Sequential sampling models of choice: Some recent advances

Choice models in marketing and economics are generally derived without specifying the underlying cognitive process of decision making. This approach has been successfully used to predict choice behavior. However, it has not much to say about such aspects of decision making as deliberation, attention, conflict, and cognitive limitations and how these influence choices. In contrast, sequential sampling models developed in cognitive psychology explain observed choices based on assumptions about cognitive processes that return the observed choice as the terminal state. We illustrate three advantages of this perspective. First, making explicit assumptions about underlying cognitive processes results in measures of deliberation, attention, conflict, and cognitive limitation. Second, the mathematical representations of underlying cognitive processes imply well documented departures from Luce’s Choice Axiom such as the similarity, compromise, and attraction effects. Third, the process perspective predicts response time and thus allows for inference based on observed choices and response times. Finally, we briefly discuss the relationship between these cognitive models and rules for statistically optimal decisions in sequential designs.     

Husband-wife influence in selecting a family professional

This research addresses two research questions: (1) Are there differences in patterns of husband-wife roles in the selection of family professionals across different professional groups? (2) Do husbands and wives differ in their perceptions of their roles in the selection of family professionals? Over 300 respondents were asked to specify the degree of relative influence that the husband and the wife had in the selection of six family professionals: physican, dentist, eye-care specialist, lawyer, insurance agent and pharmacist. The findings indicated that: (1) Quite diverse patterns of family decision making occur across the six professional groups. (2) The aggregate perceptions of wives and husbands differ considerably with respect to two professionals: eye-care specialists and dentists.     

Higher Level Skills Training: Meeting the Needs of Small Businesses

In order for businesses to remain competitive it is suggested that across industry there is a requirement for ‘higher and broader’ skills. Universities have an important role to play in satisfying the need for higher level skills training for businesses of all sizes. With respect to small firms, the training and development provided by universities has traditionally been founded upon an educational/large firm model. In order to make significant in-roads into the small firm training market it is argued that universities need to attend more closely to the specific needs of client organisations. One way in which the small firm higher level skills training market can be segmented is in terms of sector. The present study examines the higher level skills training needs of a sample of UK small firms from the perspective of sectoral variations. Differences between firms occupying different sectors were observed in terms of funding of training, responsibility for training and types of higher level skills training undertaken. Attitudes towards universities as training providers were generally favourable with little inter-sectoral variation. It is argued that these findings need to be taken into account if universities are to address the real, as opposed to perceived or presumed, needs of small businesses. A systematic-collaborative model of the customer-supplier relationship for the small firm training market is put forward.