Pricing and monetization · Empirical study using software-firm data on intertemporal product versions and upgrade pricing.
New Features Free of Charge? Intertemporal Product Versions and Pricing in the Software Market
Kristina Brecko (2023). New Features Free of Charge? Intertemporal Product Versions and Pricing in the Software Market. Marketing Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2022.1389.
Plain-English take
The paper empirically documents how firms decide whether to give new features free or charge for upgrades (the publisher abstract identifies the study as an empirical software-market study). For your marketing: Use the study to frame a pricing or packaging hypothesis and identify outcomes to measure; estimate effects with your own customer mix and willingness-to-pay evidence.
How much weight to give this
2.5/5 Evidence needs cautious interpretation
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Empirical study using software-firm data on intertemporal product versions and upgrade pricing.
Software industry; firm-level product/version and upgrade-pricing decisions.
Judged from the publisher-described design and comparison; inspect the paper for complete analysis.
Publisher page and abstract were retrieved directly; full text was not assumed open.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the retrieved publisher record.
Research question
What the authors investigated
When should software firms make new features free versus use paid upgrades across product versions?
Design
Empirical study using software-firm data on intertemporal product versions and upgrade pricing.
Sample and setting
Software industry; firm-level product/version and upgrade-pricing decisions.
Reported result
What the study found
The paper empirically documents how firms decide whether to give new features free or charge for upgrades (the publisher abstract identifies the study as an empirical software-market study).
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
Context is one software industry setting and observational firm decisions; the abstract does not establish universal effects across SaaS categories.
Possible founder application
Use the study to frame a pricing or packaging hypothesis and identify outcomes to measure; estimate effects with your own customer mix and willingness-to-pay evidence.
Evidence access
Publisher record and abstract retrieved; consult the linked paper for full methods and tables.
INFORMS/Crossref metadata gives exact title, author, year, journal and describes it as an empirical study of intertemporal versioning and upgrade pricing. Direct publisher-page retrieval was recorded on 2026-10-09; this profile uses the publisher abstract/metadata and does not claim independent review of unavailable full text.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.