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Survey Research Methods plans to publish a special issue with research papers and essays about learning through failures. This is the corresponding call for papers for this special issue.

ABSTRACTProduct bundling is receiving increasing attention in sustainable agricultural development as a means to ensure access to and enhance the uptake of, agricultural technologies by smallholders. Yet, the how and why of bundling for smallholders are not well-understood. The current paper, therefore, brings bundling theory from the marketing literature to the smallholder context. We use a conjoint experiment, a proven marketing technique for designing new products, services and bundles, to design agricultural input and service bundles for soybean-producing smallholders in rural Ethiopia. The empirical findings from 252 smallholders suggest that product bundling enhances smallholders’ preferences and hence intentions to adopt technologies but that bundles must be designed carefully following a smallholder-centric approach. Drawing on our findings and the literature, we delineate the different steps that need to be taken to develop bundles for the successful uptake of new technologies by smallholders.

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of the current regulatory environment on the investment decisions of sustainability-oriented institutional investors within the German-speaking region of Europe. Through the use of a structured questionnaire, aimed at institutional investors, this paper presents detailed insights into the preferences of investors when purchasing green bonds, bonds that contribute to reducing or preventing adverse effects stemming from climate change. After analysing our sample of 179 participants, it is demonstrated that the credibility of a green bond is a basic prerequisite for an investor to purchase such an instrument. Additionally, the attractiveness of green bonds is influenced by financial factors such as tax incentives as well as the interest rate environment. Furthermore, this paper studies the influence of environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies on green bond investment decisions, where it is revealed that the environmental pillar is the most important for investors.

Due to the emergence of online flea market apps, consumers have begun to shop in retail shops with the intention of reselling in the future. In this paper, the author examines the effect of secondary market options on the shopping behavior in the primary market. More specifically, the paper examined the attractiveness of resale conditions, such as resale price and duration until settlement, at the secondary market using conjoint analysis. The analysis results indicate that although price and product attributes are important in decision-making at the primary market, the conditions at the secondary market also have positive utility. Moreover, the sellers on the online flea market app have relatively low price sensitivity at the primary market, and marginal willingness-to-pay of the conditions in the secondary market is higher compared with other user segments. The presence of a secondary market has the potential to raise consumer’s willingness-to-pay at the primary market.

Football is ever present in Brazilians’ lives, and, more than a game, it also involves social and economic relations. Fan Membership Programs (FMPs), based on relationship marketing strategies, are ways to bring the clubs closer to their fans. This paper aims to analyze the perceived value structure of FMPs, based on sociodemographic profiles, starting with FMP attributes of the 2016 Brazilian Football Championship series A classified clubs. The data was collected online, and the population consisted of fans of the selected teams. The data was analyzed using the multivariate technique of Conjoint Analysis. It was verified that the general sample for different sociodemographic profiles, the ticket discounts, and prices of the FMP are the most valued attributes. This paper contributes to academy and practice by presenting a capable instrument to describe FMPs’ value perception. In academic terms, it contributes as a sports marketing management study. In addition, the paper could also apply as a tool for the Football clubs’ managers.

Background: Discrete choice experiment (DCE) as a tool that can measure medical stakeholders' preferences especially patients recently has been increasingly applied in health care.Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the hotspots and trends of the application of DCE in health care and to provide reference and direction for further development of DCE in the future.Method: A bibliometric method was implemented using the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection for the period from the database established to December 8, 2020. The data files are imported into CiteSpace and Excel to analyze and visualize the annual volume of productive, authors, countries, cited journals, cited articles, and keywords.Results: A total of 1,811 articles were retrieved, then we read the abstract of each paper one by one, and 1,562 articles were included after screening, with an exponential increase in publication volume. John F. P. Bridges contributed to 40 publications and ranked first, followed by F. Reed Johnson (n = 37), Julie Ratcliffe (n = 36). The majority of the papers were conducted in the United States (n = 513) and the United Kingdom (n = 433). The top three cited journals were “Health Economics” (n = 981), “Value in Health” (n = 893), and “Pharmaceutical Economics” (n = 774), and the top three articles were “Constructing experimental designs for discrete-choice experiments: report of the ISPOR Conjoint Analysis Experimental Design Good Research Practices Task Force,” “Conjoint analysis applications in health-a checklist: a report of the ISPOR Good Research Practices for Conjoint Analysis Task Force,” and “Discrete choice experiments in health economics: a review of the literature.” The research hotspots and trends included “health technology assessment,” “survival,” “preference based measure,” and “health state valuation.”Conclusion: The size of the literature about DCE studies in health care showed a noticeable increase in the past decade. The application of DCE in health care remains in an early growth phase, and “health technology assessment,” “survival,” “preference based measure,” and “health state valuation” reflected the latest research hotpots and future trends.

Abstract Background While patients’ preferences in primary care have been examined in numerous conjoint analyses, there has been little systematic effort to synthesise the findings. This review aimed to identify, to organise and to assess the strength of evidence for the attributes and factors associated with preference heterogeneity in conjoint analyses for primary care outpatient visits. Methods We searched five bibliographic databases (PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Econlit and Scopus) from inception until 15 December 2021, complemented by hand-searching. We included conjoint analyses for primary care outpatient visits. Two reviewers independently screened papers for inclusion and assessed the quality of all included studies using the checklist by ISPOR Task Force for Conjoint Analysis. We categorized the attributes of primary care based on Primary Care Monitoring System framework and factors based on Andersen’s Behavioural Model of Health Services Use. We then assessed the strength of evidence and direction of preference for the attributes of primary care, and factors affecting preference heterogeneity based on study quality and consistency in findings. Results Of 35 included studies, most (82.4%) were performed in high-income countries. Each study examined 3–8 attributes, mainly identified through literature reviews (n = 25). Only six examined visits for chronic conditions, with the rest on acute or non-specific / other conditions. Process attributes were more commonly examined than structure or outcome attributes. The three most commonly examined attributes were waiting time for appointment, out-of-pocket costs and ability to choose the providers they see. We identified 24/58 attributes with strong or moderate evidence of association with primary care uptake (e.g., various waiting times, out-of-pocket costs) and 4/43 factors with strong evidence of affecting preference heterogeneity (e.g., age, gender). Conclusions We found 35 conjoint analyses examining 58 attributes of primary care and 43 factors that potentially affect the preference of these attributes. The attributes and factors, stratified into evidence levels based on study quality and consistency, can guide the design of research or policies to improve patients’ uptake of primary care. We recommend future conjoint analyses to specify the types of visits and to define their attributes clearly, to facilitate consistent understanding among respondents and the design of interventions targeting them. Word Count: 346/350 words. Trial registration On Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/m7ts9

As a first discrete choice experiment in Iran emerging telecommunication market, this paper studies consumer preferences for prepaid mobile internet packages with a combined software and paper-based interview. A two-stage Bayesian D-optimal design procedure is deployed to design choice sets of mobile internet packages from four main attributes. The utility structure and customers’ willingness-to-pay for mobile internet packages are analyzed. Findings/originality: The results indicate that even with a considerable price reduction, consumers avoid prepaying for data plans with commitment periods longer than six months and high traffic volume. Traffic volume and brand attributes are recognized as the two most influential factors on consumers’ behavior. Simulating the market demonstrates the competition between mobile internet operators in Iran market. The statistics express a significant effect of consumers’ current mobile operator on their preferences for the brand attribute.

As a first discrete choice experiment in Iran emerging telecommunication market, this paper studies consumer preferences for prepaid mobile internet packages with a combined software and paper-based interview. A two-stage Bayesian D-optimal design procedure is deployed to design choice sets of mobile internet packages from four main attributes. The utility structure and customers

Project Managers (PMs) working in competitive markets are finding Project Management Information Systems (PMISs) useful for planning, organizing and controlling projects of varying complexity. A wide variety of PMIS software is available, suitable for projects differing in scope and user needs. This paper identifies the most useful features found in PMISs. An extensive literature review and analysis of commercial software is made to identify the main features of PMISs. Afterwards, the list is reduced by a panel of project management experts, and a statistical analysis is performed on data acquired by means of two different surveys. The relative importance of listed features is properly computed, and the interactions between the respondent’s profiles and PMIS features are also investigated by cluster and respondents’ analyses. The paper provides information for researchers and practitioners interested in PMISs packages and their applications. Furthermore, the analyses may help practitioners when choosing a PMIS, and also for developers of PMISs software in understanding user needs.

The aim of the paper is to determine preferences of Czech consumers in online shopping of long-life semi-skimmed milk and to identify the importance of milk attributes in their online buying process, with focus on brand. Specifically, the study is focusing on: 1) identification of the importance of a brand in comparison with packaging, price and quality label in online purchases, 2) finding milk with maximum utility for consumers, and 3) revealing the most preferred brand of milk when other attributes stay the same. Data were collected in September 2018 through an online survey, using full-profile conjoint analysis. A total of 185 respondents 18+ living in the Czech Republic, selected by quota sampling method concerning the role of men and women in household food purchases, completed a questionnaire. Research results reveal that brand is the most important extrinsic quality cue affecting milk choice in online purchases, with relative importance 50.3%. The importance of other surveyed attributes is balanced, with 18.6% for packaging, 17.6% for price and 13.5% for quality label. Comparison of consumer preferences for three different brands of milk with otherwise the same attributes revealed the highest preference for brand coming from the region. A familiar brand plays a key role in maintaining a competitive position in the online grocery market.

Abstract The past years brought massive changes in the transport and mobility market, accompanied by the rise of concepts such as Mobility as a Service. An enormous increase in publications on this topic documents the growing importance of multimodal mobility solutions for daily transport, but practical applications of the concept are rare. In addition to challenges in the organization of players, this is due to an unclear conception of the service offer and which particular services should be included to what extent. This paper presents the results of an empirical study in the city of Dresden, Germany, where participants could choose out of various bundles of mobility services in a conjoint analysis. The survey provides evidence for the great importance of public transport for the evaluation of mobility bundles as well as for the benefit-enhancing effect of car and bike sharing. A comparison among different user groups reveals a very homogeneous picture of mobility plans, which, however, only partly reflects actual behaviour.

Basem Al-Omari,1 Peter McMeekin,2 Angela Bate2 1College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; 2School of Health and Life Science, University of Northumbria, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UKCorrespondence: Basem Al-OmariCollege of Medicine and Health Sciences, Khalifa University, PO Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesTel +971 28109807Email basem.alomari@ku.ac.aeBackground: The use of conjoint analysis (CA) to elicit patients’ preferences for osteoarthritis (OA) treatment has the potential to contribute to tailoring treatments and enhancing patients’ compliance and adherence. This review’s main aim was to identify and summarise the evidence that used conjoint analysis techniques to quantify patient preferences for OA treatments.Methods: A comprehensive search strategy was conducted using electronic databases and hand reference checks. Databases were searched from their inception until 10th June 2019. All OA and CA related terms were used to conduct the search. The authors reviewed the papers and used the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) checklist to assess the quality of the included studies.Results: The search identified 534 records. Sixteen records were selected for full-text review and quality assessment and all were included in the narrative data synthesis. All included studies suggested that the severity of symptoms influenced the patients’ preference for OA treatment. All included studies recognised CA as a useful method to investigate patients’ preferences concerning OA treatment.Conclusion: Patients preference for OA treatment is driven by the severity of patients’ symptoms and the desire to avoid treatment side effects and CA is a useful tool to investigate patients’ preferences for OA treatment.Keywords: patient preferences, osteoarthritis, conjoint analysis

The mining industry makes up a large portion of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Australia, although securing human resources remains a problem in that field. The aim of this paper is to identify Australian university mining students’ preferences, considering it as potential employees’ preferences, for labour conditions at mining sites by means of a discrete choice experiment to promote efficient improvements in labour conditions in the mining industry. The data of 93 respondents analysed in this paper was collected by survey carried out in two universities in Australia. The result of the study showed that students have preferences on several factors such as wage, fatality rate, working position, commuting style, and company. Students having specific sociodemographic characters were found to show specific preferences on labour conditions. The results of this study indicate the potential average of appropriate monetary compensation for each factor.

The risk management of innovation project can improve the level of risk control of quasi-integration structures (QIS), so as to make more effective decisions, reduce investment losses and achieve mutual benefit as well. Therefore, an assessment of the risk impact on implementation of innovation project makes this study relevance. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of market risks on the success of innovative QIS engineering projects with the involvement of an economic-probabilistic model based on a conjoint analysis. Research methodology. The article substances the feasibility and results of the application of the method of conjoint analysis – one of the methods of mathematical psychology – to assess the impact of risks on the effectiveness of innovative projects implemented within quasi-integration structures in the engineering complex. Findings. The most likely scenarios for implementing an innovative project in terms of the impact of risk events on the financial result had been found with a help of a conjoint procedure with a fractional factorial design. The relative impact of each risk on the success of the innovation project was evaluated. The rule of deciding on the eligibility of an innovative project by the participants of machine-building QIS was formulated on the basis of the technique of the internal rate of investment return (IRR). Research limitations. The developed methodology is proposed to be used in assessing the impact of risks on innovative projects within machine-building quasi-integration structures. The proposed method of assessing the impact of risks on the financial results of innovative projects within the machine-building QIS can be used in more general situations. Practical implications. The methodology was tested on the example of an innovation project within an innovation and technology cluster, which included six participants: mechanical engineering companies, a service company, a scientific institution and an educational institution. The market and specific inter-corporate risks that influence the results of innovative projects within machine-building QISs were identified and evaluated for operationalization. According to the results of implementation of the methodology, the feasibility of implementing an innovative project within the innovation-technological cluster was substantiated. Originality/value. The scientific novelty of this study is the use of a conjoint analysis methodology to assess the impact of market risks.

The aim of this paper was to determine students’ preferences towards e-learning environment in order to select and design its components that suit the needs of student’s best. The research was implemented using conjoint analysis. Three dimensions of interest were considered: e-learning technology, teaching method and knowledge assessment and the results show that knowledge assessment is the most important e-learning attribute for both traditional and online students. Adding into consideration the teaching method as well, further analysis showed that students can be profiled in two segments: oriented on results or process, which can be used at the beginning of studies to adjust e-learning environment. Research findings emphasized student preferences as essential for designing e-learning system, while student satisfaction turned out to be a key factor determining their persistence for studying in e-learning environment. Finally, recommendations for improvement of existing e-learning system were given.

In accordance with Hottelling's Law, strategic location is a significant factor to ensure the success of a business, thus two businesses which sell the same product tend to choose a closed location. The real practice of this concept is seen in the competition of two big retailers which often open their shop nearby. However, in such competition, the location factor is merely not sufficient. It is necessary to consider other factors such as price and rebate or discount types given to their customers. This paper, particularly, aims to see the customers' preferences towards given attributes i.e. price, location, and discount types. The data is collected by means of a survey with non-probability sampling that is judgmental sampling. The respondents are people reside in Surabaya, Sidoarjo, and nearby whose age between 15-45 years and having various profession. The data is then processed with conjoint analysis by which is used as a basis to reconstruct a demand model considering the customer's preferences. The result shows that the attribute which is most considerable by respondents is the discount types, herein is a bundling product that comprises various products. This attribute has a preference level at 54.53%. The second prioritized attribute is the retailer location with a preference level at 24.28%. This means that a closer retailer is the most preferable by the respondent. Meanwhile, price is the last attribute considered by the respondent in choosing the retailer with a preference level at 21.28%. Thus, a respondent tends to pick a cheaper product after considering its discount type and the distance of retailer.

Food choice is often influenced by extrinsic factors, which drive consumer perception of a given product or service. It is therefore critical to study them during the design of food packaging. In this context, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of extrinsic factors on the expected acceptance, purchase intention and holistic perception of consumers of the popular Peruvian dessert mazamorra morada. Twelve stimuli were created by using a fractional factorial design considering packaging material, nutritional information, quality, convenience, and naturalness as factors, previously obtained by open-ended questions. Ninety-seven consumers answered an online survey indicating their expected acceptance, purchase intention and holistic perception. The results showed that the most salient factors for consumers, in terms of expected acceptance, purchase intention, and holistic perception, were packaging material and convenience. For these factors, the levels that increased expected acceptance and purchase intention were the "package made of food grade paper", conveniently adding a "spoon and napkin".

The market for second-hand and refurbished goods continues to record strong growth in most economies around the world. One obvious motivating factor in consumer choice of second-hand goods is price affordability. However, as the used market evolves, especially with the adoption of online e-commerce platforms, consumers’ inclination for used goods have also become complex. This paper investigates other appealing factors beyond price affordability (cost saving) in consumer choice of usable electronic goods. To do this, a consumer preference model was designed to reveal the key factors that drive consumer choices in the used electronic goods market. A case study using an emerging economy (Czech Republic) where used goods outlets are rampant coupled with the propensity for used electronic gadgets. The study adopted a simple random technique geared towards all the regions in the Czech Republic. The aggregate conjoint analysis method was used to model consumer preferences to determine the importance they attach to attributes most considered by consumers in the online used goods transactions. The result indicates that in respect of online purchases of used electronic appliances, a product’s ‘number of years in use’ is the next most important motivating factor after cost saving (price affordability). The study would help give a general insight into consumer preferences in the used electronic goods market.

Various studies performed so far have not provided unique answers to the acoustic quality evaluation of the sound control rooms, as no influence of specific features of the respective sound control room have been taken into account. In a process described in this paper, all the specific features that these rooms have are taken into consideration and sound is evaluated by means of reproduction through high quality professional equipment. Also, a listening area is a small, exactly given place for optimal listening for sound control engineer.The optimal sound control room must provide a complete and clear perception of reproduced sound with all specific features, and the room's spatial characteristics may not influence nor change the characteristics of the reproduced sound. Conjoint Analisys method is used to obtain estimation of the impact of the room objective acoustic quality parameters on the subjective assessment of the professional sound control room. Thereby, the use of modern statistical method (Conjoint Analysis - CA) shows dependence of one subjective parameter on more than one objective parameter. This principle determines more accurately real-life conditions, where all ratings are subject to complex dependence on more objective parameters.

This paper aims to explore the impact of “mountain pasture product” information on the acceptability of local protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese produced from the raw milk of cows grazing in mountain pastures (P) or reared in valley floor stalls (S). A total of 156 consumers (55% males, mean age 41 years) were asked to evaluate their overall liking on a 9-point hedonic scale of four samples: Cheeses P and S were presented twice with different information about the origin of the milk (cows grazing on mountain pasture or reared in a valley floor stall). Demographics, consumer habits, and opinions on mountain pasture practice (MPP), attitudes towards sustainability, and food-related behaviours (i.e., diet, food waste production, organic food, and zero food miles products purchase) were recorded and used to segment consumers. The cheeses were all considered more than acceptable, even though they were found to be significantly different in colour and texture by instrumental analyses. In the whole consumer panel, the cheese P was preferred, while in consumer segments less attentive to product characteristics, this effect was not significant. External information had a strong effect: Overall liking was significantly higher in cheeses presented as “mountain pasture product”, both in the whole panel and in consumer segments with different attitudes (except for those with a low opinion of MPP).

In this paper, we propose an approach to take into account, in a robust way, part-worth uncertainty in a share-of-choice (SOC) model. More precisely, we extend the method proposed by Wang and Curry by endogenously including competition. Indeed in their approach, competition is described exogenously and the model cannot take into account part-worth uncertainty for the competition’s products. Our extension permits us to take into account all effects of part-worth uncertainty, even those relative to the competition, and therefore improve substantially Wang and Curry’s approach.

When designing a new product, conjoint analysis is a powerful tool to estimate the perceived value of the prospects. However, it has a drawback: when the product has too many attributes and levels, it may be difficult to administrate the survey to respondents because they will be overwhelmed by the too numerous questions. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach that permits us to bypass this problem. Contrary to conjoint analysis, which estimates respondents’ utility functions, our approach directly estimates market shares. This enables us to split the questionnaire among respondents and, therefore, to reduce the burden on each respondent as much as desired. However, this new method has two weaknesses that conjoint analysis does not have: first, inferences on a single respondent cannot be made; second, the competition’s product profiles have to be known before administrating the survey. Therefore, our method has to be used when traditional methods are less easily implementable, i.e., when the number of attributes and levels is large.

Continuous quality improvement of the educational process and its modernization are some of the most important factors for ensuring the success of educational institutions. To attract new students and to provide a stable competitive position of a college in today’s market suppose already having satisfied students. This paper introduces the methodology of conjoint analysis as an appropriate tool to determine students' preferences towards university subjects taught in English (English Medium Instruction - EMI). Conjoint analysis is a research technique that also provides an opportunity to simulate the way in which customers might react to changes in current services or to new services, introduced into an existing market. We conducted a survey among the student population at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Science. Preference-based segmentation is performed on the conjoint data to isolate homogeneous groups of students that possess similar preferences towards EMI. Based on the results, the study suggests a strategy for creating more effective courses in English.

In this paper, using the method named Conjoint analysis, and with the goal of determining teacher's preferences in the process of textbook selection, and also defining the prototype of quality textbook which will could be used in the classroom. With consideration of criteria defined in the previous researches on this topic, an continuing the work on those results, we will create clear hypothetical prototype of the textbook which will satisfy the teacher's preference.

Sensory perception and food preferences change as we age. This paper encompassed two studies with the aim being to investigate meal and snacking behaviour of older adults towards food, especially meat products, and understand the desirable characteristics of those products. A qualitative multivariate analysis (QMA) focus group with Australian and Chinese older (60–81 years old) adults was conducted. A conjoint concept database was used to determine older consumers’ wants and needs for food in Australia and China. The QMA suggested that Australian consumers are not eating a proper breakfast or dinner but are ‘snacking’ throughout the day. In contrast, Chinese consumers are eating three regular meals through the day and occasionally snacks. For both groups, texture and flavour were key drivers for food choice. Difficulty in eating meat products was evident, e.g., beef jerky was found too dry and hard. Older consumers in China and Australia differed in responses to the four food categories investigated in terms of product traits and segmentation. Both the conjoint analysis and QMA showed that demographics have an impact on consumer preferences towards food. This research suggested that there is an opportunity to create ready-to-eat, nutrient dense products to enhance the wellness of older consumers.

This paper proposes an approach that combines data envelopment analysis (DEA) with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and conjoint analysis, as multi-criteria decision-making methods to evaluate teachers’ performance in higher education. This process of evaluation is complex as it involves consideration of both objective and subjective efficiency assessments. The efficiency evaluation in the presence of multiple different criteria is done by DEA and results heavily depend on their selection, values, and the weights assigned to them. Objective efficiency evaluation is data-driven, while the subjective efficiency relies on values of subjective criteria usually captured throughout the survey. The conjoint analysis helps with the selection and determining the relative importance of such criteria, based on stakeholder preferences, obtained as an evaluation of experimentally designed hypothetical profiles. An efficient experimental design can be either symmetric or asymmetric depending on the structure of criteria covered by the study. Obtained importance might be a guideline for selecting adequate input and output criteria in the DEA model when assessing teachers’ subjective efficiency. Another reason to use conjoint preferences is to set a basis for weight restrictions in DEA and consequently to increase its discrimination power. Finally, the overall teacher’s efficiency is an AHP aggregation of subjective and objective teaching and research efficiency scores. Given the growing competition in the field of education, a higher level of responsibility and commitment is expected, and it is therefore helpful to identify weaknesses so that they can be addressed. Therefore, the evaluation of teachers’ efficiency at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences illustrates the usage of the proposed approach. As results, relatively efficient and inefficient teachers were identified, the reasons and aspects of their inefficiency were discovered, and rankings were made.

This paper deals with the consumer's preferences in booking hotel services over the internet. A conjoint analysis was used in establishing whether the price is the most important factor in deciding on a hotel service and which elements of the service can be used as a competitive advantage. Although the price does play a pivotal role in the consumer's decision, within an acceptable price range he will take into account the bonuses offered by the hotel. Among the bonuses, free parking and free internet access play an important role, while free access to pornographic films and free wine with dinner are not an important factor. Room colour does not play a role in the consumer's decision making process regarding hotel services.

The machine made carpet industry is one of the main and most famous industries in Iran and especially in the city of Yazd. However there is little information about customer preferences for different attributes of this product. In this article we tried to estimate the relative importance of the main attributes affecting customer desire for purchasing machine made carpet and the utility values for the different levels of each one by means of conjoint analysis. In addition to this, we created customer segments with similar preference structures using cluster analysis. Six attributes have been considered in this paper: design, color, number of colors, density, primary material and brand. Twenty seven profiles by combining different levels of these attributes using fractional factorial design approach have been created. These profiles were evaluated by 380 customers in the city of Yazd. Results have shown that design of carpet is the most important attribute for the choice of carpet. Color, primary material, brand, density and number of colors are the next priorities for customers respectively. Also cluster analysis identified five clusters of customers with similar preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer preferences and estimate their willingness to pay (WTP) for P.D.O. (Protected Designation of Origin) certification. The original contribution of this analysis is the evidence provided on regional differences among consumers in their evaluations. We interpret this result as the higher level of information available to consumers that live in the production region of the food product in question, thus giving less value to P.D.O. certification. The product that this study focuses on is Italian P.D.O. Fontina cheese. In order to conduct the study, we collected original data that we analyze through the conjoint analysis technique.

It is becoming ever more important for the olive oil industry in Spain to adopt a business strategy based on client orientation. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to identify the preferences of olive oil consumers and propose a series of business strategies for the producing sector. The methodology consisted in a survey of 404 olive oil consumers during the months of January and February 2013, whose preferences were determined through several multivariate techniques (conjoint analysis, consumer segmentation and a simulation of market share). The preferred olive oil is low priced, extra virgin and organic. The type of bottle does not appear to be relevant in the buying decision process, although it might be a factor in increasing market share. The current economic crisis has resulted in the emergence of two consumer segments; 67.1% of consumers selected the olive oil they buy on the basis of price and 32.9% were guided by the product’s specific attributes, which include, for example, organic production, which can be another differentiating element for producing companies.

One of the primary concerns in product development is to meet customers’ wishes and this could be accomplished through detecting the most popular characteristics of products. In other words, the fulfillment of customers’ preferences in a profitable way needs that companies recognize which specifications of their product and service are most valued by the customer. Conjoint analysis is believed to be one of the most popular techniques for achieving this purpose. Conjoint analysis includes generating and conducting specific experiments among customers for modeling their purchasing decision. This paper presents an empirical investigation on detecting appropriate customer preferences in an auto-industry. The results of the survey indicate that price, braking system and having airbag are the most important characteristics for selling cars in Iranian market.

Discrete choice experiments (DCE) and conjoint analysis (CA) are increasingly used to address health policy issues. This is because the DCE and CA approaches have theoretical foundations in the characteristics theory of demand, which assumes goods, services, or healthcare provision, can be valued in terms of their characteristics (or attributes). As a result, such analysis is grounded in economic theory, lending theoretical validity to this approach.With DCEs, respondents are also assumed to act in a utility-maximising manner and make choices contingent upon the levels of attributes in DCE scenarios. Therefore, choice data can be analysed using econometric methods compatible with random utility theory (RUT) or random regret minimisation (RRM) theory. This means they have additional foundations in economic theory. In contrast, analyses described as CAs are sometimes compatible with RUT or RRM, but by definition they do not have to be. In this paper we review the CA/DCE evidence relating to nephrology. The CA/DCE approach is then compared with other approaches used to provide either quality of life information or preference information relating to nephrology. We conclude by providing an assessment of the value of undertaking CA or DCE analysis in nephrology, comparing the application of CA/DCEs in nephrology with other methodological approaches.

This study examined crucial product attributes, consumer characteristics, and corresponding willingness to pay (WTP) for locally produced rib-eye steaks. We focused on consumers at farmers' markets because the rising trend of buying local is believed to have generated higher sales for local producers in recent years. This paper is the first demand-side study to focus solely on high-value beef cut in the state of South Dakota. We conducted an experimental survey study, and the data suggested a significantly higher WTP for locally produced rib-eye steaks. The results also indicated that all product attributes selected for inclusion in this study contributed to a higher WTP for shoppers at farmers' markets, especially in terms of juiciness and color of the steaks. We also found that two consumer characteristics — household beef intakes and health knowledge — significantly contributed to higher WTP. We recommend that local producers continue improving the quality of their meat; however, producers should be aware that improving quality would possibly result in diminished profits. Our study also indicates that although consumers at farmers' markets are willing to spend a higher price premium for better steaks, the additional WTP vanishes once the product's quality reaches a certain level. To improve profitability, we suggest that local producers develop effective market strategies to target and recruit customers who are willing to pay higher premiums for locally produced food.

The marine zone tourism is growing attracting more tourists. Pramuka Island is marine conservation area enriched with marine biodiversity in coral reefs and other natural resources. To develop this potential tourist destination, a customer-based marketing program is required to attract domestic and foreign tourists. The main vision is to understand tourist preferences for marine tourism activities and facilities. A research was conducted on Pramuka Island as a well-known marine tourism zone. The objective was to determine the key tourist preferences for marine tourism destination. Research methods utilized Cochran Q test and Conjoint analysis where the primary data were obtained from tourist respondents. The result showed that there was a tourist preference based on the five attributes considered most important, namely tourism activities, tourist attractions, types of accommodation, food and souvenirs types. This study provided marine tourism destination management with useful guidance for broader implications of the implementation of marketing programs and tourism attraction. Moreover, the results of this study consolidated the learning of a variety of academic and industrial research papers in particular for the measurement of customer preferences towards marine tourism destination.

The priority structure of customer needs in House of Quality (HOQ) forms the basis for the company to make the product more attractive to customers. In the traditional Quality Function Deployment (QFD) approach, the priority structure of customer needs is developed through assigning different importance weights for customer needs, which are based on QFD team members' direct experience with the customers or on the results of surveys. In this paper Conjoint analysis is adopted to obtain the priority structure of customer needs. The priority ratings of customer needs may be different for different customer segments. k-means cluster method is used to cluster customers according to their main benefits. Prior to adopt the conjoint analysis, Factor analysis is employed to reduce the size of the customer needs portion of HOQ. A case study on domestic refrigerator is presented to illustrate the proposed methodology to establish priority structure of customer needs.al unit, which would significantly improve the business.

Statistical analysis in marketing is largely influenced by the availability of various types of data. There is sudden increase in the number and types of information available to market researchers in the last decade. In such conditions, traditional statistical methods have limited ability to solve problems related to the expression of market uncertainty. The aim of this paper is to highlight the advantages of bayesian inference, as an alternative approach to classical inference. Multivariate statistic methods offer extremely powerful tools to achieve many goals of marketing research. One of these methods is the conjoint analysis, which provides a quantitative measure of the relative importance of product or service attributes in relation to the other attribute. The application of this method involves interviewing consumers, where they express their preferences, and statistical analysis provides numerical indicators of each attribute utility. One of the main objections to the method of discrete choice in the conjoint analysis is to use this method to estimate the utility only at the aggregate level and by expressing the average utility for all respondents in the survey. Application of hierarchical Bayesian models enables capturing of individual utility ratings for each attribute level.

The paper illustrates practical aspects of conjoint analysis in studying evaluation and preference criteria when buying hardware MP3 players among the youth, as the most significant segment of such product buyers. Methodology: The methodology consisted of several surveys of young consumers in the Sarajevo region. In the first step, we used unstructured focus group interviews combined with a series of multiple-choice and open-ended questions for identifying product attributes and attribute levels that are relevant to consumers’ preferences. After the main attributes and the levels of attributes had been selected, they were combined to form different hypothetical product profiles. Obtained data were analyzed with the help of the conjoint analysis software. Findings: The results show that MP3 player manufacturers and sellers should focus their marketing strategies on the brand when targeting young people, as the most significant market segment for such products. The findings of the demand and price sensitivity analysis imply that the buyers of this product category are generally price-sensitive and therefore willing to switch brands. Limitations: While the study covered the most important attributes regarding MP3 players, it might be desirable to include design as an additional attribute as well as more brands. Also, a sample size could be increased to allow market segmentation based on the obtained part-worths.

Conjoint analysis is a research technique for measuring consumer preferences, and it is a method for simulating consumers' possible reactions to changes in current products or newly introduced products into an existing competitive market. One of the most critical steps in Conjoint analysis application is experimental designs construction. The purpose of an experimental design is to give a rough overall idea as to the shape of the experimental response surface, while only requiring a relatively small number of runs. These designs are expected to be orthogonal and balanced in an ideal case. In practice, though, it is hard to construct optimal designs and thus constructing of near optimal and efficient designs is carried out. There are several ways to quantify the relative efficiency of experimental designs. The choice of measure will determine which types of experimental designs are favored as well as the algorithms for choosing efficient designs. In this paper it is proposed the algorithm which combines one standard and one non-standard optimality criteria. The computational experiments were made, and results of comparison with algorithm implemented in commercial package SPSS confirm the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. .

Many countries are facing a challenging transition towards more sustainable energy systems, which produce more renewables and consume less energy. The latter goal can only be achieved through a combination of efficiency measures and changes in people’s lifestyles and routine behaviours (i.e. sufficiency). While research has shown that acceptance of technical efficiency is relatively high, there is a lack of research on societal preferences for sufficiency measures. However, this is an important prerequisite for designing successful interventions to change behaviour.This paper analyses societal preferences for different energy-related behaviours in Switzerland. We use an online choice-based conjoint analysis (N=150) to examine preferences for behaviours with high technical potentials for energy demand reduction in the following domains: mobility, heating and food. Each domain comprises different attributes across three levels of sufficiency. Respondents were confronted with trade-off situations evoked through different fictional lifestyles that comprised different combinations of attribute levels. Through a series of trade-off decisions, participants were asked to choose their preferred lifestyle. The results revealed that a vegetarian diet was considered the most critical issue that respondents were unwilling to trade off, followed by distance to workplace and means of transportation. The highest willingness to trade off was found for adjustments in room temperature, holiday travel behaviours, and living space. Participants’ preferences for the most energy-sufficient lifestyles were rather low. However, the study showed that there were lifestyles with substantive energy-saving potentials that were well accepted among respondents. Our study results suggest that the success of energy-sufficiency interventions might depend strongly on the targeted behaviour. We speculate that they may face strong resistance (e.g., vegetarian diet). Thus, it seems promising to promote well-balanced lifestyles, rather than extremely energy-sufficient lifestyles, as potential role models for sufficiency.

In this paper is analyzed the structure of preference of incentives to innovation of Dominican manufacturing and services firms. The analysis of preference was carried out using a Conjoint Analysis. In total 326 firms were surveyed across the country. According to the main findings, Dominican firms prefer combinations of incentives to minimize tax liabilities but also to reduce uncertainty related to innovation activities. In terms of preference, no statistically significant differences between manufacturing and service firms were found.

Fuel cell cogeneration is one of promising energy-saving technologies in pursuit of a sustainable society. However, it is unpredictable how many fuel cell cogeneration systems will be diffused since there are many future uncertainties, such as people's lifestyles and national energy policies. As an approach to tackling with this problem, this paper proposes a method for describing scenarios to analyze the diffusion of residential energy systems, such as fuel cell cogeneration systems. We develop a simulation model for estimating the diffusion of residential energy systems, in which conjoint analysis is undertaken to analyze consumers' preferences. In a case study, several scenarios are described for analyzing the diffusion of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) cogeneration systems for apartment houses, where the region of interest is Kansai Area, Japan from 2013-2030. The described scenarios differ in terms of nuclear energy policies. The results show that the number of fuel cell cogeneration systems in 2030 reaches 147-157 thousands depending on the share of nuclear power. In addition, it is revealed that monthly utility cost has a much larger impact on SOFC diffusion than CO2 emissions. Future work includes further what-if analyses of the scenarios to identify factors that would give a significant influence on SOFC diffusion.

A plena satisfação dos clientes/usuários tornou-se um paradigma da moderna Logística. No entanto, entidades portuárias não têm procurado avaliar de forma sistematizada as opiniões dos usuários em relação aos serviços a eles oferecidos. Neste trabalho é discutida a aplicação de técnicas de preferência declarada ou de análise conjunta para quantificar os pesos associados aos diferentes fatores que regem o nível de serviço no processo de exportação de produtos manufaturados. A metodologia é aplicada às indústrias catarinenses que vêm exportando em contêineres através dos portos do estado.The export of manufatured products by Brazilian industries is burdenned by heavy land transportation costs and port expenses, in association with unsatisfactory logistics service levels when compared with similar conditions abroad. Costumers' full satisfaction has become a paradigm of modern Logistics. However, Brazilian port authorities have not tried to evaluate in a systematic way the users' opinions with respect to the services offered to them. In this paper we discuss the application of stated preference or conjoint analysis techniques to quantify the weights associated with the different factors that make up the service level in the exporting process of manufactured goods. The methodology is applied to the industries of the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, which export products in containers through local ports.

The global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol launched in 2010 by the World Health Organization includes, amongst several areas of recommended actions, providing consumer information about, and labelling, alcoholic beverages to indicate alcohol-related harm. Labelling requirements worldwide for alcoholic drinks are currently quite diverse and somewhat limited compared to labelling on food products and on tobacco. In this context, the current paper contributes to the academic and political debate on the inclusion of nutritional and health information on wine labelling, providing some insights into consumer interest in, and preferences for, such information in four core wine-producing and -consuming countries: Italy, France, Spain, and the United States of America. A rating-based conjoint analysis was performed in order to ascertain consumer preferences for different formats of additional information on wine labels, and a segmentation of the sample was performed to determine the existence of homogeneous groups of consumers in relation to the degrees of usefulness attached to the nutritional and health information on wine labels. Our results highlight the interest expressed by European and United States consumers for introducing nutrition and health information on wine labels. However, the results of conjoint analysis show some significant differences among stated preferences of the information delivery modes in different countries. In addition, segmentation analysis reveal the existence of significant differences between consumer groups with respect to their interest in receiving additional information on wine labels. These differences are not only linked to the geographic origin of the consumers, or to socio-demographic variables, but are also related to wine consumption habits, attitudes towards nutritional information, and the degree of involvement with wine. This heterogeneity of consumer preferences indicates a need for a careful consideration of wine labelling regulations and merits further investigation in order to identify labelling guidelines in terms of the message content and presentation method to be used.

This paper discussed the analysis of the survey on sustainability of bioenergy conducted in the Philippines, India and China. It acquired general perceptions of the people by asking them (a) specific questions about their level of familiarity with bioenergy; (b) relationship of their work to bioenergy; and (c) their opinion on contribution of various feedstock on the economy and impact of bioenergy production on food security. In addition to these questions, we estimated preference weights of various feedstock based on the conjoint choices on bioenergy’s contribution to social stability, social welfare and ecological balance. The estimates revealed significant trade-offs not only among these three dimensions of sustainability but also the relative importance of energy security, food security and ecosystem capacity to other economic, social and environmental objectives. The types of first generation feedstock that are currently used for biofuel production in the respective countries and those that offer alternative household use are perceived as important to the economy and preferred bioenergy feedstock. Based on the results of the study, the preferred role of bioenergy for sustainable development reflects the social and economic concerns in the respective Asian countries, e.g., energy security in China, food security in India, and ecosystem degradation in the Philippines.

This study identifies the franchisee profiles that franchisors prefer. Specifically, the goals of this study are: (1) to identify the characteristics that form the franchisee profile preferred by the franchisors operating in the Spanish market and (2) to contrast diverse hypotheses related to this profile. These hypotheses are related to the ideal franchisee, sector, financial level, number of franchisee units and age of franchisors. Criteria that franchisors look for in potential franchisees are ranked by importance. The value of the paper is significant as it provides a practical framework for franchisors for the selection process of franchisees when choosing from a group of potential franchisees. The franchisee profile was obtained using conjoint analysis, which is a decomposition methodology that is rarely used in this field. Santrauka Šio straipsnio autoriai, atlikę tyrimą, nustato, ko nori franšizės naudotojai, rinkdamiesi franšizę. Autorių atlikto tyrimo tikslai susiję – nustatyti savybes, būdingas franšizei (veikiančiai Ispanijos rinkoje), ir patvirtinti arba paneigti iškeltas hipotezes, susijusias su franšize. Šios hipotezės yra tiesiogiai susijusios su franšize, tam tikrais sektoriais, kuriuose jos dominuoja, taip pat finansiniu franšizės naudotojų lygiu, franšizės skaičiumi ir franšizės turėtojų amžiumi. Potencialių franšizės turėtojų kriterijai reitinguojami pagal svarbą. Reikšminiai žodžiai: kriterijus, franšizė, atranka, pirmenybė

This paper reviews the Conjoint Analysis Method (CAM), which is a multivariate marketing research technique used to determine consumer behaviours and preferences for products or services. One aim of this study is to demonstrate that the CAM can be used in “Service Sector” as well as in “Product Sector” and the other aim is to utilize CBC Sawtooth Software Program, which is a special program for CAM. A usage of CBC Sawtooth Software Program is demonstrated in the analysis of Management Business Administration (MBA) program preferences of Başkent University students. This study includes those MBA programs that require substantial tuition and fee payments. According to the results of the study, “University Name” plays the most important role in MBA preferences. The Conjoint Analysis found that, most preferred university is the Boğaziçi University and the most preferred type of MBA program is the “Executive MBA Program”. Another important finding is that “Higher Tuition and Fees” makes the MBA less attractive.. Este trabajo examina el método de análisis conjunto (CAM), que es una técnica multivariante de investigación de mercados utilizada para determinar los comportamientos y preferencias del consumidor por productos o servicios. Un objetivo de este estudio es demostrar que el CAM puede ser aplicado en el "sector servicios" al igual que en el "sector de producción". El otro objetivo principal es utilizar programa informático CBC de Sawtooth, que es un programa especial para CAM. El CBC de Sawtooth se aplica a las preferencias de estudiantes por los programas de Administración y Dirección de Empresas de (MBA) de la universidad de Baskent. Este estudio incluye sólo los programas de MBA que requieren una cuota de matrícula cuantiosa y pago de honorarios. Los resultados del estudio muestran que la variable "nombre de la universidad" es la más importante en las preferencias que los alumnos tienen por los MBA. El Análisis Conjunto encontró que los preferidos son como universidad de Bogaziçi y como tipo de programa el "MBA Ejecutivo" (que simultanea estudio y trabajo). Otra conclusión importante es que los mayores costes hacen el MBA menos atractivo