摘要 :
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' und...
展开
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.
收起
摘要 :
The internet has not only reduced consumer search costs, but has also enabled more efficient and sophisticated search procedures. For example, online consumers can streamline their search process if appropriately defined categorie...
展开
The internet has not only reduced consumer search costs, but has also enabled more efficient and sophisticated search procedures. For example, online consumers can streamline their search process if appropriately defined categories of products and services are available. This paper proposes a search model with product categories where consumers choose which categories to search and firms respond to such more targeted search by strategically choosing the categories in which to list their products. The analysis focuses on the relationship between category architecture and the type of information which can be credibly disclosed by firms' category choices to consumers. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
收起
摘要 :
Online search intermediaries, such as Amazon or Expedia, use rankings (ordered lists) to present third-party sellers' products to consumers. These rankings decrease consumer search costs and increase the probability of a match wit...
展开
Online search intermediaries, such as Amazon or Expedia, use rankings (ordered lists) to present third-party sellers' products to consumers. These rankings decrease consumer search costs and increase the probability of a match with a seller, ultimately increasing consumer welfare. Constructing relevant rankings requires understanding their causal effect on consumer choices. However, this is challenging because rankings are endogenous: consumers pay more attention to highly ranked products, and intermediaries rank the most relevant products at the top. In this paper, I use the first data set with experimental variation in the ranking from a field experiment at Expedia to make three contributions. First, I identify the causal effect of rankings and show that they affect what consumers search, but conditional on search, do not affect purchases. Second, I quantify the effect of rankings using a sequential search model and find an average position effect of $1.92, which is lower than literature estimates obtained without experimental variation. I also use model predictions, data patterns, and a feature of the data set (opaque offers) to show rankings lower search costs, instead of affecting consumer expectations or utility. Finally, I show a utility-based ranking built on this model's estimates benefits consumers and the search intermediary.
收起
摘要 :
This research examines how the unsystematic (vs. systematic) spatial arrangement of a set of alternatives affects consumers' product choices. The key hypothesis is that an unsystematic product arrangement-in which an assortment co...
展开
This research examines how the unsystematic (vs. systematic) spatial arrangement of a set of alternatives affects consumers' product choices. The key hypothesis is that an unsystematic product arrangement-in which an assortment consisting of several alternatives is arranged in an apparently arbitrary manner-causes greater perceptual disfluency, which in turn triggers more extensive exploratory product search, ultimately promoting the choice of unfamiliar products. This sequence of effects is particularly pronounced when consumers do not have a strong prior preference for specific alternatives in the assortment. Evidence from five studies, including a large-scale field experiment, provides support for this theorizing across various display formats and product domains. The findings advance our understanding of how the spatial arrangement of a product assortment influences consumer choice, and they shed light on the psychological mechanism that governs this effect.
收起
摘要 :
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 recommendation...
展开
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.
收起
摘要 :
In many markets buyers are poorly informed about which firms sell the product (product availability) and prices, and therefore have to spend time to obtain this information. In contrast, sellers typically have a better idea about ...
展开
In many markets buyers are poorly informed about which firms sell the product (product availability) and prices, and therefore have to spend time to obtain this information. In contrast, sellers typically have a better idea about which rivals offer the product. Information asymmetry between buyers and sellers on product availability, rather than just prices, has not been scrutinized in the literature on consumer search. We propose a theoretical model that incorporates this kind of information asymmetry into a simultaneous search model. Our key finding is that greater product availability may harm buyers by mitigating their willingness to search and, thus, softening competition.(c) 2022 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).JEL classification: D43; D82; D83
收起
摘要 :
Online consumers make frequent use of the Internet to search for product and price information. In this study, an online model is proposed and empirically tested in investigating the role of tolerance for sacrifice gap in understa...
展开
Online consumers make frequent use of the Internet to search for product and price information. In this study, an online model is proposed and empirically tested in investigating the role of tolerance for sacrifice gap in understanding customers' intention to seek for a better deal. Data was collected through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses. The results show that tolerance for sacrifice gap was not only a strong predictor of intention for continuing search but also itself being related to consumer product knowledge, perceived control, and consumer product involvement. Direct relationship between another construct "perceived reduction in sacrifice gap " and "intention to seek for a better deal" was also found. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
收起
摘要 :
The search literature offers several explanations as to how a multiproduct retailer's offering of a larger variety may affect consumers' search behaviour and hence prices. Among them are (1) higher sales to be generated when lower...
展开
The search literature offers several explanations as to how a multiproduct retailer's offering of a larger variety may affect consumers' search behaviour and hence prices. Among them are (1) higher sales to be generated when lower prices discourage consumers' further search; and (2) more pricing power due to improved consumer expectations about consumer-product match valuations. The former concerns independent categories and derives a negative relationship while the latter concerns substitutes within categories and derives a positive relationship. To examine the effect of a retailer's variety offerings on the price levels using scanner data from the supermarket industry, we devise metrics of assortment width and depth, where the former measures variety in category (more independent) offerings and the latter, variety in brand (more substitutable) offerings within categories. We find that the effect of an additional offering to each dimension of assortment decreases in the other dimension, leading the effect of assortment width to be negative while the effect of the depth to be positive for the majority of the stores used in our analysis-a result that reconciles the theories that purport to draw opposite conclusions.
收起
摘要 :
This article develops a method to estimate search frictions as well as preference parameters in differentiated product markets. Search costs are nonparametrically identified, which means our method can be used to estimate search c...
展开
This article develops a method to estimate search frictions as well as preference parameters in differentiated product markets. Search costs are nonparametrically identified, which means our method can be used to estimate search costs in differentiated product markets that lack a suitable search cost shifter. We apply our model to the U.S. Medigap insurance market. We find that search costs are substantial: the estimated median cost of searching for an insurer is $30. Using the estimated parameters we find that eliminating search costs could result in price decreases of as much as $71 (or 4.7%), along with increases in average consumer welfare of up to $374.
收起
