The role of contextual factors in increasing Pay-What-You-Want payments: Evidence from field experiments

Abstract In the real world, PWYW businesses can either engage supervised payments or honour boxes where consumers can drop their loose change to make payments. As consumers can pay any amount (including zero) for PWYW payments, the current work delineates conditions under which higher payments can be encouraged. Findings from a series of field experiments show that low arousal music facilitates higher PWYW payments under an external influence (e.g., a salesperson), while high arousal music motivates consumers to make higher payments when they carry more versus less loose change. Further, the interactions of music with salesperson and loose change respectively drives higher payments through the subject’s internal reference price. The current work is novel in testing the influence of salesperson, loose change and music driving higher PWYW payments. The current work also provides managers with a strategic tool (e.g., ambient music) that will help drive higher PWYW payments.