Value creation character and value assessment responsibility

Value‐based pricing is by many companies as well as in academia perceived as the preferred pricing model. The pricing literature includes a long‐standing debate on pricing authority and centralized pricing authority can be associated with value‐based pricing strategies. A critical success factor for value‐based pricing is customer value assessment, and many companies have experienced challenges in implementing value assessment to support its value‐based pricing. This paper outlines how centralized versus delegated value assessment responsibility depends on the organization’s value creation character and the variations in value in use for different customers within individual market segments. Based on the integration of literature on pricing and value configurations we propose a framework which we then exemplify by four illustrative cases for which data were gathered by semi‐structured interviews. By considering the implications of value creation models on value assessment following our framework we contribute to the understanding of how value assessment responsibilities should be assigned for firms working with value‐based pricing.