Heuristics and biases in decisions to stay with or renege from sequential waits / Narayan Janakiraman.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Microformat

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Janakiraman, Narayan.

Contributor:

Meyer, Robert J., advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Marketing.

Marketing--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Managerial science and applied economics.

Managerial science and applied economics--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Marketing.

Marketing--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Managerial science and applied economics.

Managerial science and applied economics--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

viii, 195 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

2003.

Summary:

Consumer wait situations such as being put on hold during a telephone call require the consumer to make continuous decisions on whether to stay on line and receive service or terminate the current wait and reinitiate a new wait. The key question that is addressed in my dissertation is how do consumers decide how long to wait and when to renege? I expect that going into a wait situation consumers are likely to hold optimistic priors about wait completions. Further, as the wait progresses, rational instincts to stay during the wait are increasingly likely to be affected by various psychological factors such as emotional cost of the wait, uncertainty about the wait, perceptions about likely length of future wait and the extent to which prior wait expectations are violated. The net effect is that I expect consumers to abandon waits when they perceive the utility of the current wait net of the psychological factors as less than that associated with starting a new wait. I study renege decisions in contexts where it is never optimal to renege and in contexts where it is optimal to renege within a small window of time and show that consumer decisions to renege are far from optimal and are likely driven by psychological factors. Further, I show how moderators such as activity within a wait, often used as time management strategies by marketers, are likely to affect decisions to stay or renege.

Notes:

Adviser: Robert J. Meyer.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Marketing) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2003.

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

University Microfilms order no.: 3109188.

OCLC:

244973299