Abstract
Equipment manufacturers increasingly pursue servitization strategies, yet their salesforces frequently find that industrial customers display a low willingness-to-pay (WTP) for ancillary services, in particular when offered in conjunction with high-priced capital goods. Drawing on entitlement theory and a unique dataset gathered in a field survey among more than 440 decision-makers, we establish a negative relationship between vendors’ equipment prices and their industrial customers’ WTP for ancillary services. In a follow-up experimental study, we investigate the explanatory mechanism and find support for entitlement as the underpinning rationale. In a second experimental study, we explore dual-entitlement effects and show that customers’ perceptions of vendors’ profitability directly and indirectly impact their WTP for ancillary services. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on customer entitlement and the dual-entitlement principle in industrial markets and offer practical implications for price communication and the sales process in capital goods markets.
