Purpose -The paper seeks to fill a research gap that concerns empirical studies on value-based pricing in durable consumer goods. It aims to analyse the relationship between value for the customer and market prices in the washing machines market. Design/methodology/approach -The customer value of a sample of 129 washing machine models is assessed through the conjoint analysis technique. It is then compared through a regression analysis to the market prices of the products. Findings -The regression analysis reveals that the alignment between price and value for the customer is limited (only one of the two subsamples presents a positive dependence among the variables).Research limitations/implications -The study lacks explanatory power about the reasons for the misalignment between price and customer value in the investigated sector. The results, moreover, refer to a specific product category and a specific national market, although their representativeness as a mature durable in a mature market suggests a broader relevance of the implications. The size of the samples of the empirical research is also limited. Practical implications -The paper provides an example and guidelines to practitioners on how to implement a customer value assessment. It provides practitioners a deeper understanding of the consequences of misaligned pricing, and of the potential of understanding the actual value sources for the customers. Originality/value -The study empirically assesses the relationship between value for the customer and market prices of a category of mature durable goods. The results support the claim that value-based pricing, although believed to be superior to other pricing policies, is still not established as a prominent practice. Moreover, the findings contribute to the discussion on the value of environment-related attributes and their lifecycle monetary impact on the customers. It also identifies another possible obstacle to the adoption of value-based pricing, i.e. the structure of the market, to be added to the ones reviewed in the literature.

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Abstract. In this paper, we focus on the One-of-a-Kind Production (OKP) industry, where each product is designed and manufactured based on specific customer requirements to a large extent, according to an Engineer To Order (ETO) approach. The paper illustrates an empirical study on the state-of-the-art of information systems supporting the leading processes in OKP companies. Through a set of 21 case studies in Italian companies producing special machines, we aim to: identify and investigate strengths and weaknesses of the main OKP business processes; analyze the ICT support and its level of integration among the different ICT solutions; identify levers for improvement, concerning organizational, methodological and informatics aspects; build a practical framework that could define and link the main processes in order to obtain a sort of guideline useful for re-engineering the processes, and laying the foundation for a new integrated ICT business template for OKP companies.