Dynamic pricing, the useful and the just

This PhD thesis brings together different works on dynamic pricing at the interface of economics, management sciences and political science. The objective of the thesis is twofold: first, to study the determinants and conditions of use of the dynamic pricing at the level of the firm in a perspective of maximizing its profits and; secondly, to show how, at the collective level, the consideration of ethical issues in the study of dynamic pricing allows a better understand of its scope. Our contributions, both theoretical and empirical, are presented in two parts. Part 1 focuses on economic efficiency (point of view of the useful), and raises questions about the maximization of profit considerations related to dynamic pricing for weather-sensitive products in physical distribution channels. We present a literature review that introduces the dynamic adaptation of the price to factors influencing the demand and we propose a theoretical model of dynamic adaptation of the price in time following the temperature. We complete this theoretical approach with an empirical study that examines how pricing, exercised dynamically from the firm’s point of view in response to external factors, allows it to maximize its interests. Part 2 brings together work on ethical considerations (the point of view of the just) related to dynamic pricing. Focusing on online distribution channels, we discuss, on a theoretical level, the potential impact of dynamic pricing on consumers’ ethical perception, highlighting potential risks of unfairness or vulnerability that price fixing raises. From an empirical point of view, we thoroughly analyze the determinants of the ethical perception of online dynamic pricing by consumers, in particular according to the conditions of its setting, as well as the dimensions of vulnerability that concern consumers. The conclusion brings together future lines of research on deepening the measurement of perceived ethics, on the potentiality of hybridization of economic sciences with ethics on a subject such as dynamic pricing and on the considerations we have seen on the link between dynamic pricing and identification of natural laws related to price fixing (point of view of the true).