This paper presents a unifying theory, explaining the different relationships between firm sizean... more This paper presents a unifying theory, explaining the different relationships between firm sizeand export intensity that have been found in previous studies. We propose that transactioncosts economies and different types of resources induce a moderating effect on the firm sizeand export intensity relationship. Data on international businesses in the Netherlands are usedto test the theoretical framework empirically, and support is found for different industries.5001-6182 Business5410-5417.5 MarketingLibrary of CongressClassification(LCC)HF 1371 International TradeM Business Administration and Business EconomicsM 31C 44MarketingStatistical Decision TheoryJournal of EconomicLiterature(JEL) D 23F 12F 23 Production and Organizations, Transaction CostsModels of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale EconomiesMultinational firms, International Business85 A Business General280 G255 AManaging the marketing functionDecision theory (general)European Business SchoolsLibrary Group(EBSLG)195 ...
In modern retail contexts, retailers sell products from vast product assortments to a large and h... more In modern retail contexts, retailers sell products from vast product assortments to a large and heterogeneous customer base. Understanding purchase behavior in such a context is very important. Standard models cannot be used due to the high dimensionality of the data. We propose a new model that creates an efficient dimension reduction through the idea of purchase motivations. We only require customer-level purchase history data, which is ubiquitous in modern retailing. The model handles large-scale data and even works in settings with shopping trips consisting of few purchases. As scalability of the model is essential for practical applicability, we develop a fast, custom-made inference algorithm based on variational inference. Essential features of our model are that it accounts for the product, customer and time dimensions present in purchase history data; relates the relevance of motivations to customer-and shopping-trip characteristics; captures interdependencies between motivations; and achieves superior predictive performance. Estimation results from this comprehensive model provide deep insights into purchase behavior. Such insights can be used by managers to create more intuitive, better informed, and more effective marketing actions. We illustrate the model using purchase history data from a Fortune 500 retailer involving more than 4,000 unique products.
Background Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are increasingly used for health state valuations. ... more Background Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are increasingly used for health state valuations. However, the values derived from initial DCE studies vary widely. We hypothesize that these findings indicate the presence of unknown sources of bias that must be recognized and minimized. Against this background, we studied whether values derived from a DCE are sensitive to how well the DCE design spans the severity range. Methods We constructed an experiment involving three variants of DCE tasks for health state valuation: standard DCE, DCE-death, and DCE-duration. For each type of DCE, an experimental design was generated under two different conditions, enabling a comparison of health state values derived from current best practice Bayesian efficient DCE designs with values derived from 'severity-stratified' designs that control for coverage of the severity range in health state selection. About 3000 respondents participated in the study and were randomly assigned to one of the six study arms. Results Imposing the severity-stratified restriction had a large effect on health states sampled for the DCE-duration approach. The unstratified efficient design returned a skewed distribution of selected health states, and this introduced bias. The choice probability of bad health states was underestimated, and time trade-offs to avoid bad states were overestimated, resulting in too low values. Imposing the same restriction had limited effect in the DCE-death approach and standard DCE. Conclusion Variation in DCE-derived values can be partially explained by differences in how well selected health states spanned the severity range. Imposing a 'severity stratification' on DCE-duration designs is a validity requirement.
ObjectiveThe Assessment of Burden of COPD (ABC) tool supports shared decision making between pati... more ObjectiveThe Assessment of Burden of COPD (ABC) tool supports shared decision making between patient and caregiver. It includes a coloured balloon diagram to visualise patients’ scores on burden indicators. We aim to determine the importance of each indicator from a patient perspective, in order to calculate a weighted index score and investigate whether that score is predictive of costs.DesignDiscrete choice experiment.Setting and participantsPrimary care and secondary care in the Netherlands. 282 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 252 members of the general public participated.MethodsRespondents received 14 choice questions and indicated which of two health states was more severe. Health states were described in terms of specific symptoms, limitations in physical, daily and social activities, mental problems, fatigue and exacerbations, most of which had three levels of severity. Weights for each item-level combination were derived from a Bayesian mixed ...
Background: Despite evidence of nonproportional trade-offs in time trade-off exercises and the ex... more Background: Despite evidence of nonproportional trade-offs in time trade-off exercises and the explicit incorporation of exponential discounting in health technology assessment calculations, qualityadjusted life-year (QALY) tariffs are currently still established under the assumption of linear time preferences. Objectives: The aim of this study was to introduce a general method of accommodating for nonlinear time preferences in discrete choice experiment (DCE) duration studies and to evaluate its impact on estimated QALY tariffs. Methods: A parsimonious utility function is proposed that accommodates any discounting function and preserves linear time preferences as a special case. Based on an efficient DCE design and 1775 respondents from a nationally representative scientific household panel, preferences and QALY tariffs for the Dutch SF-6D were estimated while accommodating for nonlinear time preferences via exponential and hyperbolic discounting functions. Results: When the discount rate was estimated directly, we found strong evidence of nonlinear time preferences (with an exponential and hyperbolic discount rate of 5.7% and 16.5%, respectively). When the discount rate was estimated as a function of health state severity, we found that years lived in better health states are discounted minus years lived in impaired health states. Finally, the best statistical fit was obtained when using a hyperbolic discount function, which resulted in smaller QALY decrements and fewer health states classified as worse than immediate death. Conclusions: Our results highlight the relevance and even necessity of a paradigm shift in health valuation studies in favor of time-preference corrected QALY tariffs, with potentially important implications for health technology assessment calculations and regulatory decisions.
The ABC tool is an instrument to support shared decision making between patient and caregiver. It... more The ABC tool is an instrument to support shared decision making between patient and caregiver. It includes a colored balloon diagram to visualize patients9 scores on the subjective burden of COPD questionnaire and objective severity indicators. We determined the importance of each item of the burden of disease from a patient-perspective, in order to calculate a weighted index score that can be related to costs. We conducted a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) among COPD patients in a cluster-RCT of the ABC tool. Each COPD patient received 14 choice questions, in which he was asked which of two health states was more severe. States were described in terms of the 15 items of the ABC questionnaire: dyspnoea (at rest; during physical activity), coughing, sputum production, limitations (in strenuous physical; moderate physical; daily and social activities), feeling depressed, concern about breathing getting worse, worrying, listlessness, tension, fatigue and exacerbations. Each item had 3 levels. Weights for each item-level combination were derived statistically from the likelihood of each health state to be considered worse than the other. Weights were re-scaled to generate the ABC index score, ranging from 0 (best) to 100 (worst). 282 patients completed the DCE. The highest weights were assigned to dyspnoea at rest, limitations in moderate physical activities, daily and social activities, concern about breathing getting worse, fatigue, and exacerbations. Mild, moderate and severe burden of disease were defined as ABC index scores 40, respectively. This categorisation was most predictive of mean annual healthcare costs: €1200, €2500 and €9500, respectively.
This research examines the impact of defaults on product choice in sequential-decision settings. ... more This research examines the impact of defaults on product choice in sequential-decision settings. Whereas prior research has shown that a default can affect what consumers purchase by promoting choice of the preselected option, the influence of defaults is more nuanced when consumers make a series of related choices. In such a setting, consumer preferences may evolve across choices due to “spillover” effects from one choice to subsequent choices. The authors hypothesize that defaults systematically attenuate choice spillover effects because accepting a default is a more passive process than either choosing a nondefault option in the presence of a default or making a choice in the absence of a default. Three experiments and a field study provide compelling evidence for such default-induced changes in choice spillover effects. The findings show that firms’ setting of high-price defaults with the aim of influencing consumers to choose more expensive products can backfire through the att...
Digital technology in financial services is helping consumers gain wider access to investment fun... more Digital technology in financial services is helping consumers gain wider access to investment funds, acquire these funds at lower costs, and customize their own investments. However, direct digital access also creates new challenges because consumers may make suboptimal investment decisions. We address the challenge that consumers often face complex investment decisions involving multiple funds. Normative optimal asset allocation theory prescribes that investors should simultaneously optimize risk-returns over their entire portfolio. We propose two behavioral effects (mental separation and correlation neglect) that prevent consumers from doing so and a new choice architecture of virtually integrating investment funds that can help overcome these effects. Results from three experiments, using general population samples, provide support for the predicted behavioral effects and the beneficial impact of virtual integration. We find that consumers' behavioral biases are not overcome by financial literacy, which further underlines the marketing relevance of this research.
Consumers are widely adopting Artificially Intelligent Voice Assistants (AIVAs). AIVAs now handle... more Consumers are widely adopting Artificially Intelligent Voice Assistants (AIVAs). AIVAs now handle many different everyday tasks and are also increasingly assisting consumers with purchasing decisions, making AIVAs a rich topic for marketing researchers. We develop a series of propositions regarding how consumer decision-making processes may change when moved from traditional online purchase environments to AI-powered voice-based dialogs, in the hopes of encouraging further academic thinking and research in this rapidly developing, high impact area of consumer-firm interaction. We also provide suggestions for marketing managers and policymakers on points to pay attention to when they respond to the proposed effects of AIVAs on consumer decisions.
Many consumer decisions are assisted by product recommendations. When retailers provide such reco... more Many consumer decisions are assisted by product recommendations. When retailers provide such recommendations, there is an inherent tension between (1) presenting a set of products that are close in attractiveness (fine product set granularity) and (2) presenting a wider range of products that are more different in attractiveness (coarse product set granularity). While the former can maximize the attractiveness of the recommended set of products, the latter makes it easier for consumers to determine which of the recommended products is most attractive, thus boosting consumer response. Evidence from a large-scale field study (with naturally occurring variation in the granularity of online recommendation sets) provides strong support for this tension and shows that less fine-grained product recommendation sets promote consumer response. We also find that, in line with our theorizing, coarser set granularity increases the time consumers spend processing detailed information about individual products relative to time they spend comparing products at the set level. These effects are less pronounced when consumer engagement in the decision process is low. The key insights from the field study are replicated in a tightly controlled experiment (using a different product domain). The findings of this research have important implications for how best to integrate large online assortments and product recommendations to stimulate consumer response.
The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that level overlap and color coding can mitigate... more The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that level overlap and color coding can mitigate or even preclude the occurrence of attribute nonattendance in discrete choice experiments. Methods: A randomized controlled experiment with five experimental study arms was designed to investigate the independent and combined impact of level overlap and color coding on respondents' attribute nonattendance. The systematic differences between the study arms allowed for a direct comparison of observed dropout rates and estimates of the average number of attributes attended to by respondents, which were obtained by using augmented mixed logit models that explicitly incorporated attribute non-attendance. Results: In the base-case study arm without level overlap or color coding, the observed dropout rate was 14%, and respondents attended, on average, only two out of five attributes. The independent introduction of both level overlap and color coding reduced the dropout rate to 10% and increased attribute attendance to three attributes. The combination of level overlap and color coding, however, was most effective: it reduced the dropout rate to 8% and improved attribute attendance to four out of five attributes. The latter essentially removes the need to explicitly accommodate for attribute non-attendance when analyzing the choice data. Conclusions: On the basis of the presented results, the use of level overlap and color coding are recommendable strategies to reduce the dropout rate and improve attribute attendance in discrete choice experiments.
To improve information for patients and to facilitate a vaccination coverage that is in line with... more To improve information for patients and to facilitate a vaccination coverage that is in line with the EU and World Health Organization goals, we aimed to quantify how vaccination and patient characteristics impact on influenza vaccination uptake of elderly people. An online discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted among 1261 representatives of the Dutch general population aged 60 years or older. In the DCE, we used influenza vaccination scenarios based on five vaccination characteristics: effectiveness, risk of severe side effects, risk of mild side effects, protection duration, and absorption time. A heteroscedastic multinomial logit model was used, taking scale and preference heterogeneity (based on 19 patient characteristics) into account. Vaccination and patient characteristics both contributed to explain influenza vaccination uptake. Assuming a base case respondent and a realistic vaccination scenario, the predicted uptake was 58%. One-way changes in vaccination character...
This paper has been presented at the Marketing Science 2003 conference at the University of Maryl... more This paper has been presented at the Marketing Science 2003 conference at the University of Maryland. We thank participants for their helpful comments. We thank the anonymous financial service provider for providing the data. Furthermore, we thank Mieke van Os and Serge van Lier for their valuable comments. Finally, we acknowledge helpful comments of the editor Roland T. Rust and three anonymous reviewers.
Dealers are assumed to contribute positively to brand retention. We argue that the type of brand ... more Dealers are assumed to contribute positively to brand retention. We argue that the type of brand moderates the effect of dealer performance on brand retention. Moreover, dealer retention is determined by different drivers for dealers selling different types of brands. To analyze our claims empirically, we collected data on brand retention and dealer retention among consumers who recently purchased a new car. Our findings show that dealers of prestige and economy brands do not contribute to brand retention. Only dealers selling volume brands are in a position to improve brand retention rates. A simulation reveals however that the contribution of volume dealers to brand retention is rather small in comparison to the impact of brand-related variables on brand retention. In line with the notion of brand-dealer fit we also find that the impact of dealer extrinsic quality (e.g., dealer showrooms) and dealer payment equity on dealer retention differs between prestige, volume, and economy brands. Extrinsic dealer quality affects dealer retention most for dealers selling prestige brands and dealer payment equity is the most important determinant of retention for dealers selling economy brands.
The costs of paperwork and delays needed to clear international customs are generally perceived a... more The costs of paperwork and delays needed to clear international customs are generally perceived as a time-consuming impediment to international trade. However, few studies have empirically examined the determinants and the impact of this type of government-imposed transaction costs. This paper analyses the role of firm size as a determinant of customs-related transaction costs, as well as the effect of firm size on the relationship between these costs and the international trade intensity of firms. We submit that economies of scale should be related to the size of the activities the firm is specialised in, and not directly linked to the size of a firm per se. The results of this study indicate that customs-related transaction costs repress international trade activities of firms, even at low levels of these costs. The paper identifies transactionrelated economies of scale, simplified customs procedures and advanced information and communication technology as main determinants of customs-related transaction costs. When these factors are taken into account, firm size has no effect on customs-related transaction costs. Policy implications are considered for firm strategy and public policy. 5001-6182 Business 5410-5417.5 Marketing Library of Congress Classification (LCC) HJ 6603+ Customs Administration M Business Administration and Business Economics M 31 C 44 Marketing Statistical Decision Theory Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) F12 H 32 Models of trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Firm 85 A Business General 280 G 255 A Managing the marketing function Decision theory (general) European Business Schools Library Group (EBSLG) 195 B Trade theory Gemeenschappelijke Onderwerpsontsluiting (GOO) 85.00 Bedrijfskunde, Organisatiekunde: algemeen 85.40 85.03 Marketing Methoden en technieken, operations research Classification GOO 83.42 Internationale handel Bedrijfskunde / Bedrijfseconomie
This paper presents a unifying theory, explaining the different relationships between firm sizean... more This paper presents a unifying theory, explaining the different relationships between firm sizeand export intensity that have been found in previous studies. We propose that transactioncosts economies and different types of resources induce a moderating effect on the firm sizeand export intensity relationship. Data on international businesses in the Netherlands are usedto test the theoretical framework empirically, and support is found for different industries.5001-6182 Business5410-5417.5 MarketingLibrary of CongressClassification(LCC)HF 1371 International TradeM Business Administration and Business EconomicsM 31C 44MarketingStatistical Decision TheoryJournal of EconomicLiterature(JEL) D 23F 12F 23 Production and Organizations, Transaction CostsModels of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale EconomiesMultinational firms, International Business85 A Business General280 G255 AManaging the marketing functionDecision theory (general)European Business SchoolsLibrary Group(EBSLG)195 ...
In modern retail contexts, retailers sell products from vast product assortments to a large and h... more In modern retail contexts, retailers sell products from vast product assortments to a large and heterogeneous customer base. Understanding purchase behavior in such a context is very important. Standard models cannot be used due to the high dimensionality of the data. We propose a new model that creates an efficient dimension reduction through the idea of purchase motivations. We only require customer-level purchase history data, which is ubiquitous in modern retailing. The model handles large-scale data and even works in settings with shopping trips consisting of few purchases. As scalability of the model is essential for practical applicability, we develop a fast, custom-made inference algorithm based on variational inference. Essential features of our model are that it accounts for the product, customer and time dimensions present in purchase history data; relates the relevance of motivations to customer-and shopping-trip characteristics; captures interdependencies between motivations; and achieves superior predictive performance. Estimation results from this comprehensive model provide deep insights into purchase behavior. Such insights can be used by managers to create more intuitive, better informed, and more effective marketing actions. We illustrate the model using purchase history data from a Fortune 500 retailer involving more than 4,000 unique products.
Background Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are increasingly used for health state valuations. ... more Background Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are increasingly used for health state valuations. However, the values derived from initial DCE studies vary widely. We hypothesize that these findings indicate the presence of unknown sources of bias that must be recognized and minimized. Against this background, we studied whether values derived from a DCE are sensitive to how well the DCE design spans the severity range. Methods We constructed an experiment involving three variants of DCE tasks for health state valuation: standard DCE, DCE-death, and DCE-duration. For each type of DCE, an experimental design was generated under two different conditions, enabling a comparison of health state values derived from current best practice Bayesian efficient DCE designs with values derived from 'severity-stratified' designs that control for coverage of the severity range in health state selection. About 3000 respondents participated in the study and were randomly assigned to one of the six study arms. Results Imposing the severity-stratified restriction had a large effect on health states sampled for the DCE-duration approach. The unstratified efficient design returned a skewed distribution of selected health states, and this introduced bias. The choice probability of bad health states was underestimated, and time trade-offs to avoid bad states were overestimated, resulting in too low values. Imposing the same restriction had limited effect in the DCE-death approach and standard DCE. Conclusion Variation in DCE-derived values can be partially explained by differences in how well selected health states spanned the severity range. Imposing a 'severity stratification' on DCE-duration designs is a validity requirement.
ObjectiveThe Assessment of Burden of COPD (ABC) tool supports shared decision making between pati... more ObjectiveThe Assessment of Burden of COPD (ABC) tool supports shared decision making between patient and caregiver. It includes a coloured balloon diagram to visualise patients’ scores on burden indicators. We aim to determine the importance of each indicator from a patient perspective, in order to calculate a weighted index score and investigate whether that score is predictive of costs.DesignDiscrete choice experiment.Setting and participantsPrimary care and secondary care in the Netherlands. 282 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 252 members of the general public participated.MethodsRespondents received 14 choice questions and indicated which of two health states was more severe. Health states were described in terms of specific symptoms, limitations in physical, daily and social activities, mental problems, fatigue and exacerbations, most of which had three levels of severity. Weights for each item-level combination were derived from a Bayesian mixed ...
Background: Despite evidence of nonproportional trade-offs in time trade-off exercises and the ex... more Background: Despite evidence of nonproportional trade-offs in time trade-off exercises and the explicit incorporation of exponential discounting in health technology assessment calculations, qualityadjusted life-year (QALY) tariffs are currently still established under the assumption of linear time preferences. Objectives: The aim of this study was to introduce a general method of accommodating for nonlinear time preferences in discrete choice experiment (DCE) duration studies and to evaluate its impact on estimated QALY tariffs. Methods: A parsimonious utility function is proposed that accommodates any discounting function and preserves linear time preferences as a special case. Based on an efficient DCE design and 1775 respondents from a nationally representative scientific household panel, preferences and QALY tariffs for the Dutch SF-6D were estimated while accommodating for nonlinear time preferences via exponential and hyperbolic discounting functions. Results: When the discount rate was estimated directly, we found strong evidence of nonlinear time preferences (with an exponential and hyperbolic discount rate of 5.7% and 16.5%, respectively). When the discount rate was estimated as a function of health state severity, we found that years lived in better health states are discounted minus years lived in impaired health states. Finally, the best statistical fit was obtained when using a hyperbolic discount function, which resulted in smaller QALY decrements and fewer health states classified as worse than immediate death. Conclusions: Our results highlight the relevance and even necessity of a paradigm shift in health valuation studies in favor of time-preference corrected QALY tariffs, with potentially important implications for health technology assessment calculations and regulatory decisions.
The ABC tool is an instrument to support shared decision making between patient and caregiver. It... more The ABC tool is an instrument to support shared decision making between patient and caregiver. It includes a colored balloon diagram to visualize patients9 scores on the subjective burden of COPD questionnaire and objective severity indicators. We determined the importance of each item of the burden of disease from a patient-perspective, in order to calculate a weighted index score that can be related to costs. We conducted a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) among COPD patients in a cluster-RCT of the ABC tool. Each COPD patient received 14 choice questions, in which he was asked which of two health states was more severe. States were described in terms of the 15 items of the ABC questionnaire: dyspnoea (at rest; during physical activity), coughing, sputum production, limitations (in strenuous physical; moderate physical; daily and social activities), feeling depressed, concern about breathing getting worse, worrying, listlessness, tension, fatigue and exacerbations. Each item had 3 levels. Weights for each item-level combination were derived statistically from the likelihood of each health state to be considered worse than the other. Weights were re-scaled to generate the ABC index score, ranging from 0 (best) to 100 (worst). 282 patients completed the DCE. The highest weights were assigned to dyspnoea at rest, limitations in moderate physical activities, daily and social activities, concern about breathing getting worse, fatigue, and exacerbations. Mild, moderate and severe burden of disease were defined as ABC index scores 40, respectively. This categorisation was most predictive of mean annual healthcare costs: €1200, €2500 and €9500, respectively.
This research examines the impact of defaults on product choice in sequential-decision settings. ... more This research examines the impact of defaults on product choice in sequential-decision settings. Whereas prior research has shown that a default can affect what consumers purchase by promoting choice of the preselected option, the influence of defaults is more nuanced when consumers make a series of related choices. In such a setting, consumer preferences may evolve across choices due to “spillover” effects from one choice to subsequent choices. The authors hypothesize that defaults systematically attenuate choice spillover effects because accepting a default is a more passive process than either choosing a nondefault option in the presence of a default or making a choice in the absence of a default. Three experiments and a field study provide compelling evidence for such default-induced changes in choice spillover effects. The findings show that firms’ setting of high-price defaults with the aim of influencing consumers to choose more expensive products can backfire through the att...
Digital technology in financial services is helping consumers gain wider access to investment fun... more Digital technology in financial services is helping consumers gain wider access to investment funds, acquire these funds at lower costs, and customize their own investments. However, direct digital access also creates new challenges because consumers may make suboptimal investment decisions. We address the challenge that consumers often face complex investment decisions involving multiple funds. Normative optimal asset allocation theory prescribes that investors should simultaneously optimize risk-returns over their entire portfolio. We propose two behavioral effects (mental separation and correlation neglect) that prevent consumers from doing so and a new choice architecture of virtually integrating investment funds that can help overcome these effects. Results from three experiments, using general population samples, provide support for the predicted behavioral effects and the beneficial impact of virtual integration. We find that consumers' behavioral biases are not overcome by financial literacy, which further underlines the marketing relevance of this research.
Consumers are widely adopting Artificially Intelligent Voice Assistants (AIVAs). AIVAs now handle... more Consumers are widely adopting Artificially Intelligent Voice Assistants (AIVAs). AIVAs now handle many different everyday tasks and are also increasingly assisting consumers with purchasing decisions, making AIVAs a rich topic for marketing researchers. We develop a series of propositions regarding how consumer decision-making processes may change when moved from traditional online purchase environments to AI-powered voice-based dialogs, in the hopes of encouraging further academic thinking and research in this rapidly developing, high impact area of consumer-firm interaction. We also provide suggestions for marketing managers and policymakers on points to pay attention to when they respond to the proposed effects of AIVAs on consumer decisions.
Many consumer decisions are assisted by product recommendations. When retailers provide such reco... more Many consumer decisions are assisted by product recommendations. When retailers provide such recommendations, there is an inherent tension between (1) presenting a set of products that are close in attractiveness (fine product set granularity) and (2) presenting a wider range of products that are more different in attractiveness (coarse product set granularity). While the former can maximize the attractiveness of the recommended set of products, the latter makes it easier for consumers to determine which of the recommended products is most attractive, thus boosting consumer response. Evidence from a large-scale field study (with naturally occurring variation in the granularity of online recommendation sets) provides strong support for this tension and shows that less fine-grained product recommendation sets promote consumer response. We also find that, in line with our theorizing, coarser set granularity increases the time consumers spend processing detailed information about individual products relative to time they spend comparing products at the set level. These effects are less pronounced when consumer engagement in the decision process is low. The key insights from the field study are replicated in a tightly controlled experiment (using a different product domain). The findings of this research have important implications for how best to integrate large online assortments and product recommendations to stimulate consumer response.
The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that level overlap and color coding can mitigate... more The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that level overlap and color coding can mitigate or even preclude the occurrence of attribute nonattendance in discrete choice experiments. Methods: A randomized controlled experiment with five experimental study arms was designed to investigate the independent and combined impact of level overlap and color coding on respondents' attribute nonattendance. The systematic differences between the study arms allowed for a direct comparison of observed dropout rates and estimates of the average number of attributes attended to by respondents, which were obtained by using augmented mixed logit models that explicitly incorporated attribute non-attendance. Results: In the base-case study arm without level overlap or color coding, the observed dropout rate was 14%, and respondents attended, on average, only two out of five attributes. The independent introduction of both level overlap and color coding reduced the dropout rate to 10% and increased attribute attendance to three attributes. The combination of level overlap and color coding, however, was most effective: it reduced the dropout rate to 8% and improved attribute attendance to four out of five attributes. The latter essentially removes the need to explicitly accommodate for attribute non-attendance when analyzing the choice data. Conclusions: On the basis of the presented results, the use of level overlap and color coding are recommendable strategies to reduce the dropout rate and improve attribute attendance in discrete choice experiments.
To improve information for patients and to facilitate a vaccination coverage that is in line with... more To improve information for patients and to facilitate a vaccination coverage that is in line with the EU and World Health Organization goals, we aimed to quantify how vaccination and patient characteristics impact on influenza vaccination uptake of elderly people. An online discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted among 1261 representatives of the Dutch general population aged 60 years or older. In the DCE, we used influenza vaccination scenarios based on five vaccination characteristics: effectiveness, risk of severe side effects, risk of mild side effects, protection duration, and absorption time. A heteroscedastic multinomial logit model was used, taking scale and preference heterogeneity (based on 19 patient characteristics) into account. Vaccination and patient characteristics both contributed to explain influenza vaccination uptake. Assuming a base case respondent and a realistic vaccination scenario, the predicted uptake was 58%. One-way changes in vaccination character...
This paper has been presented at the Marketing Science 2003 conference at the University of Maryl... more This paper has been presented at the Marketing Science 2003 conference at the University of Maryland. We thank participants for their helpful comments. We thank the anonymous financial service provider for providing the data. Furthermore, we thank Mieke van Os and Serge van Lier for their valuable comments. Finally, we acknowledge helpful comments of the editor Roland T. Rust and three anonymous reviewers.
Dealers are assumed to contribute positively to brand retention. We argue that the type of brand ... more Dealers are assumed to contribute positively to brand retention. We argue that the type of brand moderates the effect of dealer performance on brand retention. Moreover, dealer retention is determined by different drivers for dealers selling different types of brands. To analyze our claims empirically, we collected data on brand retention and dealer retention among consumers who recently purchased a new car. Our findings show that dealers of prestige and economy brands do not contribute to brand retention. Only dealers selling volume brands are in a position to improve brand retention rates. A simulation reveals however that the contribution of volume dealers to brand retention is rather small in comparison to the impact of brand-related variables on brand retention. In line with the notion of brand-dealer fit we also find that the impact of dealer extrinsic quality (e.g., dealer showrooms) and dealer payment equity on dealer retention differs between prestige, volume, and economy brands. Extrinsic dealer quality affects dealer retention most for dealers selling prestige brands and dealer payment equity is the most important determinant of retention for dealers selling economy brands.
The costs of paperwork and delays needed to clear international customs are generally perceived a... more The costs of paperwork and delays needed to clear international customs are generally perceived as a time-consuming impediment to international trade. However, few studies have empirically examined the determinants and the impact of this type of government-imposed transaction costs. This paper analyses the role of firm size as a determinant of customs-related transaction costs, as well as the effect of firm size on the relationship between these costs and the international trade intensity of firms. We submit that economies of scale should be related to the size of the activities the firm is specialised in, and not directly linked to the size of a firm per se. The results of this study indicate that customs-related transaction costs repress international trade activities of firms, even at low levels of these costs. The paper identifies transactionrelated economies of scale, simplified customs procedures and advanced information and communication technology as main determinants of customs-related transaction costs. When these factors are taken into account, firm size has no effect on customs-related transaction costs. Policy implications are considered for firm strategy and public policy. 5001-6182 Business 5410-5417.5 Marketing Library of Congress Classification (LCC) HJ 6603+ Customs Administration M Business Administration and Business Economics M 31 C 44 Marketing Statistical Decision Theory Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) F12 H 32 Models of trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Firm 85 A Business General 280 G 255 A Managing the marketing function Decision theory (general) European Business Schools Library Group (EBSLG) 195 B Trade theory Gemeenschappelijke Onderwerpsontsluiting (GOO) 85.00 Bedrijfskunde, Organisatiekunde: algemeen 85.40 85.03 Marketing Methoden en technieken, operations research Classification GOO 83.42 Internationale handel Bedrijfskunde / Bedrijfseconomie
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