Abstract
The pricing decision affects the demand and profitability of an enterprise. On one hand, the pricing decisions aim to meet the reasonable range of price for both the suppliers and customers in light of capacity supply and demand. On the other hand, pricing decision can serve as a strategic driving force to coexist with competitors or even expel them from this competitive market. Meanwhile, the critical factors of pricing decision are different with the corresponding market structures. Although the fluctuations in price have more significant impact on the profit than the cost and sales do, little research has been done to improve the quality of pricing decisions. This study aims to integrate the concept of product life cycle into alternative pricing levels. Indeed, the pricing decisions are multi-laterals that are affected by different factors at the industrial economy level, marketing level, and the sales at transaction level. Also, the pricing decision also varies with the product life cycle (PLC). In particular, a systematic decision framework was constructed to generate alternative pricing decision strategies in light of various decision elements. Also, an example of pricing decision in oligopoly market was constructed to estimate the validity of this study. Further study should be done to assist the decision maker to create a rational price strategy based on the systematic framework provided in this research and thus to promote the overall decision quality of pricing decision for company profitability and growth.