102 research outputs found

    Consumer choice of modularized products : a conjoint choice experiment approach

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    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

    Who should get the scarce ICU bed? The US public's view on triage in the time of COVID-19

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    Objective: To determine the relative importance members of the US public place on different patient attributes in triage decisions about who should receive the last available intensive care unit (ICU) bed. Methods: A discrete choice experiment was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2000 respondents from the YouGov internet panel of US households. Respondents chose which of three hypothetical patients with COVID-19 should receive an ICU bed if only one were available. The three patients differed in age, gender, Alzheimer's-like disability and probability of survival if the patient received the ICU bed. An experimental design varied the values of the four attributes of the three hypothetical patients with COVID-19 that a respondent saw in four choice tasks. Results: The most important patient attribute to respondents was the probability the patient survives COVID-19 if they get the ICU bed (OR CI: 4.41 to 6.91). There was heterogeneity among different age groups of respondents about how much age of the patient mattered. Respondents under 30 years of age were more likely to choose young patients and old patients, and less likely to select patients aged 40-60 years old. For respondents in the age group 30-49 years old, as the age of the patient declined, their preference for saving the patient declined modestly in a linear fashion. Conclusions: Respondents favoured giving the last ICU bed available to the patient with the highest probability of surviving COVID-19. Public opinion suggests a simple guideline for physician choices based on likelihood of survival as opposed to the number of life-years saved. There was heterogeneity among respondents of different age groups for allocating the last ICU bed, as well as to the importance of the patient having an Alzheimer's-like disability (where religion of the respondent is important) and the gender of the patient (where the gender and racial identity are important)

    Position Bias in Best-Worst Scaling Surveys: A Case Study on Trust in Institutions

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    This paper investigates the effect of items' physical position in the best-worst scaling technique. Although the best-worst scaling technique has been widely used in many fields, the literature has largely overlooked the phenomenon of consumers' adoption of processing strategies while making their best-worst choices. We examine this issue in the context of consumers' trust in institutions to provide information about a new food technology, nanotechnology, and its use in food processing. Our results show that approximately half of the consumers used position as a schematic cue when making choices. We find the position bias was particularly strong when consumers chose their most trustworthy institution compared to their least trustworthy institution. In light of our findings, we recommend that researchers in the field be aware of the possibility of position bias when designing best-worst scaling surveys. We also encourage researchers who have already collected best-worst data to investigate whether their data shows such heuristics

    Effect of simplicity and attractiveness on route selection for different journey types

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    This study investigated the effects of six attributes, associated with simplicity or attractiveness, on route preference for three pedestrian journey types (everyday, leisure and tourist). Using stated choice preference experiments with computer generated scenes, participants were asked to choose one of a pair of routes showing either two levels of the same attribute (experiment 1) or different attributes (experiment 2). Contrary to predictions, vegetation was the most influential for both everyday and leisure journeys, and land use ranked much lower than expected in both cases. Turns ranked higher than decision points for everyday journeys as predicted, but the positions of both were lowered by initially unranked attributes. As anticipated, points of interest were most important for tourist trips, with the initially unranked attributes having less influence. This is the first time so many attributes have been compared directly, providing new information about the importance of the attributes for different journeys. © 2014 Springer International Publishing

    Observations sur la langue dans les lettres adressées a Š. Ljubić

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    Dans le présent article sont examinées certaines questions portant sur la langue et l\u27orthographe telles qu\u27on peut les constater dans les lettres faisant partie du legs de Š. Ljubić conservé dans les Archives historiques de Zadar. Leur date se situe autour de la moitié du 19e siècle. Les auteurs de ces lettres sont I. Kukuljević Sakcinski, A. Torkvato Brlić, B. Petranović et Š. Starčević. Donc, un Zagrébien, un autre provenant de Slavonie et deux Dalmates, dont l\u27un était Serbe et l\u27autre Croate. De cette manière dans ces lettres sont représentées toutes les couches et structures et les principaux courants de la Croatie avec leurs vues sur la langue littéraire

    Arbeitslosigkeit und Stellenannahmebereitschaft: Erste Ergebnisse eines Faktoriellen Survey Moduls

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    Matching individuals to jobs is a fundamental problem in any labour market. This paper focuses on job characteristics, such as wages, job quality, and distance from the current place of residence, and the impact of these characteristics on the willingness of employed and unemployed individuals to accept new job offers. Using an experimental factorial survey module (FSM) implemented in the fifth wave of a large population survey (Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security), the willingness of employed and unemployed labour market participants to accept new job offers was compared while considering job characteristics like gain of income or commuting distance. In this study, unemployed and employed individuals received the same set of hypothetical job offers. Consistent with theoretical arguments, the about 20,000 evaluations provided by about 4,000 respondents showed that unemployed participants generally exhibit a greater willingness to accept new job offers than employed ones. Moreover, unemployed individuals were likely to make more concessions than employed individuals with respect to job quality, such as accepting fixed-term job offers. Interestingly, little evidence for different decision-making or weightings of mobility costs was found, which enables us to conclude that interregional unemployment disparities can scarcely be explained by unemployed individuals lacking the willingness to work or relocate
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