Business Model Evaluation based on WTP Model: Pricing-by-rating(PBR) as the Baseline of Pricing Policy and a Criterion of Business Model Evaluation

To provide the baseline for pricing, this paper proposes pricing-by-rating (PBR) as pricing model at micro-foundations level that can work as the baseline for all pricing models as well as an assessment criterion of business model in all circumstances. It sets up firstly WTP (willingness to pay/purchase) model from explicit needs and develops PBR based on the ordinal scale of the difference between the WTP and the WTS (willingness to supply/sell) by comparing individually the corresponding element/component of a firm’s actual marketing mix 4P with that of the best SPEC (solution, price indicator by WTP, encouragement, channel) as an ideal 4P a customer expects and also by comparing the interaction between the 4P and the best SPEC as a whole collectively. And through illustrations it shows its applicability to evaluating business model in practice and finally asserts that PBR works as the baseline for pricing policy and as a criterion of business model evaluation in any circumstances.