Research method in management study: In the light of willingness to pay

Research method plays a pivotal role in management study. Willingness to pay with its wide applicability has been used in many branches of management study. This paper compares its application in consumer behavior, environmental goods evaluation, and decision-making under risk. Three researches are deliberately designed. It is found that the concept of willingness to pay is lucrative and rich in meanings. People´s willingness to pay differs greatly in different domains. In addition, willingness to pay is not constant, subject to the influence of circumstances factors. The inherent ambiguity in willingness to pay is revealed from these experiments. It implies that the adoption of research methodology should be based upon careful thinking and comparison. The limitations of quantitative and qualitative analyses and the exactness of constructs should be well evaluated.