Consideration set influences on consumer decision-making and choice: Issues,models, and suggestions

This paper affords a stylized view of individual consumer choice decision-making appropriate to the study of many marketing decisions. It summarizes issues relating to consideration set effects on consumer judgment and choice. It discusses whether consideration sets really exist and, if so, the factors that affect their composition, structure, and role in decision-making. It examines some new developments in the measurement and modeling of consideration set effects on decision-making. The paper concludes with suggestions for needed research. The authors wish to acknowledge the numerous ideas and perspectives contributed by the other members of the Banff Symposium workshop:Mukesh Bhargava (University of Alberta),Bill Black (Louisiana State University),Gary Gaeth (University of Iowa),Hotaka Katahira (University of Tokyo, Japan),Gilles Laurent (Centre HEC-ISA, France),Irwin Levin (University of Iowa),David Midgley (Australian Graduate School of Management),Thomas Novak (Southern Methodist University), andJames Wiley (University of Alberta). This paper has benefited greatly from their contributions.     

提升新疆绿色食品营销水平的途径选择

低碳经济兴起,绿色消费观念成为主流,这为新疆绿色食品企业的发展提供了有利的契机。本文在分析新疆绿色食品营销现状及问题的基础上,指出提升新疆绿色食品营销水平的途径在于加强渠道创新,创建特色优势名牌,改善营销环境,加强质量监管。     

ANALYTICAL MARXISM

Abstract This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the literature on Analytical Marxism (AM) and analyses its relevance for social theory. AM is precisely defined and distinguished from Rational Choice Marxism (RCM). The different substantive implications of the two approaches are discussed: according to RCM, the role of Marxism in the social sciences is exhausted, whereas AM has reconstructed a set of propositions that aim to provide the foundations of a distinctive approach in social theory. The methodological debate around and within AM is analysed and the shortcomings of methodological individualism and rational choice theory are stressed, raising doubts on the claim that RCM is the only scientific approach to Marx's theory. Yet, wholesale rejections on a priori methodological or exegetical grounds are questioned. A focused, immanent critique of RCM is developed, which emphasizes the lack of an adequate analysis of structural constraints and endogenous preferences in RCM models. It is argued that the analysis of endogenous preferences and structural constraints is consistent with an anti‐reductionist AM approach and it may provide the outline of a fertile, distinctive research programme in explanatory social theory that builds on the core of Marxism identified by AM.     

Feed them facts: Value perceptions and consumer use of sustainability-related product information

More than ever, consumers are demanding sustainable options on retail shelves. Retailers, however, are not finding clear evidence of the financial benefits for doing so. This study attempts to provide concrete suggestions to retailers on what kinds of sustainability-related information to provide to consumers. Our online study of approximately 3600 participants provides evidence that, when provided with full information on all sustainability-related attributes, consumers make price/benefit trade-offs resulting in the selection of higher priced, more value-differentiated products. Further, when sustainability-related information is provided for some products and not for others, consumers will “punish” the non-sustainable option. Managerial implications are discussed.     

珠海区域中心城市功能定位的研究

珠海既有条件成为珠三角区域中心城市,又有可能因环境的因素和自身的原因而再次被边缘化。课题总结分析了珠海城市功能定位的历史过程,明确了珠海城市功能定位的战略思想,提出了珠海区域中心城市功能定位。     

Counting combinatorial choice rules

I count the number of combinatorial choice rules that satisfy certain properties: Kelso–Crawford substitutability, and independence of irrelevant alternatives. The results are important for two-sided matching theory, where agents are modeled by combinatorial choice rules with these properties. The rules are a small, and asymptotically vanishing, fraction of all choice rules. But they are still exponentially more than the preference relations over individual agents—which has positive implications for the Gale–Shapley algorithm of matching theory.     

Estimating non-market environmental benefits of the Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program: A choice modeling approach

The non-market values of the environmental benefits derived from the Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program (also known as the Grain for Green Program and the Sloped Land Conversion Program) in the Loess Plateau region of North West China were estimated using choice modeling both on-site in Xi'an and Ansai and off-site in Beijing. Separate choice models were estimated for the three sites and the results compared. Significant differences were found between the implicit price estimates derived from the multinomial logit (MNL) model and the random parameter logit (RPL) model for some environmental attributes. Based on the results from the RPL models, the average willingness to pay per respondent household in Beijing was CNY882.56 (USD109.44) each year for the environmental improvements on the Loess Plateau provided by the Program, a payment level significantly higher than the comparable estimates of CNY342.56 (USD42.48) in Xi'an and CNY388.08 (USD48.12) in Ansai.     

Revealed stochastic preference: a synthesis

Summary. The problem of revealed stochastic preference is whether probability distributions of observed choices in a population for various choice situations are consistent with a hypothesis of maximization of preference preorders by members of the population. This is a population analog of the classical revealed preference problem in economic consumer theory. This paper synthesizes the solutions to this problem that have been obtained by Marcel K. Richter and the author, and by J. C. Falmagne, in the case of finite sets of alternatives, and utilizes unpublished research of Richter and the author to give results for the non-finite choice sets encountered in economic consumer theory.Received: 13 March 2003, Revised: 11 February 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D1, C6.The preparation of this paper was supported by the E. Morris Cox endowment at the University of California, Berkeley. I am indebted to Robert Anderson, Salvador Barbara, Werner Hildenbrand, Rosa L. Matzkin, and Aviv Nevo for useful suggestions and comments. I am especially indebted to Marcel K. Richter, who was the source of many of the ideas and arguments contained in this paper.     

Quantifying public preferences for agri-environmental policy in Scotland: A comparison of methods

This paper compares two methods for determining policy priorities for reform of Scottish agricultural support. Multifunctional agriculture attempts to establish a new balance between traditional commodity support and payment for the production of non-market goods and services that are increasingly demanded by the public. Supplying non-market goods presents particular problems for optimal policy design, not least the elicitation of consumer demand for those goods. From public focus groups, a range of attributes was derived as central to the Scottish public’s preferences for future agri-environmental reform. This information was then combined in two separate survey methods using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and choice experiments (CE). Both applications suggest that the public has defined preferences and a willingness to pay (using general income taxation) to affect changes beyond the status quo, and that policy payments should be targeted towards both environmental and social benefits. The divergent preference orderings derived from the alternative methods can be considered in the light of previous methodological debates on question framing, bounded rationality and respondent uncertainty. We speculate about the validity of alternative methodologies for informing particular policy questions.