http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/1245/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39958/ 2013-05-08T00:00:00Z In this paper we propose the use of preferred outcome distributions as a new method to elicit individuals’ value and probability weighting functions in decisions under risk. Extant approaches for the elicitation of these two key ingredients of individuals’ risk attitude typically rely on a long, chained sequence of lottery choices. In contrast, preferred outcome distributions can be elicited through an intuitive graphical interface, and, as we show, the information contained in two preferred outcome distributions is sufficient to identify non-parametrically both the value function and the probability weighting function in rank-dependent utility models. To illustrate our method and its advantages, we run an incentive-compatible lab study in which participants use a simple graphical interface – the Distribution Builder (Goldstein et al. 2008) – to construct their preferred outcome distributions, subject to a budget constraint. Results show that estimates of the value function are in line with previous research but that probability weighting biases are diminished, thus favoring our proposed approach based on preferred outcome distributions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39608/ 2013-05-01T00:00:00Z Increased competition in the health care sector has led hospitals and other health care institutions to experiment with new access allocation policies that move away from traditional expert based allocation of care to price-based priority access (i.e., the option to pay more for faster care). To date, little is known about individuals' attitude toward price-based priority access and the evaluation process underlying this attitude. This paper addresses the role of individuals' evaluations of collective health outcomes as an important driver of their attitude toward (price-based) allocation policies in health care.The authors investigate how individuals evaluate price-based priority access by means of scenario-based survey data collected in a representative sample from the Dutch population (N = 1464). They find that (a) offering individuals the opportunity to pay for faster care negatively affects their evaluations of both the total and distributional collective health outcome achieved, (b) however, when health care supply is not restricted (i.e., when treatment can be offered outside versus within the regular working hours of the hospital) offering price-based priority access affects total collective health outcome evaluations positively instead of negatively, but it does not change distributional collective health outcome evaluations. Furthermore, (c) the type of health care treatment (i.e., life saving liver transplantation treatment vs. life improving cosmetic ear correction treatment - priced at the same level to the individual) moderates the effect of collective health outcome evaluations on individuals' attitude toward allocation policies.For policy makers and hospital managers the results presented in this article are helpful because they provide a better understanding of what drives individuals' preferences for health care allocation policies. In particular, the results show that policies based on the " paying more for faster care" principle are more attractive to the general public when treatment takes place outside the regular working hours of a hospital. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39663/ 2013-03-29T00:00:00Z We model strategic communication network formation with (i) link specificity: link maintenance lowers specific attention and thus value (negative externality previously ignored for communication) and (ii) value transferability via indirect links for informational but not for social value (positive externality modeled uniformly before). Assuming only social value, the pairwise stable set includes many nonstandard networks under high and particular combinations of complete components under low link specificity. Allowing for social and informational value reduces this set to certain fragmented networks under high and the complete network under low link specificity. These extremes are efficient, whereas intermediate link specificity generates inefficiency. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38722/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z Objective: Health promotion (HP) interventions have outcomes that go beyond health. Such broader nonhealth outcomes are usually neglected in economic evaluation studies. To allow for their consideration, insights are needed into the types of nonhealth outcomes that HP interventions produce and their relative importance compared with health outcomes. This study explored consumer preferences for health and nonhealth outcomes of HP in the context of lifestyle behavior change. Methods: A discrete choice experiment was conducted among participants in a lifestyle intervention (n = 132) and controls (n = 141). Respondents made 16 binary choices between situations that can be experienced after lifestyle behavior change. The situations were described by 10 attributes: future health state value, start point of future health state, life expectancy, clothing size above ideal, days with sufficient relaxation, endurance, experienced control over lifestyle choices, lifestyle improvement of partner and/or children, monetary cost per month, and time cost per week. Results: With the exception of time cost per week and start point of future health state, all attributes significantly determined consumer choices. Thus, both health and nonhealth outcomes affected consumer choice. Marginal rates of substitution between the price attribute and the other attributes revealed that the attributes endurance, days with sufficient relaxation, and future health state value had the greatest impact on consumer choices. The life expectancy attribute had a relatively low impact and for increases of less than 3 years, respondents were not willing to trade. Conclusions: Health outcomes and nonhealth outcomes of lifestyle behavior change were both important to consumers in this study. Decision makers should respond to consumer preferences and consider nonhealth outcomes when deciding about HP interventions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39284/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z Objective: Health promotion (HP) interventions have outcomes that go beyond health. Such broader nonhealth outcomes are usually neglected in economic evaluation studies. To allow for their consideration, insights are needed into the types of nonhealth outcomes that HP interventions produce and their relative importance compared with health outcomes. This study explored consumer preferences for health and nonhealth outcomes of HP in the context of lifestyle behavior change. Methods: A discrete choice experiment was conducted among participants in a lifestyle intervention (n = 132) and controls (n = 141). Respondents made 16 binary choices between situations that can be experienced after lifestyle behavior change. The situations were described by 10 attributes: future health state value, start point of future health state, life expectancy, clothing size above ideal, days with sufficient relaxation, endurance, experienced control over lifestyle choices, lifestyle improvement of partner and/or children, monetary cost per month, and time cost per week. Results: With the exception of time cost per week and start point of future health state, all attributes significantly determined consumer choices. Thus, both health and nonhealth outcomes affected consumer choice. Marginal rates of substitution between the price attribute and the other attributes revealed that the attributes endurance, days with sufficient relaxation, and future health state value had the greatest impact on consumer choices. The life expectancy attribute had a relatively low impact and for increases of less than 3 years, respondents were not willing to trade. Conclusions: Health outcomes and nonhealth outcomes of lifestyle behavior change were both important to consumers in this study. Decision makers should respond to consumer preferences and consider nonhealth outcomes when deciding about HP interventions. © 2013 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31309/ 2012-09-01T00:00:00Z The allocation of scarce health care service resources often requires trade-offs between individual and collective outcomes (e.g., when some individuals benefit more strongly from a given policy than others). Based on construal level theory, one would expect that consumers cognitively represent the individual and collective outcomes of an allocation policy at different levels of abstraction and that they evaluate allocation policies more positively when there is congruency between the cognitive representation of the policy’s focal outcome and the spatial and temporal distance inherently present in the policy’s decision context (e.g., allocation decisions on a future policy). However, we hypothesize that this congruency effect can be overruled by a high vested interest mindset that is activated by an individual’s recent personal experience with a health care service provider. Since a high vested interest mindset increases the relevance of the allocation policy implementation for the individual because s/he perceives strong personal consequences, we propose that for consumers with recent experience the evaluation of an allocation policy that focuses on individual outcomes is higher than that of a policy that focuses on collective outcomes irrespective of the spatial and temporal distance in the decision context. Results of a hypothetical experiment among a representative sample of the general population confirm the congruency effects in the new domain of health care service allocation policies, and provide support for the proposed overruling effect of the activation of a high vested interest mindset by recent personal experience on spatial and temporal distance. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37161/ 2012-08-01T00:00:00Z Deciding how much to save for retirement is a difficult task that includes many uncertainties. In this paper, we use data from a representative Dutch household panel to study the impact of uncertainty regarding one's savings adequacy on retirement savings contributions and information search processes. We combine ideas from the literature in psychology and economics that provide opposing predictions regarding the impact of uncertainty on retirement savings contributions. Our results indicate that the effect of uncertainty is moderated by two factors: an individual's perceived adequacy of current savings and that individual's financial constraints. In particular, we find that uncertainty increases retirement contributions for those who believe that they save adequately; however, it hinders retirement contributions for those who believe that they save inadequately. This effect of uncertainty is further moderated by the availability of financial means: a reduction in uncertainty results in greater contributions to savings only when financial constraints are absent. We also find that uncertainty has both indirect and direct effects on savings information search. In particular, uncertainty indirectly affects savings information search because it impacts individuals' intentions to save, which consequently forces individuals to engage in purchase-oriented information search; however, uncertainty also has a direct effect because individuals engage in ongoing information search processes to directly reduce uncertainty. The implications of these findings are discussed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38064/ 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z Objective: Customized care can be beneficial for patients when preferences for health care programs are heterogeneous. Yet, there is little guidance on how individual-specific preferences and cost data can be combined to inform health care decisions about customized care. Therefore, we propose a discrete choice experiment-based approach that illustrates how to analyze the cost-effectiveness of customized (and noncustomized) care programs to provide information for hospital managers. Methods: We exploit the fact that choice models make it possible to determine whether preference heterogeneity exists and to obtain individual-specific parameter estimates. We present an approach of how to combine these individual-specific parameter estimates from a random parameter model (mixed logit model) with cost data to analyze the cost-effectiveness of customized care and demonstrate our method in the case of follow-up after breast cancer treatment. Results: We found that there is significant preference heterogeneity for all except two attributes of breast cancer treatment follow-up and that the fully customized care program leads to higher utility and lower costs than the current standardized program. Compared with the single alternative program, the fully customized care program has increased benefits and higher costs. Thus, it is necessary for health care decision makers to judge whether the use of resources for customized care is cost-effective. Conclusions: Decision makers should consider using the results obtained from our methodological approach when they consider implementing customized health care programs, because it may help to find ways to save costs and increase patient satisfaction. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34799/ 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z The way a choice is presented influences what a decision-maker chooses. This paper outlines the tools available to choice architects, that is anyone who present people with choices. We divide these tools into two categories: those used in structuring the choice task and those used in describing the choice options. Tools for structuring the choice task address the idea of what to present to decision-makers, and tools for describing the choice options address the idea of how to present it. We discuss implementation issues in using choice architecture tools, including individual differences and errors in evaluation of choice outcomes. Finally, this paper presents a few applications that illustrate the positive effect choice architecture can have on real-world decisions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37794/ 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z Online retailers significantly benefit when consumers use interactive decision aids (IDAs). In this study, we investigate how to best design messages that promote IDA use. Using an extended message framing perspective, we propose that messages about consumers' traditional action (searching) increase usage intentions more than messages about the new action (IDA use). Results from two experiments confirm that this holds across both high and low involvement categories and in particular when the traditional action frame is combined with a loss outcome. We also demonstrate that familiarity with the message's focal action mediates this effect. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37807/ 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z Many firms rely on choice experiment-based models to evaluate future marketing actions under various market conditions. This research investigates choice complexity (i.e., number of alternatives, number of attributes, and utility similarity between the most attractive alternatives) and individual differences in decision time as key factors that affect the predictive performance of models based on choice experiments, both within and between complexity conditions. The results show that complexity and individual decision time not only affect the error in consumer choice models but also consumers' decision strategy and systematic utilities. The authors introduce a complexity-adjusted mixed logit (CAM logit) model to capture the various influences of complexity in choice experiment-based models. They illustrate the consequences of complexity on choice behavior with market share predictions of the CAM logit model for different complexity conditions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38063/ 2012-04-01T00:00:00Z Purpose: This paper aims to examine communication channels for in-home service provision. In particular, it aims to focus on the joint effect of two converging trends: the increase of in-home services involving high degrees of customer participation;and the extension of the number of channels that service firms use to communicate with customers. It seeks to assess which benefits customers desire of communication channels across in-home service production formats and how these benefit desires determine their communication channel consideration for in-home services. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a literature review a conceptual framework was constructed. Using the association pattern technique (APT), a survey of 383 customers of a Dutch energy company was carried out. The APT enabled the authors to quantify the relationship between participative in-home service provision situations, desired communication channel benefits, and communication channel consideration. Findings: Results show that customers focus more strongly on functionally- and economically-oriented communication channel benefits in high customer participation service formats. In contrast, socially-oriented communication channel benefits seem more appropriate when low customer participation in the provision of in-home services is involved. The match between benefits desired by the customer and benefits provided by a communication channel is identified as a central mechanism behind communication channel consideration for in-home services. Furthermore, evidence is found for customer heterogeneity in desired communication channel benefits and channel consideration, based on age, education, and past channel usage. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the multichannel knowledge base by hypothesizing and demonstrating how specific benefit desires arise from allowing/requiring customers to participate in in-home service provision. The study also provides valuable insight into the mechanism behind communication channel consideration by customers during in-home service provision. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32658/ 2012-03-01T00:00:00Z Deciding how much to save for retirement is a difficult task that includes many uncertainties. In this paper, we use data from a representative Dutch household panel to study the impact of uncertainty regarding one's savings adequacy on retirement savings contributions and information search processes. We combine ideas from the literature in psychology and economics that provide opposing predictions regarding the impact of uncertainty on retirement savings contributions. Our results indicate that the effect of uncertainty is moderated by two factors: an individual's perceived adequacy of current savings and that individual's financial constraints. In particular, we find that uncertainty increases retirement contributions for those who believe that they save adequately; however, it hinders retirement contributions for those who believe that they save inadequately. This effect of uncertainty is further moderated by the availability of financial means: a reduction in uncertainty results in greater contributions to savings only when financial constraints are absent. We also find that uncertainty has both indirect and direct effects on savings information search. In particular, uncertainty indirectly affects savings information search because it impacts individuals' intentions to save, which consequently forces individuals to engage in purchase-oriented information search; however, uncertainty also has a direct effect because individuals engage in ongoing information search processes to directly reduce uncertainty. The implications of these findings are discussed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31310/ 2011-11-09T00:00:00Z This article examines how a common form of decision assistance—recommendations that present products in order of their predicted attractiveness to a consumer—transforms decision processes during product search. Such recommendations induce a shift in consumers' decision orientation in search from being directed at whether additional alternatives should be inspected to identifying the best alternative among those already encountered, which is common when choosing from predetermined sets of alternatives. That is, recommendations cause consumers to search in “choice mode.” Evidence from three studies provides support for such a transformation of search decisions, which manifests itself in two respects. First, compared with unassisted search, recommendations lead consumers to assess a product they encounter in their search by comparing it less with the best one discovered up to that point and more with other previously inspected alternatives. Second, recommendations transform how variability in product attractiveness affects stopping decisions such that greater variability causes consumers to search less, which is contrary to what is commonly observed in search without recommendations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25751/ 2011-09-01T00:00:00Z Although the number and importance of joint innovation projects between suppliers and their customers continue to rise, the literature has yet to resolve a key question: Do embedded ties with customers help or hurt supplier innovation? Drawing on both the tie strength and knowledge literatures, the authors theorize that embedded ties interact with supplier and customer innovation knowledge to influence supplier innovation. In a sample of 157 Dutch business-to-business innovation relationships, they observe that embedded ties weaken how much suppliers benefit from customer innovation knowledge because of worries about customer opportunism (the dark side of embedded ties). However, they uncover three moderating relationship and governance features that allow suppliers to overcome these dark-side effects and even increase innovation (the bright side of embedded ties). Finally, although the authors predicted a bright-side effect, they find that embedded ties neither help nor hinder the supplier to leverage its own innovation knowledge in the relationship. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31115/ 2011-09-01T00:00:00Z Although the number and importance of joint innovation projects between suppliers and their customers continue to rise, the literature has yet to resolve a key question: Do embedded ties with customers help or hurt supplier innovation? Drawing on both the tie strength and knowledge literatures, the authors theorize that embedded ties interact with supplier and customer innovation knowledge to influence supplier innovation. In a sample of 157 Dutch business-to-business innovation relationships, they observe that embedded ties weaken how much suppliers benefit from customer innovation knowledge because of worries about customer opportunism (the dark side of embedded ties). However, they uncover three moderating relationship and governance features that allow suppliers to overcome these dark-side effects and even increase innovation (the bright side of embedded ties). Finally, although the authors predicted a bright-side effect, they find that embedded ties neither help nor hinder the supplier to leverage its own innovation knowledge in the relationship. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25756/ 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z In recent years, the combination of economic growth and population growth in emerging markets and less developed markets has accelerated the progression of globalization of retailing and globalization by retailers. The challenges faced by global and globalizing retailers (retailers who currently have or intend to establish a market presence in mature markets, emerging markets and less developed markets) can be more daunting compared to those faced by firms in other industries such as automobiles, steel, and computers. Retailing innovations that are responsive to the characteristics of distinctive national markets and broader aggregations of markets such as mature, emerging and less developed markets are critical to the success of global and globalizing retailers. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on retailing innovations in the context of a globalizing retailing environment. It attempts to shed insights into the characteristics of retailing innovations conducive to superior performance in distinctive national markets and across broader aggregations of markets. Towards this end, we first examine the environmental conditions of markets in different development stages, namely mature, emerging and less developed markets, and explore consumer based, industry based, and legal/regulatory based challenges faced by globalizing retailers in these markets. Second, we show how these challenges can be transformed into opportunities with retailing innovations. We conclude with a roadmap for future research and present propositions on future development with respect to retailing innovations in these markets. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25862/ 2011-04-01T00:00:00Z Interactive decision aids (IDAs) typically use concrete, feature-based approaches to interact with consumers. Recently, however, interaction designs that focus on communicating abstract consumer needs have been suggested as a promising alternative. This paper investigates how temporal distance moderates the effectiveness of these two competing IDA communication designs by its effect on consumers' mental representation of the product decision problem. Temporal distance is inherently connected to IDAs in two ways. Congruency between consumption timing (immediate versus distant) and IDA communication design (concrete versus abstract, respectively) increases the likelihood to accept the IDA's advice. This effect is also achieved by congruency between IDA process timing (immediate versus delayed delivery of recommendations) and IDA communication design (concrete versus abstract, respectively). We further show that this process is mediated by the perceived transparency of the IDA process. Managers and researchers need to take into account the importance of congruency between the user and the interface through which companies interact with their users and can further optimize IDAs so that they better match consumers' mental representations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22813/ 2011-03-21T00:00:00Z While the number and importance of joint innovation projects between suppliers and their customers continue to rise, the literature has yet to resolve a key question—do embedded ties with customers help or hurt supplier innovation? Drawing on both the tie strength and knowledge literatures, we theorize that embedded ties interact with supplier and customer innovation knowledge to influence supplier innovation. In a sample of 157 Dutch business-to-business innovation relationships, we observe that embedded ties weaken how much suppliers benefit from customer innovation knowledge due to worries about customer opportunism (the dark side of embedded ties). However, we uncover three moderating relationship and governance features that allow suppliers to overcome these dark-side effects and even increase innovation (the bright side of embedded ties). Finally, although we predicted a bright-side effect, we find that embedded ties neither help nor hurt the supplier to leverage its own innovation knowledge in the relationship. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/23035/ 2011-03-01T00:00:00Z Growing emphasis is currently given in decision modeling on process data to capture behavioral mechanisms that ground decision-making processes. Nevertheless, advanced applications to elicit such data are still lacking. The Causal Network Elicitation Technique interview and card-game, both face-to-face interviews, are examples of a behavioral process method to obtain individuals' decision-making by eliciting temporary mental representations of particular problems. However, to portray and model these representations into formal modeling approaches, such as Bayesian decision networks, an extensive set of parameters has to be gathered for each individual. Thus, data collection procedures for large sample groups can be costly and time consuming. This paper reports on the methodological conversion and enhancement of the existing elicitation methods into a computer-based interface that allows to not only uncover individuals' mental representations but also to automate the generation of preference parameter elicitation questions. Results of such studies can be used to understand individuals' constructs and beliefs with respect to decision alternatives, predict individuals' decision behavior at a disaggregate level, and to assess behavioral changes due to differences in contexts and constraints. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/23453/ 2011-03-01T00:00:00Z Interactive decision aids (IDAs) typically use concrete, feature–based approaches to interact with consumers. Recently, however, interaction designs that focus on communicating abstract consumer needs have been suggested as a promising alternative. This paper investigates how temporal distance moderates the effectiveness of these two competing IDA communication designs by its effect on consumers’ mental representation of the product decision problem. Temporal distance is inherently connected to IDAs in two ways. Congruency between consumption timing (immediate versus distant) and IDA communication design (concrete versus abstract, respectively) increases the likelihood to accept the IDA’s advice. This effect is also achieved by congruency between IDA process timing (immediate versus delayed delivery of recommendations) and IDA communication design (concrete versus abstract, respectively). We further show that this process is mediated by the perceived transparency of the IDA process. Managers and researchers need to take into account the importance of congruency between the user and the interface through which companies interact with their users and can further optimize IDAs so that they better match consumers’ mental representations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20621/ 2010-11-01T00:00:00Z Variation in the demand for scarce recreational resources can easily lead to crowding with unpleasant consequences for visitors and poses significant challenges to recreational resource managers. Previous research on individuals' response to crowding has mainly focused on how individuals cope with crowding at the moment that they experience it. The current paper adds to this literature by investigating in a formal modeling framework if and how visitors anticipate to crowding by taking into account other individuals' expected timing choices. We study individuals' anticipation of crowding and their resulting visit timing choices by using a game theoretical structure and response equilibrium. Results from two experiments in different contexts provide insight into how individuals incorporate strategic considerations regarding crowding in their visit timing decisions. They indicate that individuals anticipate strategically on other visitors' timing decisions, but also that they may take into account their own crowding anticipations only to a limited extent when making their timing choices. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21097/ 2010-10-20T00:00:00Z This paper shows how travellers that are faced with a series of risky choices become behaviourally inert due to a combination of risk aversion and learning. Our theoretical analyses complement other studies that conceive inertia as resulting from the wish to save cognitive resources. We first present a model of risky travel mode choice. We show that if travellers dislike risk, and part of the quality of travel alternatives is only revealed upon usage, inertia emerges due to a learning-based lock-in effect. We extend our analyses to capture forward-looking behaviour and the provision of travel information. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21098/ 2010-10-20T00:00:00Z Interactive decision aids (IDAs) typically use concrete product feature-based approaches to interact with consumers. Recently however, interaction designs that focus on communicating abstract consumer needs have been suggested as a promising alternative. This article investigates how temporal distance moderates the effectiveness of these two competing IDA communication designs by its effect on consumers’ mental representation of the product decision problem. Temporal distance is inherently connected to IDAs in two ways. Congruency between consumption timing (immediate vs. distant) and IDA communication design (concrete vs. abstract, respectively) increases the likelihood to accept the IDA’s advice. This effect is also achieved by congruency between IDA process timing (immediate vs. delayed delivery of recommendations) and IDA communication design (concrete vs. abstract, respectively). We further show that this process is mediated by the perceived transparency of the IDA process. Managers and researchers need to take into account the importance of congruency between the user and the interface through which companies interact with their users and can further optimize IDAs so that they better match consumers’ mental representations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20393/ 2010-07-01T00:00:00Z Activity-based models for modeling individuals’ travel demand have come to a new era in addressing individuals’ and households’ travel behavior on a disaggregate level. Quantitative data are mainly used in this domain to enable a realistic representation of individual choices and a true assessment of the impact of different Travel Demand Management measures. However, qualitative approaches in data collection are believed to be able to capture aspects of individuals’ travel behavior that cannot be obtained using quantitative studies, such as detailed decision making process information. Therefore, qualitative methods may deepen the insight into human’s travel behavior from an agent-based perspective. This paper reports on the application of a qualitative semi-structured interview method, namely the Causal Network Elicitation Technique (CNET), for eliciting individuals’ thoughts regarding fun-shopping related travel decisions, i.e. timing, shopping location and transport mode choices. The CNET protocol encourages participants to think aloud about their considerations when making decisions. These different elicited aspects are linked with causal relationships and thus, individuals’ mental representations of the task at hand are recorded. This protocol is tested in the city centre of Hasselt in Belgium, using 26 young adults as respondents. Response data are used to apply the Association Rules, a fairly common technique in machine learning. Results highlight different interrelated contexts, instruments and values considered when planning a trip. These findings can give feedback to current AB models to raise their behavioral realism and to improve modeling accuracy. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20392/ 2010-06-01T00:00:00Z We introduce and test a behavioral model of consumer product search that extends a baseline normative model of sequential search by incorporating nonnormative influences that are local in the sense that they reflect consumers' undue sensitivity to recently encountered alternatives. We propose two types of such local behavioral influences that, at each stage of a search process, can manifest themselves both in which of the products inspected up to that point is deemed to be the most preferred one (the product comparison decision) and whether to terminate the search at that stage (the stopping decision). The first of these influences is that consumers respond excessively to the attractiveness of the currently inspected product, at the expense of all others ("focalism"). The second proposed behavioral influence is that consumers overreact to the difference in attractiveness between the current product and the one encountered just prior to it ("local contrast"). Converging evidence from two experiments, which combine to guarantee both high internal and high external validity, provides support for the proposed behavioral influences. Our findings demonstrate that consumers' product comparison and stopping decisions in sequential product search are jointly governed by normative principles and by the proposed local behavioral influences. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38791/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract: Independer.nl began in 1999 as a financial product comparison website to help customers make better choices by bringing transparency into the market. Within a decade, it grew into a major Dutch financial intermediary that provided not only comparison but also brokerage services. As the Dutch financial market became more transparent with the growth of other comparison websites and an increase in government regulatory policies, focusing on transparency was no longer enough for Independer.nl. Intensified competition and the adverse economic climate added to the pressure. The company needed a new business model to attract new customers and increase profits. It considered a new ‘Just Right’ model in which customers would largely allow Independer.nl to manage the customer’s financial products and make optimal choices on their behalf. Independer.nl would now aim to become a trustworthy financial manager for its customers rather than a product comparison website only. The new business model, however, was not without issues: Market positioning, customer channel mix decisions, and maintaining a strong brand image all presented major challenges for the new business model. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17390/ 2009-09-23T00:00:00Z This paper describes an application of hierarchical information integration (HII) discrete choice experiments. We assessed theoretical and construct validity, as well as internal consistency, to investigate whether HII can be used to investigate complex multi-faceted health-care decisions (objective 1). In addition, we incorporated recent advances in mixed logit modelling (objective 2). Finally, we determined the response rate and predictive ability to study the feasibility of HII to support health-care management (objective 3). The clinical subject was the implementation of the guideline for breast cancer surgery in day care, which is a complex process that involves changes at the organizational and management levels, as well as the level of health-care professionals and that of patients. We found good theoretical and construct validity and satisfactory internal consistency. The proposed mixed logit model, which included repeated measures corrections and subexperiment error scale variations, also performed well. We found a poor response, but the model had satisfactory predictive ability. Therefore, we conclude that HII can be used successfully to study complex multi-faceted health-care decisions (objectives 1 and 2), but that the feasibility of HII to support health-care management, in particular in challenging implementation projects, seems less favourable (objective 3). http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16426/ 2009-04-01T00:00:00Z This study investigates the antecedents of consumer intentions to use mass customization on the Internet and the joint role of complementary on-line services (visualization, salesperson interaction, and post-purchase product adaptation) and the range of mass customization options in on-line mass customization. It extends past research by demonstrating that perceptions of control and enjoyment, in addition to perceptions of product outcome and complexity, have a strong impact on consumer intentions to use an on-line mass customization process. The study finds that both increasing the range of mass customization options and providing complementary on-line services enhance perceptions of product outcome, control, and enjoyment in using an on-line mass customization process. However, in contrast to the range of mass customization options, complementary on-line services can be increased without increasing the perceived complexity of the process. Finally, perceived control mediates the negative effect of perceived complexity on consumer intentions to use on-line mass customization. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18225/ 2009-03-18T00:00:00Z Background. The potential barriers and facilitators to change should guide the choice of implementation strategy. Implementation researchers believe that existing methods for the evaluation of potential barriers and facilitators are not satisfactory. Discrete choice experiments (DCE) are relatively new in the health care sector to investigate preferences, and may be of value in the field of implementation research. The objective of our study was to investigate the complementary value of DCE for the evaluation of barriers and facilitators in implementation research. Methods. Clinical subject was the implementation of the guideline for breast cancer surgery in day care. We identified 17 potential barriers and facilitators to the implementation of this guideline. We used a traditional questionnaire that was made up of statements about the potential barriers and facilitators. Respondents answered 17 statements on a five-point scale ranging from one (fully disagree) to five (fully agree). The potential barriers and facilitators were included in the DCE as decision attributes. Data were gathered among anaesthesiologists, surgical oncologists, and breast care nurses by means of a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Results. The overall response was 10%. The most striking finding was that the responses to the traditional questionnaire hardly differentiated between barriers. Forty-seven percent of the respondents thought that DCE is an inappropriate method. These respondents considered DCE too difficult and too time-consuming. Unlike the traditional questionnaire, the results of a DCE provide implementation researchers and clinicians with a relative attribute importance ranking that can be used to prioritize potential barriers and facilitators to change, and hence to better fine-tune the implementation strategies to the specific problems and challenges of a particular implementation process. Conclusion. The results of our DCE and traditional questionnaire would probably lead to different implementation strategies. Although there is no 'gold standard' for prioritising potential barriers and facilitators to the implementation of change, theoretically, DCE would be the method of choice. However, the feasibility of using DCE was less favourable. Further empirical applications should investigate whether DCE can really make a valuable contribution to the implementation science. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16184/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z We considered the reasons why customers who plan to use a web site require different benefits in different situations and investigated two ways by which the differences can occur. Apparently, relative benefit importance shifts due to changes in cognitive fit between each web site benefit and customers’ situations, and, due to changes in their anticipated affective states in these situations customers’ benefit focus also changes. Furthermore, the number of benefits that customers rated as important differed, depending on their anticipated affective state. Jointly the findings provided insight into how and why consumer benefit importance varied by situation. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14507/ 2008-12-01T00:00:00Z We review the discussion at a workshop whose goal was to achieve a better integration among behavioral, economic, and statistical approaches to choice modeling. The workshop explored how current approaches to the specification, estimation, and application of choice models might be improved to better capture the diversity of processes that are postulated to explain how consumers make choices. Some specific challenges include how to capture and parsimoniously describe heterogeneous mixes of heuristic choice rules, methods for building realistic models of choice, and nontraditional methods for estimating models. An agenda for important future work in these areas is also proposed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/15393/ 2008-12-01T00:00:00Z The provision of travel information may serve as a means of changing the behavior of individual travelers in ways that are beneficial to the transportation system at large. On the basis of the argument that a better understanding of travel behavior in the presence of traffic information is required, this paper reports on the analysis of a computer experiment investigating the effects of recommendations with different underlying control objectives on route choice under uncertainty. The results indicate that when potential congestion is anticipated, travelers use the recommendations provided as an indicator of the choices of other travelers as they conjecture the rate of compliance to reduce the uncertainty when they make decisions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14599/ 2008-10-15T00:00:00Z Based on mental model theory, we expect individuals to construct a mental representation of the system they interact with which tends to be a strong reduction of reality and is tailored to the specific situation and task at hand. Such reductions may be particularly significant in complex decision situations involved in local spatial choice behavior. In this article, we develop a method to model and measure mental representations of decision problems involving individual spatio-temporal choice behavior in different situations. The so-called CNET method consists of an interview protocol to elicit the structures at the individual level as a causal network. We test the proposed method in a case study involving 180 respondents and an experimental shopping-trip planning task. The results indicate that the method is an adequate way of eliciting mental representations. We show how the networks revealed can be used to model and simulate reasoning and decision-making processes. © 2008 Sage Publications. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13179/ 2008-08-20T00:00:00Z This study addresses the process by which differences in web site benefit salience arise in consumers’ minds for different anticipated usage situations. We investigate two routes by which situation may determine consumer benefit salience and find support for both route structures. The results indicate that individuals’ relative benefit importance ratings shift between different anticipated usage situations, both directly, and indirectly, through consumers’ anticipated affective states. Furthermore, the number of benefits that is rated as important by consumers is found to also differ depending on their anticipated affective states, providing further insight into why consumer benefit salience may vary across situations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13922/ 2008-06-01T00:00:00Z Depending on the shopping context, consumers may develop different mental representations of complex shopping trip decision problems to help them interpret the decision situation that they face and evaluate alternative courses of action. To investigate these mental representations and how they vary across contexts, the authors propose a causal network structure that allows for a formal representation of how context-specific benefits requirements affect consumers’ evaluation of decision alternative attributes. They empirically test hypotheses derived from the framework, using data on consumers’ mental representations of a complex shopping trip decision problem across four shopping contexts that differ in terms of opening hour restrictions and shopping purpose, and find support for the proposed structure and hypotheses. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11812/ 2008-03-25T00:00:00Z Depending on the shopping context, consumers may develop different mental representations of complex shopping trip decision problems to help them interpret the decision situation that they face and evaluate alternative courses of action. To investigate these mental representations and how they vary across contexts, the authors propose a causal network structure that allows for a formal representation of how context-specific benefits requirements affect consumers’ evaluation of decision alternative attributes. They empirically test hypotheses derived from the framework, using data on consumers’ mental representations of a complex shopping trip decision problem across four shopping contexts that differ in terms of opening hour restrictions and shopping purpose, and find support for the proposed structure and hypotheses. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11107/ 2006-07-12T00:00:00Z In this paper we study the structure of the bilateral communication links within Online Consumer Communication Networks (OCCNs), such as virtual communities. Compared to the offline world, consumers in online networks are highly flexible to choose their communication partners and little is known about how this affects communication exchange structures. We analyze these structures by using a general approach from the game-theoretic literature of social and economic network formation where individuals trade off the cost of forming and maintaining links against the potential rewards of doing so, which results in a stable network structure. In our analysis, a combination of aspects common to OCCNs is incorporated that has not been investigated in this literature until now. First, the negative externality of communication specificity is included in the sense that the more direct connections an individual has to maintain with other individuals, the less she is able to specify her attention per link within her total time available. Therefore, the additive value per individual of her communications declines with an increasing number of links, and she also derives less additive value per individual from others with an increasing number of links. Second, a distinction is made between the social and informational value of communication, where informational communication value is assumed to be transferable via indirect links, whereas social communication value is not transferable. Analytical results are derived by using the concept of pairwise stability. A tendency towards fragmented pairwise stable structures - consisting of small, disjoint (star) components - is discovered, which can be attributed to the joint effect of the two aspects mentioned. We demonstrate that only some of the pairwise stable structures provide optimal welfare (total payoffs), and that the relative focus on informational versus social value of communication affects this welfare. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11083/ 2005-12-01T00:00:00Z In the early 21st century, firms are thinking seriously and practically about an interactive marketing paradigm—one that integrates mass scale with individual responsiveness. The focus of this paper is on how this interactive environment is changing the customer decision-making process. With the increased amount of information available, the existence of sophisticated decision aids such as intelligent agents, and more latitude in how to interact beyond the basic desktop and laptop computers (e.g., personal digital assistants, cellular phones, tablet computers), customers have more choices than ever about how, when, and how much to interact with companies and each other. In this paper, we attempt to cover a few of the major areas of research on how customers make decisions in these environments. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11105/ 2005-09-01T00:00:00Z In this article, the authors investigate consumers' consideration of media channels during different usage situations. They develop a model that explains consumers' media channel consideration as a function of the media channel's perceived benefits. In addition, they hypothesize that the usage situation affects consumers' media channel consideration and that situation-based benefit requirements moderate the effect of the benefits on their channel consideration. The authors test the hypothesized relationships using survey data from 341 consumers regarding their consideration of 12 different media channels used by manufacturers to communicate product information across three product-related usage situations. The results of the analyses support the proposed model structure and confirm the expected relationships among perceived media channel benefits, usage situations, media channel requirements, and consumers' media channel consideration. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11081/ 2005-05-01T00:00:00Z Increasingly, firms allow consumers to mass customize their products. In this study, the authors investigate consumers' evaluations of different mass customization configurations when they are asked to mass customize a product. For example, mass customization configurations may differ in the number of modules that can be mass customized. In the context of mass customization of personal computers, the authors find that mass customization configuration affects the product utility that consumers can achieve in mass customization as well as their perception of mass customization complexity. In turn, product utility and complexity affect the utility that consumers derive from using a certain mass customization configuration. More specifically, product utility has a positive effect and complexity has a negative effect on mass customization utility. The effect of complexity is direct as well as indirect because complexity also lowers product utility. The authors also find that consumers with high levels of product expertise consider mass customization configurations less complex than do consumers with low levels of product expertise and that for more-expert consumers, complexity has a less-negative impact on product utility. The study has important managerial implications for how companies can design their mass customization configuration to increase utility and decrease complexity. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11082/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z A potentially powerful way to assist consumers in making dynamic shopping decisions is to disclose price information to them before they shop, for example by posting prices on the Internet. This paper addresses the differential impact of disclosing either only current, or both current and future prices, on consumer shopping decisions in multi-period tasks involving multiple product purchases. In the context of an Internet-based experiment, we find that consumer expenditure deviates more strongly from that of a normative model when both current and future prices are disclosed than if only current prices are disclosed. We investigate the behavioral effects underlying this finding by estimating a model that allows for variations in consumer discounting, strength of store price format preferences, as well as choice consistency between different price disclosure conditions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11108/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z A potentially powerful way to assist consumers in making dynamic shopping decisions is to disclose price information to them before they shop, for example by posting prices on the Internet. This paper addresses the differential impact of disclosing either only current, or both current and future prices, on consumer shopping decisions in multi-period tasks involving multiple product purchases. In the context of an Internet-based experiment, we find that consumer expenditure deviates more strongly from that of a normative model when both current and future prices are disclosed than if only current prices are disclosed. We investigate the behavioral effects underlying this finding by estimating a model that allows for variations in consumer discounting, strength of store price format preferences, as well as choice consistency between different price disclosure conditions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11109/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z In this article, the authors investigate consumers’ consideration of media channels during different usage situations. They develop a model that explains consumers’ media channel consideration as a function of the media channel’s perceived benefits. In addition, they hypothesize that the usage situation affects consumers’ media channel consideration and that situation-based benefit requirements moderate the effect of the benefits on their channel consideration. The authors test the hypothesized relationships using survey data from 341 consumers regarding their consideration of 12 different media channels used by manufacturers to communicate product information across three product-related usage situations. The results of the analyses support the proposed model structure and confirm the expected relationships among perceived media channel benefits, usage situations, media channel requirements, and consumers’ media channel consideration. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1804/ 2004-11-17T00:00:00Z Increasingly, firms adopt mass customization, which allows consumers to customize products by self-selecting their most preferred composition of the product for a predefined set of modules. For example, PC vendors such as Dell allow customers to customize their PC by choosing the type of processor, memory size, monitor, etc. However, how such firms configure the mass customization process determines the utility a consumer may obtain or the complexity a consumer may face in the mass customization task. Mass customization configurations may differ in four important ways – we take the example of the personal computer industry. First, a firm may offer few or many product modules that can be mass customized (e.g., only allow consumers to customize memory and processor of a PC or allow consumers to customize any module of the PC) and few or many levels among which to choose per mass customizable module (e.g., for mass customization of the processor, only two or many more processing speeds are available). Second, a firm may offer the consumer a choice only between very similar module levels (e.g., a 17” or 18” screen) or between very different module levels (e.g., a 15” or 21” screen). Third, a firm may individually price the modules within a mass customization configuration (e.g., showing the price of the different processors the consumer may choose from) along with pricing the total product, or the firm may show only the total product price (e.g., the price of the different processors is not shown, but only the computer’s total price is shown). Fourth, the firm may show a default version (e.g., for the processor, the configuration contains a pre-selected processing speed, which may be a high-end or low-end processor), which consumers may then customize, or the firm may not show a default version and let consumers start from scratch in composing the product. The authors find that the choices that firms make in configuring the mass customization process affect the product utility consumers can achieve in mass customization. The reason is that the mass customization configuration affects how closely the consumer may approach his or her ideal product by mass customizing. Mass customization configurations also affect consumers’ perception of the complexity of mass customization as they affect how many cognitive steps a consumer needs to make in the decision process. Both product utility and complexity in the end determine the utility consumers derive from using a certain mass customization configuration, which in turn will determine main outcome variables for marketers, such as total product sales, satisfaction with the product and the firm, referral behavior and loyalty. The study offers good news for those who wish to provide many mass customization options to consumers, because we find that within the rather large range of modules and module levels we manipulated in this study, consumers did not perceive significant increases in complexity, while they were indeed able to achieve higher product utility. Second, our results imply that firms when increasing the number of module levels, should typically offer consumers more additional options in the most popular range of a module and less additional options at the extremes. Third, pricing should preferably be presented only at the total product level, rather than at the module and product level. We find that this approach reduces complexity and increases product utility. Fourth, firms should offer a default version that consumers can use as a starting point for mass customization, as doing so minimizes the complexity to consumers. The best default version to start out with is a base default version because this type of default version allows the consumer to most closely approach his or her ideal product. The reason is that consumers when presented with an advanced default may buy a product that is more advanced than they actually need. We also found that expert consumers are ideal targets for mass customization offerings. Expert consumers experience lower complexity in mass customization and complexity has a less negative influence on product utility obtained in the mass customization process, all compared to novice consumers. In general, reducing complexity in the mass customization configuration is a promising strategy for firms as it not only increases the utility of the entire process for consumers, but also allows them to compose products that more closely fit their ideal product. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11110/ 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z Increasingly, firms allow consumers to mass customize their products. In this study, the authors investigate consumers’ evaluations of different mass customization configurations when asked to mass customize a product. For instance, mass customization configurations may differ in the number of modules that may be mass customized. The authors find – in the context of mass customization of personal computers – that mass customization configuration affects the product utility consumers can achieve in mass customization as well as their perception of mass customization complexity. In turn, product utility and complexity affect the utility consumers derive from using a certain mass customization configuration. More specifically, product utility has a positive, and complexity has a negative effect on mass customization configuration utility. The effect of complexity is direct as well as indirect, because complexity also lowers product utility. The authors also find that consumers with high product expertise find mass customization configurations less complex than consumers with low product expertise and that for more expert consumers complexity has a less negative impact on product utility. The study has important managerial implications for how companies can design their mass customization configuration to increase utility and decrease complexity http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11106/ 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z Technology-intensive markets consist of products that are often interdependent and operate together as a modular system. Although prior research has extensively addressed standardization and network externalities in such markets, it has not addressed the buying of modular systems. The authors identify two focal decision dimensions of the buyer, namely the decision of whether to outsource system integration and the decision of how much to concentrate the purchase of system components with one or more suppliers. The authors develop a comprehensive production- and transaction-cost framework to explain companies' positions on these two decisions. They find that especially leakage and the buyer's know-how, together with the technological volatility the buyer faces, drive the preference for outsourcing system integration and the purchase concentration of system components. An empirical test in the market for telecommunications systems supports the theory developed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11111/ 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z This paper focuses on the process by which consumers and producers interact to create better value for consumers. This happens in many situations but is arguably most prominent in mass-customization, an area that has recently gained a lot of popularity among manufacturers (Business Week, March 20, 2000). In terms of communications, such interaction entails a shift from the one-way communication (usually from seller to buyer) of traditional markets, to a two-way communication. Specifically, potential producers need to elicit preference (and other) information from consumers. They then have to provide a product that correctly incorporates such information. This brings up many strategic issues. In particular, we are interested in answering the following questions: (1) What is the 'economic value' of consumers' information? (2) Are there any strategic implications for producers, if they depend on consumer input and have to pay for consumers' information? (3) In what way does pricing for customized products differ from pricing for similar standardized products? (4) Is the strategic relationship between consumers and producers different in the market for customized goods as compared to more traditional markets? The main contribution of this paper is to bring into focus the issues surrounding mass-customization via an analysis of consumer-producer interaction, which is the facilitating process. This paper is the first attempt in marketing to analytically model this emerging area and should be of interest to academics. Practitioners should be interested in the marketing and strategic perspective on mass-customization that this paper adopts. The trade press has approached mass-customization from a manufacturing/production cost angle, while its marketing implications have largely been left open (Wind and Rangaswamy, 2000). To answer the above questions we build a game-theoretic model, which analyses the interaction between consumers and producers in an agency-theoretic framework. The main features of our model are the following. Consumers vary in their desire for customization, with some consumers having a higher need for and willingness to pay for customized goods. Producers vary in the ability to 'successfully customize' according to consumer specifications. Producers first solicit consumers' suggestions/preferences and attempt to screen consumers who are willing to pay for customized products (stage 1: 'Information market'). They then try to provide a product, which correctly incorporates consumers' input and set prices for such customized products (stage 2: 'Product market'). The main question for consumers at this stage is whether the producer has been able to successfully incorporate their input given in the first stage. We start first with the monopoly case to isolate the strategic issues in consumer-producer interaction. Later we incorporate competition between firms. In the latter case, both the information market (where firms compete for consumers' information) and the product market (where firms compete to sell the final product) come into their own and have interesting interactions. We find that, in equilibrium, firms will pay consumers for their information in the first stage. Intuitively, consumers provide costly input, but any commitment by the firm to provide surplus through a lower price of the product in the second stage, lacks commitment. Moreover, the producer's payment can act as a signal of high quality for the skillful customizer who tries to separate from a 'ghost firm', which cannot customize well. Under monopoly, the price of customized products is the same as that of non-customized products, contrary to common wisdom as reflected in the trade press (Anderson, 1997). Thus, our analyses could explain why some manufacturers find that they cannot charge a premium for customized products (Wind and Rangaswamy, 2000). We find that equilibrium prices of customized products are at the high end of the price range for similar non-customized products, consistent with casual observation.Under duopoly, when firms compete for consumers' information, the prices of customized products are in fact less than the price of non-customized products. This counter-intuitive result occurs because firms try to avoid being heldup by consumers who may withhold purchase, after first getting the firm to produce a very individually tailored product which the firm might not be able to sell to other consumers. Since, first stage competition for information gives consumers a high price for their information, it increases their incentive to holdup the firm. The firm, therefore, has to charge a lower price to induce consumers to purchase the product.Finally, we show that, in the market for customized goods (stage 2), consumers can be better off with less competition between firms. When firms compete in the product market in the second stage, they earn less equilibrium profits. Thus, they compensate consumers less for their information in the first stage, and this may yield consumers less overall utility. This finding could be of interest to manufacturers who increasingly attempt to build deep, long lasting ties with consumers. Often such ties are perceived as conflicting with the consumers' desire to retain the flexibility to compare and opt for the offerings of different producers. Our results suggest that such misalignment of interests need not exist, at least in the market for customized goods. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11112/ 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z This study investigates the impact of choice complexity on consumer utility and choice. The authors find that for choices with up to seven alternatives and seven attributes choice accuracy is affected by three context-based complexity effects but not by task-based complexity. The results suggest that brands that are able to create products that outperform competing products and that do so consistently across multiple attributes benefit from a double bonus. Not only is their product more attractive to consumers, but the accuracy with which consumers choose the product also increases, leading to a further increase in the brand's market share http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11113/ 2001-01-01T00:00:00Z This paper develops a theoretical model of optimal effort in consumer choice. The model extends previous consumer choice models in that the consumer not only chooses a product, but also decides how much effort to apply to a given choice problem. The model yields a unique optimal level of effort, which depends on the consumer's cost of effort, the expected utility gain of a correct choice, and the complexity of the choice set. We show that the relationship between effort and cost of effort is negative, whereas the relationships between effort and product utility difference and choice task complexity are undetermined. To resolve this theoretical ambiguity and to explore our model empirically, we investigate the relationships between effort and cost of effort, product utility difference and choice task complexity using data from a conjoint choice study of two-alternative consumer restaurant choices. Response time is used as a proxy for effort and consumer involvement measures capture individual differences in (relative) cost of effort and perceived complexity. Effort is explained using the (estimated) utility difference between alternatives, the number of elementary information processes (EIP's) required to solve the choice problem optimally and respondent specific cost of effort and complexity perceptions. The predictions of the theoretical model are supported by our empirical findings. Response time increases with lower cost of effort and greater perceived complexity (i.e. higher involvement). We find that across the range of choice tasks in our survey, effort increases linearly with smaller product utility differences and greater choice task complexity. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11114/ 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z In this study we develop and test an econometric model for combining choice and preference ratings data collected from the same set of individuals. Choice data are modeled using a multinomial logit framework, while preference data are modeled using an ordered response equation. Individual heterogeneity is allowed for via random coefficients providing a link between the choice and ratings data. Parameters are estimated by Simulated Maximum Likelihood. An application of the model to consumer yoghurt choice in The Netherlands found that ratings based preference estimates differ significantly from choice based estimates, but the correlation between random coefficients driving the two is very strong http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11118/ 1999-01-01T00:00:00Z The effect of waiting times on consumers' retrospective evaluations of internet web sites is investigated in four computer-based experiments. Results show that waiting can, but does not always, negatively affect evaluations of web sites. They also show that the potential negative effects of waiting can be neutralized by effectively managing waiting experiences. A conceptual framework and formal random utility model are introduced. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11115/ 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z How consumer's waiting times affect their retrospective evaluations of Internet Web Sites is investigated in four computer-based experiments. Results show that waiting can but does not always negatively affect evaluations of Web Sites. Results also show that the potential negative effects of waiting can be neutralized by managing waiting experiences effectively. A conceptual framework and formal random utility model is introduced. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11116/ 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z Recent increases in flexibility and automation in the production of goods and services allow a growing number of suppliers to offer their products in flexible sets of modules from which consumers can create their own individualized packages. This paper addresses the question how consumer choices of such modularized products can be modeled and measured by applying conjoint choice experiments. We analyze conceptually the structure of individual consumers choices of modularized products and the role of the error component in random utility models of these choices. We propose a simple experimental conjoint choice design strategy that can support estimation of this type of models. An empirical illustration in the area of travel package choice is discussed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11117/ 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z Because of the increasing time pressure they face, many consumers are becoming more concerned about the efficiency of their shopping patterns. Retailers have recognized this trend and have improved shopping convenience by offering greater variety in product categories and making it easier for consumers to combine visits to multiple stores. However, little is known about how consumers improve the efficiency of their shopping trips or how changes in retail supply affect the way in which consumers combine multiple purposes and destinations. Building on previous work in consumer shopping trip modeling and conjoint design theory, the authors introduce a choice-based conjoint approach to studying and modeling this phenomenon. The authors illustrate the approach in a case study that investigates the tendency of Dutch shoppers to combine grocery, drugstore, and clothing purchases across multiple shopping destinations. The authors observe that the tendency of consumers to combine purchases differs from category to category and depends on category availability. In general, consumers combine considerably fewer purchases than could be expected if their shopping trip planning was based purely on travel cost minimization.