Highlights from Two Years Ago
February 3, 2015

Space, Time, and Intertemporal Preferences

B. Kyu Kim
Gal Zauberman
James R. Bettman


Although subjective judgment of future time plays an important role in a variety of decisions, little is known about the factors that influence such judgments and their implications. Based on a time as distance metaphor and its associated conceptual mapping between space and time, this article demonstrates that spatial distance influences judgment of future time. Consumers who consider a longer spatial distance judge the same future time to be longer than those considering a shorter distance. Intertemporal preferences, for which judgment of future delays is a critical factor, also shift with consideration of spatial distance: consumers who consider a longer spatial distance also reveal a greater degree of impatience in intertemporal decisions as they perceive a longer delay to future rewards. The current findings support the importance of subjective judgment of future time in intertemporal preferences by introducing a factor that changes time perception without directly changing the value of outcomes.

 

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012
DOI:10.1086/666464
 

Access-Based Consumption: The Case of Car Sharing

Fleura Bardhi
Giana M. Eckhardt

 

Access-based consumption, defined as transactions that can be market mediated but where no transfer of ownership takes place, is becoming increasingly popular, yet it is not well theorized. This study examines the nature of access as it contrasts to ownership and sharing, specifically the consumer-object, consumer-consumer, and consumer-marketer relationships. Six dimensions are identified to distinguish among the range of access-based consumptionscapes: temporality, anonymity, market mediation, consumer involvement, the type of accessed object, and political consumerism. Access-based consumption is examined in the context of car sharing via an interpretive study of Zipcar consumers. Four outcomes of these dimensions in the context of car sharing are identified: lack of identification, varying significance of use and sign value, negative reciprocity resulting in a big-brother model of governance, and a deterrence of brand community. The implications of these findings for understanding the nature of exchange, consumption, and brand community are discussed.

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012

DOI: 10.1086/666376


The Effect of Attribute Alignability on Service Evaluation: The Moderating Role of Uncertainty
Jin Sun
Hean Tat Keh
Angela Y. Lee


Prior research suggests that consumers make trade-offs between two products by focusing more on alignable differences (the values of the options on the same attributes are different) than on nonalignable differences (the options have different attributes). The present research applies the structural alignment model to examine how uncertainty associated with the evaluation of services may lead to greater reliance on nonalignable attributes, especially for credence services. The results of three studies provide support for the uncertainty hypothesis. Specifically, study 1 showed that consumers rely more on alignable attributes when evaluating experience services, but shift their focus to nonalignable attributes when evaluating credence services that are associated with greater uncertainty. Using different operationalizations of uncertainty, studies 2 and 3 provided further support for the uncertainty hypothesis by systematically varying the ambiguity of consumer reviews and consumer confidence in their judgment.

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012
DOI: 10.1086/665983

Drawn to the Center

Shining in the Center: Central Gaze Cascade Effect on Product Choice

A. Selin Atalay
H. Onur Bodur
Dina Rasolofoarison

 

Consumer tendency to choose the option in the center of an array and the process underlying this effect is explored. Findings from two eye-tracking studies suggest that brands in the horizontal center receive more visual attention and are more likely to be chosen. Investigation of the attention process revealed an initial central fixation bias, a tendency to look first at the central option, and a central gaze cascade effect, progressively increasing attention focused on the central option right prior to decision. Only the central gaze cascade effect was related to choice. An offline study with tangible products demonstrated that the centrally located item within a product category is chosen more often, even when it is not placed in the center of the visual field. Despite widespread use, memory-based attention measures were not correlated with eye-tracking measures. They did not capture visual attention and were not related to choice.

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012
DOI: 10.1086/665984 


Products as Signals

(Winter 2014/2015)

Curator: Page Moreau

Meaningful Choice

(Autumn 2014)

Curator: Jennifer Aaker

Decisions at a Distance

(Spring 2014)

Curator: Rebecca Hamilton

      
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