Fact or Artifact Does the compromise effect occur when subjects face real consequences of their choices?

This study investigates context effects in general and the compromise effect in particular. It is argued that earlier research in this area lacks realism which is a major drawback to research conclusions and stated management implications. The importance of this issue is stressed by previous research showing that behavioral anomalies found in hypothetical experimental settings tend to be significantly reduced when real payoff mechanisms are introduced. Therefore, to validate the compromise effect, an enhanced experimental design is presented with participants making choices in the laboratory that are binding. We find that the compromise effect holds for real purchase decisions, and therefore is validated and not an artificial effect in surveys on hypothetical buying decisions. While conclusions and implications for marketing managers derived in previous work assume that context effects hold for real market decisions, the results created by this enhanced design close this gap in marketing literature.choice in context, compromise effect, irrelevant alternatives, hypothetical bias, experimental design

How Product Assortments Affect Buyer Preferences: Empirical Analysis of the Robustness of the Compromise Effect

Behavioral research revealed that product assortments can influence buyer preferences and affect purchase decisions between options of a product line. In this article, the compromise effect is investigated according to which the share of a product is expected to increase when it is in an intermediate position in an assortment subset. Since most of the previous studies on the compromise effect used artificial designs that lack realism, a limited external validity of experimental findings is to be supposed. This is a drawback, especially when decisions about compositions of real product lines should be supported. Therefore, an enhanced experimental design is presented with subjects making unforced and binding choices between real brands, which is similar to regular purchase decisions. Although results of our studies prove robustness, the magnitude of the compromise effect is significantly reduced in such real marketplace scenarios hence notably influencing predictions of sales and profitability of product lines.Consumer Behavior; Compromise Effect; Consumer Preferences; Assortment Planning; Experimental Design; Choice in Context

When Judgments and Preferences Fail to Conform: Research on Preference Reversals for Product Purchases

In this paper, the preference reversal phenomenon known from risk research is investigated according to which subjects prefer gamble A over B in competitive decisions although they reveal higher valuations in terms of a cash equivalent (CE) or a willingness to pay (WTP) for the latter when gambles are assessed separately in monadic judgments. In contrast to the experimental settings of research on risky choices, our studies observed unforced and binding purchase decisions of experienced consumers between real products in natural shopping environments. Results confirm robustness of preference reversals in risk-free purchase decisions indicating that orderings of product preferences reverse significantly between evaluations in monadic and competitive designs. While recent pricing research has been largely focused on monadic designs and suggested BDM mechanisms or second-price auctions for elicitations of consumers’ true willingness to pay, results of our studies indicate a substantial discrepancy between preference orders based on monadic judgments and preferences that consumers reveal in competitive purchase decisions.Preference Reversals, Willingness to Pay, Monadic Designs, Competitive Designs, Pricing Research, Procedure Invariance

Experimental evidence of context-dependent preferences in risk-free settings

This study investigates context effects in general and the compromise effect in particular. It is argued that earlier research in this area lacks realism, a shortcoming that is a major drawback to research conclusions and stated management implications. The importance of this issue is stressed by previous research showing that behavioral anomalies found in hypothetical experimental settings tend to be significantly reduced when real payoff mechanisms are introduced. Therefore, to validate the compromise effect, an enhanced design is presented with participants making binding purchase decisions in the laboratory. We find that the compromise effect holds for real purchase decisions, and therefore is validated, and is not an artificial effect in surveys on hypothetical buying decisions. While conclusions and implications for marketing managers, derived in previous work assume that context effects hold for real market decisions, the results created by this enhanced design close this gap in the literature. --decision-making,anomalies,irrelevant alternatives,context effects

La «guerra» lexicológicamente

La palabra latina bellum ha sido reemplazada en ocho de las nueve lenguas románicas por palabras del tipo léxico de guerra, sólo se encuentran algunas diferencias en la pronunciación entre el bloque oriental y el occidental. Las explicaciones sobre su etimología han sido diversas, la tesis más difundida, defendida por Corominas, sostiene que la palabra es un germanismo adoptado en latín vulgar antes del siglo V, atribuyéndola por tanto a la capa de los germanismos más antigua. Sin embargo, la aparición de nuevos estudios y la evidencia de los datos fonéticos llevan al autor a refutar esta hipótesis para llegar a la conclusión de que la forma española guerra no proviene ni del latín vulgar ni del dominio del español, sino que debió surgir después del año 600 y llegar al español desde el francés antiguo. Se adelanta la datación de la primera aparición de guerra en un texto español hacia 1140 y un texto español en latín en 1017.The Latin word bellum has been replaced in eight of the nine romance languages by words of the Spanish lexical type guerra («war» in English) and we can only find some differences in pronunciation among them when comparing the Eastern and the Western sides. The explanations about its etymology have been various, but the most widely accepted hypothesis, defended by Corominas, holds that this word is Germanic and was borrowed by Vulgar Latin before the 5th century. Therefore, he ascribes it to the oldest stage of Germanic loanwords. Nevertheless, the development of new studies and the evidence of the phonetic reality have taken the author to refute this hypothesis and arrive at the conclusion that the Spanish form guerra does not go back to either Vulgar Latin or to the Spanish domain, but it should have emerged after the year 600 and got to Spanish via Old French. The first appearance of guerra in a Spanish text can then be dated back to c. 1140, and in a Spanish text written in Latin to 1017

When Judgments and Preferences Fail to Conform: Research on Preference Reversals for Product Purchases

In this paper, the preference reversal phenomenon known from risk research is investigated according to which subjects prefer gamble A over B in competitive decisions although they reveal higher valuations in terms of a cash equivalent (CE) or a willingness to pay (WTP) for the latter when gambles are assessed separately in monadic judgments. In contrast to the experimental settings of research on risky choices, our studies observed unforced and binding purchase decisions of experienced consumers between real products in natural shopping environments. Results confirm robustness of preference reversals in risk-free purchase decisions indicating that orderings of product preferences reverse significantly between evaluations in monadic and competitive designs. While recent pricing research has been largely focused on monadic designs and suggested BDM mechanisms or second-price auctions for elicitations of consumers\u27 true willingness to pay, results of our studies indicate a substantial discrepancy between preference orders based on monadic judgments and preferences that consumers reveal in competitive purchase decisions

How Product Assortments Affect Buyer Preferences: Empirical Analysis of the Robustness of the Compromise Effect

Behavioral research revealed that product assortments can influence buyer preferences and affect purchase decisions between options of a product line. In this article, the compromise effect is investigated according to which the share of a product is expected to increase when it is in an intermediate position in an assortment subset. Since most of the previous studies on the compromise effect used artificial designs that lack realism, a limited external validity of experimental findings is to be supposed. This is a drawback, especially when decisions about compositions of real product lines should be supported. Therefore, an enhanced experimental design is presented with subjects making unforced and binding choices between real brands, which is similar to regular purchase decisions. Although results of our studies prove robustness, the magnitude of the compromise effect is significantly reduced in such real marketplace scenarios hence notably influencing predictions of sales and profitability of product lines

Fact or Artifact: Does the compromise effect occur when subjects face real consequences of their choices?

This study investigates context effects in general and the compromise effect in particular. It is argued that earlier research in this area lacks realism which is a major drawback to research conclusions and stated management implications. The importance of this issue is stressed by previous research showing that behavioral anomalies found in hypothetical experimental settings tend to be significantly reduced when real payoff mechanisms are introduced. Therefore, to validate the compromise effect, an enhanced experimental design is presented with participants making choices in the laboratory that are binding. We find that the compromise effect holds for real purchase decisions, and therefore is validated and not an artificial effect in surveys on hypothetical buying decisions. While conclusions and implications for marketing managers derived in previous work assume that context effects hold for real market decisions, the results created by this enhanced design close this gap in marketing literature

B-Meson Distribution Amplitudes of Geometric Twist vs. Dynamical Twist

Two- and three-particle distribution amplitudes of heavy pseudoscalar mesons of well-defined geometric twist are introduced. They are obtained from appropriately parametrized vacuum-to-meson matrix elements by applying those twist projectors which determine the enclosed light-cone operators of definite geometric twist and, in addition, observing the heavy quark constraint. Comparing these distribution amplitudes with the conventional ones of dynamical twist we derive relations between them, partially being of Wandzura-Wilczek type; also sum rules of Burkhardt-Cottingham type are derived.The derivation is performed for the (double) Mellin moments and then re-summed to the non-local distribution amplitudes. Furthermore, a parametrization of vacuum-to-meson matrix elements for non-local operators off the light-cone in terms of distribution amplitudes accompanying independent kinematical structures is derived.Comment: 18 pages, Latex 2e, no figure