Several researchers suggest that value-based pricing (VBP) is one of the most profitable pricing methods for companies competing in today's business environment. Interestingly, the implementation rates of VBP are, however, rather low. Numerous barriers to the implementation of value-based pricing have been found by researchers already. Although, a theoretical model for determining whether value-based pricing may be a suitable pricing method for a business is yet to be found in the literature. This study aims to introduce a theoretical model to aid pricing executives in their pricing method selection. For this purpose, 20 semi-structured in-depth expert interviews with German pricing experts were conducted as part of qualitative data analysis. The experts were selected using a purposive selection method. Pricing experts were asked to describe the most important factors for determining whether a company may implement value-based pricing. We identified two main factors as being necessities for using VBP. The first factor named by the authors was the brand advantage (BA), and the second factor was represented by the delivered product benefits (DB) as perceived by the customer. Based on these two factors, a two-dimensional, quadrant-based theoretical model was developed and was named the VBP Determination Matrix. The matrix now evaluates a company's position within the matrix based on the factors BA and DB. It leads to direct calls-to-action for properly choosing the most suitable pricing method. This study's theoretical contribution was the development of a so far non-existing twodimensional model for the determination of the suitability of value-based pricing. Business practitioners are now provided with an easy-to-use and highly applicable model to determine the initial suitability of implementing VBP. Senior management is given direct calls-to-action, whether an investment to implement VBP shall be made and whether to allocate resources. Implications for Central European audience: The VBP Determination Matrix is a highly applicable model recommended especially for business practitioners in pricing, marketing and management. Central European companies are recommended to utilise the model to benefit from its strategic recommendations to properly select the most suitable pricing method for profit maximisation and competitiveness optimisation.

Value-based pricing (VBP) is often considered the most profitable pricing method. However, VBP is rarely implemented by companies. This research study asks the question Why? and investigates the obstacles to an implementation of VBP. The objectives of this paper are to provide an assessment of customer-based obstacles to implement VBP in four different German industries and to evaluate the degree of company-based obstacles by industry. For that purpose, 792 consumer questionnaires were collected and 20 expert interviews were conducted.The results show that the technology industry is the German industry with the lowest obstacles, while the pharmaceutical industry experiences the strongest obstacles. The degree of obstacles varies significantly by industry.This study contributes to theory by taking both a customer perspective and a business perspective towards VBP while identifying the degree of the obstacles to implement VBP by industry. This paper allows future researchers and business practitioners to assess the industry-specific obstacles and take appropriate measures to overcome them.