analyze their development costs and profit objectives. Pricing of life-saving drugs also require special considerations (da Fonseca, Teixeira, & do Rosario Costa, 2019). There are various important legislations affecting pricing of products.
Public policy issues in pricing are of concern to marketers. It is essential for marketers to be aware of such issues, to understand their importance, and to formulate strategies accordingly. The study tries to address the research gap on this important issue. The study focuses on the pricing of products, legislations involved in pricing, and public policy issues in pricing in the context of the United States. Companies should appreciate the macro-economic implications of the public policy issues in pricing and formulate their pricing strategies accordingly.
The main objective of the study is to conduct a qualitative and conceptual analysis of the literature on pricing and public policy issues for companies from a marketing perspective. The study does a conceptual rather than a quantitative analysis of the various public policy issues in pricing.
The methodology adopted is the analysis of the literature on pricing and public policy issues. The papers from the literature were selected for the study based on the relevance and the importance of such papers with respect to the public policy issues in pricing. Also, those papers were selected which highlighted the latest developments on the concerned topic. The study focuses on various public policy issues and the rules and regulations associated with such issues. The study also focuses on the various strategies and initiatives adopted by companies to deal with pricing and public policy issues related to pricing.
The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the study aims at critically analyzing the various public policy issues related to pricing. The study refers to the latest literature on the topic and aims at critically analyzing the literature with arguments. The study compares with the methods adopted in other studies in the sense that it is one of the first studies which aims at conducting a conceptual analysis rather than an empirical analysis.
The study is structured as follows:
Section 2 deals with the various public policy concerns in pricing. Section 3 discusses the pricing policy issues within different channel levels with sub-section 3.1 focusing on predatory pricing policies adopted by companies. Pricing policy issues across different channel levels are discussed in section 4. Sub-sections 4.1 and 4.2 focus on deceptive practices in pricing across channel levels and price discrimination respectively. Dynamic pricing is one of the major pricing issues and it is discussed in section 5. High prices of products are a major concern and the related issues are discussed in section 6 and its sub-sections. Pricing of social goods is an important issue in pricing and it is discussed in section 7. A general discussion of the salient points of the study is done in section 8. Sub-sections 8.1 and 8.2 focus on managerial implications and limitations of the study respectively. Section 9 concludes the discussions with sub-sections 9.1 and 9.2 focusing on contributions of the study and future research directions respectively.