On the ‘Students as Surrogates’ Research Conundrum: Insights from Statistical Reasoning in Revenue Management

Research indicates that the adequacy of using students as surrogates in social science research might be situation specific; however, no consensus exists as to what the characteristics of these situations are. First to explore the question in the revenue management domain of statistical reasoning, we find no significant differences among experienced revenue managers, college students and the general public, or between students playing the roles of consumers and students playing the roles of revenue managers. It follows that in this specific revenue management domain, the use of students as surrogates for either customers or managers might be appropriate