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Integrating ideas and theories from the numerosity effect and utilitarian/hedonic consumption, this research explores how hedonic and utilitarian attributes specified with contracted and expanded specifications affect consumer preferences. Results from two experiments indicate an expanded utilitarian attribute enhances consumer preference for choosing the utilitarian option. However, an expanded hedonic attribute does not influence preference for choosing the hedonic option. The relative perceived guilt of the hedonic option and the perceived attractiveness of the utilitarian option mediate the effect. Acquisition format (purchase vs windfall) moderates this effect by influencing consumers’ perceived guilt from choosing the hedonic option. JEL Classification: C91, D12, M31

PurposeInaction inertia is the phenomenon in which people are less likely to accept an opportunity after having previously missed a relatively superior one. This research explores how framing quantity promotions as either a freebie (e.g. “buy 1, get 1 free”) or a price bundle (e.g. “buy 2, get 50% off”) influences inaction inertia. Relevant mediators are also identified.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments, two using imaginary scenarios and one using an incentive-compatible design, test the hypotheses.FindingsConsumers who miss a freebie quantity promotion express higher inaction inertia than consumers who miss a price bundle promotion. The cause of this difference is higher perceived regret and greater devaluation that result from missing a superior freebie (vs price bundle) promotion.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should examine how factors influencing perceived regret and devaluation moderate the quantity promotional frame effect on inaction inertia.Practical implicationsThe findings provide insights into which quantity promotional frames practitioners should use to reduce inaction inertia.Originality/valueThis study's comprehensive theoretical framework predicts quantity promotional frame effects on inaction inertia and identifies relevant internal mechanisms. The findings are evidence that inaction inertia is caused by both perceived regret and devaluation in certain contexts. Furthermore, this study identifies the conditions in which a price bundle promotional frame is more beneficial than a freebie promotional frame.

PurposeTaking a mental accounting theory perspective, this study explores how pricing strategy (all-inclusive vs partitioned) influences consumers' perceived residual value of a product and their subsequent intentions to upgrade to a newer model.Design/methodology/approachA pilot study and two formal experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsA partitioned (vs all-inclusive) price causes consumers to later recall a lower total cost and perceive lower residual value for the existing product, thereby increasing upgrade intentions. This finding holds for both utilitarian and hedonic products. Perceived residual value mediates the impact of the pricing strategy on upgrade intentions. The pricing strategy effect is stronger for state-oriented individuals than for action-oriented individuals.Originality/valueThis study extends understanding of the impact of pricing strategies from consumers' short-term immediate demand to long-term upgrade intentions. It also identifies a previously uninvestigated moderator (action-state orientation), clarifying the boundary conditions of pricing strategy effects. The study's conceptual framework links pricing strategy, sunk costs, perceived residual value and upgrade intentions, providing rich insights and potential research paths. These findings further enhance understanding of upgrade intentions.

PurposeBased on mental accounting theory, this study explored whether the comparability of missed and subsequent promotional formats/frames affects inaction inertia.Design/methodology/approachFour experiments with imaginary and incentive-compatible designs were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsConsumers are more likely to express inaction inertia after having missed a comparable promotion than after having missed a noncomparable promotion. Devaluation of the promoted target mediates the impact of comparability on inaction inertia, while referent others' actions do not moderate the comparability effect. Finally, when consumers accept a subsequent inferior promotion, they prefer using a different payment format because it reduces comparability of the two promotions.Practical implicationsCompanies should use different promotional formats/frames to reduce comparability and inaction inertia when a new promotion is relatively inferior to a recent previous one. Companies should offer different payment options to help customers actively avoid comparing a current promotion with a missed promotion.Originality/valueThis study provides a more comprehensive conceptual structure for understanding the relationship between psychological comparability and inaction inertia. It provides insights into what actions companies should take to reduce inaction inertia. Furthermore, this study empirically tests the influence of multiple comparison referents, which provides a reference point for future studies on the factors affecting inaction inertia. A new method to examine whether consumers actively avoid comparisons is used, which clarifies the internal mechanism of inaction inertia.

The inaction inertia effect describes situations in which a person rejects an opportunity after having forgone a relatively superior opportunity. This study explores whether product format (hedonic vs. utilitarian) affects the inaction inertia effect. The authors build on previous findings that show comparisons of utilitarian benefits are easier than hedonic benefits, and hedonic consumption (vs. utilitarian consumption) usually generates greater pleasure. The authors propose that people show higher inaction inertia after they have missed a superior utilitarian consumption opportunity than after they have missed a superior hedonic consumption opportunity. This prediction was tested and supported in three different experiments. Moreover, the authors found that differences in comparability between products, rather than the hedonic pleasure, explain differences in inaction inertia effects. These findings contribute to the inaction inertia literature and marketing practice.

Inaction inertia is the phenomenon in which people are less likely to accept an opportunity after having previously missed a relatively superior one. Based on mental accounting theory and the comparability of the current and missed opportunities, this study explores how promotional formats influence consumers’ inaction inertia. The authors propose that when the missed and current promotions are monetary (vs. nonmonetary), consumers perceive that these opportunities are more comparable, which results in consumers expressing higher inaction inertia. Two imaginary scenario experiments and one incentive-compatible experiment were conducted to test this prediction, and the results provide empirical support for it. Additionally, devaluation was determined to be the internal mechanism connecting promotional format with inaction inertia. These findings have significant practical and theoretical implications, the details of which are discussed herein.

This study proposed three approaches to predict the travel time in urban corridors. Data used in this study include traffic data collected by vehicle detectors (VD), real-time bus operation data from onboard unit (GPS and OBD II) (eBus) and Cellular-based Vehicle Probe (CVP) data from telecom companies. Data were collected from October 1, 2018 to March 4, 2019 and divided into two groups for experiments: training data for building models and validation data to evaluate the performance of models. Three methodologies used in prediction are Gradient Boosting Regression Tree (GBRT), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) and Linear Regression (LR). The experiment results indicate all three methods perform well in the prediction of travel time for urban corridors. The quality of data also has impact on the prediction performance: among them, CVP data deliver the best prediction results.

CEO succession is a key theoretical and empirical issue in the fields of organizations and strategic management. Previous studies investigating the influences and effects of CEO succession mostly focus on post-succession contexts. This study focuses on the pre-succession context and offers a comprehensive theoretical framework based on agency theory and stewardship theory. Specifically, this study empirically tests the influence of several pre-succession factors on the founding CEO's decision to either sell the family firm or hire a professional manager as a successor. The results show that executive compensation schemes and industry dynamism separately influence the degree of stewardship through perceived pay premium and industrial growth potential. The findings help explain CEO succession decision-making in family firms, and provide empirical evidence for the incentive mechanisms between executive compensation schemes, industry dynamism, and professional managers' stewardship behaviors. This study broadens agency theory, stewardship theory, and upper echelons theory's explanation of CEO succession decision-making in family firms.

Ambiguity averse suggests consumers to prefer risky options over ambiguous ones. In this study, the authors propose that consumer–brand relationship types influence consumers’ ambiguity aversion. Specifically, compared with consumers in exchange relationships with the focal brand, consumers in communal relationships are more likely to trust the focal brand and thereby be less averse to ambiguity. These proposals were tested in two experiments. In experiment 1, participants in communal relationships showed less ambiguity aversion than those in exchange relationships. In experiment 2, participants in communal relationships had higher perceived trust with the focal brand than the participants in exchange relationships, and they showed less dislike for tensile promotions. Experiment 2 also tested for and confirmed the mediating effect of perceived trust. This study concludes with a discussion of the theoretical contributions and practical implications of the results.

This article explores how temporal frames (short vs. long) of mental budgets influence consumers’ perceived possibility of overspending and their purchase intentions for a target product. Four experiments showed that, compared to a longer temporal frame, consumers in a short temporal frame perceive a greater possibility of overspending and thus have reduced purchase intentions. The perceived possibility of overspending mediates the impact of temporal frames on purchase intentions. However, the impact of temporal frames on purchase intentions is pronounced only if consumers’ budgeted amounts are small, alternative temporal frames are not salient, and consumers have low self-control.

Anti-dumping petitions are strong signaling devices for price competition to both domestic firms and foreign competitors. Previous research mainly examines the strategic considerations of domestic firms seeking anti-dumping protection. This study takes the perspective of the foreign competitor and investigates the conditions that influence the foreign competitor's decision of whether to conduct or abstain from an anti-dumping rebuttal. The results of a path analysis show that the potential value created from an anti-dumping rebuttal and the target product's stage within the product life cycle, through perceived benefits and competitive rivalry, respectively, jointly influence the foreign competitor's reputation for toughness, which determines whether or not the foreign competitor pursues an anti-dumping rebuttal. Fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) offers additional evidence for the predicted relationships. These findings broaden the theoretical understanding of the regulative, normative, and cognitive elements of institutions in the context of anti-dumping rebuttals.

Offensive patent litigation is an increasingly important part of the firm's corporate strategy to protect the values of its intellectual property rights. Building on the value creation and transaction costs perspectives, this study explores how the preemptive power is most important to a firm's offensive patent litigation strategy through two key mechanisms. By applying an experimental design method to develop scenarios for top executives of publicly-traded companies and small- and medium-sized enterprises, the results show that both the patents' value creation based on their transaction costs and market positions influence the propensity of preemptive power separately through perceived benefits and organizational slack, and accordingly affect the offensive patent litigation strategy. These findings not only broaden the resource-based, transaction cost and value creation explanations of offensive patent litigation decisions, but also facilitate the formulation of the codes of conduct for the managerial capability in the contexts of offensive patent litigation.

Much research has demonstrated that speeding is the most common offense among car drivers. However, few studies have focused on this offense among drivers of large trucks. This paper investigates the factors that lead to speeding offenses for drivers of large trucks in Taiwan. The study sample consisted of information for 2101 male large-truck drivers from a national survey in 2012. The results revealed that drivers’ daily working hours ranged from 2 to 15 h with a mean of 9.67 h, and that they worked for approximately 25.23 days – and rested only 4.77 days – per month. Among these observed drivers, 11.6% reported having at least one speeding offense over a one-year period. The results of a logistic regression model presented that the factors that influenced speeding offense were not related to job experience. Rather, the driver’s demographics (age and education), mental condition (sleep quality), and driving status (yearly distance driven and driving late at night) were significantly linked to speeding offenses.

Research on consumer decision making has mainly focused on individual products; however, many products are purchased with other items as part of a promotional package. This paper explores how the characteristics (hedonic versus utilitarian) of the items in freebie promotional packages (e.g., buy one item and get a different item for free) influence consumers' preference for the promotional package. Additionally, the authors examine how the characteristics of the focal item influence consumers' choice of either a hedonic or a utilitarian freebie item. Five experiments, rooted in the concepts of consumer avoidance of overloading negative emotions and motivation to seek hedonic pleasure, show that a package with one utilitarian and one hedonic item generates higher purchase intentions and willingness to pay than a package with either two hedonic or two utilitarian items. Furthermore, consumers who purchase a hedonic (utilitarian) focal item are more likely to choose a utilitarian (hedonic) freebie. These effects exist not only in hypothetical scenarios but also in an incentive-compatible design. Moreover, the impact of the focal item characteristics on consumer choice of freebie is moderated by acquisition format and time separation. The authors also explore the internal mechanism influencing consumers' freebie choices. The findings have significant implications for both theory and practice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This investigation explores the effect of sales framing on the attractiveness of mixed promotions. The authors propose that the “focused-discount” promotion format (e.g., 50% off the purchase of a second item) is more attractive to consumers than the “all-discount” promotion format (e.g., 25% off the purchase of two items) due to the effect that different frames have on the mental accounting processes of consumers. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants confronted by focused-discount (vs. all-discount) promotion assigned a relatively higher discount value to the final product and perceived greater savings. In Experiment 3, priming participants to focus on the first item reduced this framing effect of mixed promotions. The results show that participants perceived greater savings in a focused-discount framing (vs. all-discount) due to the differences in how discounts were assigned for each item. Finally, this paper suggests that companies may frame promotions to increase their relative attractiveness to consumers.

Ever since Hamel and Prahalad propose the importance of the strategic intent perspective, understanding the relationship between entrepreneurial ambitions and an international expansion strategy becomes a key issue in the fields of international business and strategic management. However, most previous studies focus on the strategic behaviors of the CEOs of large public firms. This study incorporates upper echelons theory and entrepreneurship research to build up a rational normative framework of strategic intent perspective, market leader/follower positions, and founder CEOs/family-successor CEOs for the international expansion strategy of small- and medium-sized enterprises and family firms. By applying an experimental design method, the results show that the rational analyses of the strategic intent perspective and market positions affect a firm's international expansion strategy. However, different generations of CEOs might have different perspectives on international expansion in a specific industry. These findings broaden entrepreneurship and the upper echelons theory's explanations of international expansion decision-making.

Females choosing taxi driving as a career is rare, therefore, investigating such samples is often difficult. Speeding is one of the most common driving violations, however, there has been no research looking into female taxi drivers’ speeding issue. This study explores the factors of female taxi drivers’ speeding offenses in Taiwan. Data is based on a national survey and includes 235 professional female taxi drivers. The results indicate that female taxi drivers work approximately 27.37 days per month, at a mean of 9.76 h per day. Of the female taxi drivers represented in this study, 22.8% reported at least one speeding offense over a one-year period. The results of a logistic regression model reveal that the determinant factors associated with female taxi drivers’ speeding offenses are significantly related to age, educational level and mileage driven. However, job experience, business operating style, and vehicle engine size are not associated with committing speeding offenses. Practical implications for traffic safety of female taxi drivers are also discussed.

Patent litigation is a common form of legal, economic and strategic behaviors that arise in a variety of business domains. Using information-based and rivalry-based theories, this study explores how asymmetric information, competitive rivalry in a strategic group and market positions influence companies' reactions to patent litigation. By applying an experimental design method to develop scenarios for top executives of small and medium-sized enterprises, the results show that a theoretical framework of asymmetric information, competitive rivalry in a strategic group and market positions affect a firm's reactive patent litigation strategy. These findings not only broaden information- and rivalry-based theories' explanations of reactive patent litigation decisions, but also enable us to formulate the codes of conduct for the managerial capability in regard to legal astuteness in patent litigation.

This article explores how framing a promotional package (i.e., presenting the promotion as a bundle versus as a free gift) influences consumers' price assignments to the individual items in the package. It examines the potential influences of framing on consumers' perceptions of price increases and repurchase intentions after the promotion expires. The findings show that when a package contains two different products, consumers in the free gift (bundle) condition assign a higher price to the focal (supplementary) product, perceive a smaller price increase, and exhibit higher repurchase intentions toward the focal (supplementary) product after the promotion ends. If the promotional package contains two identical products, the free gift promotion generates higher perceived price increases and lower repurchase intentions than a price bundle, through similar price assignment mechanisms. An incentive-compatible experimental design finds that a free gift promotion lowers consumers' willingness to pay for the target product compared with a price bundle promotion. The findings of this research have significant implications for both framing research and marketing practice.

This article explores how sales package frames (bundle vs. free gift) influence consumers’ cost assignments of target items (focal vs. supplementary) in durable product categories. The frames may influence consumers’ upgrade intentions and decisions as a result of their different perceptions of psychological costs. In two experiments, participants in the free gift frame assigned more (fewer) costs to the focal (supplementary) product than did those in the bundle condition; those in the free gift condition also perceived higher (lesser) residual value and were less (more) likely upgrade to focal (supplementary) items than people in the bundle condition. Moreover, the framing effect of sales packages on upgrade intentions was moderated by the promotional format (price discount vs. trade-in) at the time of the upgrade decision. The effect of the sales package frames on upgrade intentions became more pronounced when the temporal separation was short and usage frequency was low. These findings have significant implications for both theoretical developments and marketing practice.

Although prior research has shown that some people prefer a risky to an ambiguous option, this study further proposes that people's regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) might influence their ambiguity aversion. Three experiments have tested whether people with promotion focus showed less ambiguity aversion than those with prevention focus: The first experiment revealed that, compared with chronically promotion-focused individuals, prevention-focused subjects preferred a risky to an ambiguous option. In the second experiment, priming of the subjects' goal orientations led to similar results. Experiment 3 demonstrated that participants showed less ambiguity aversion for the expected performance of an investment product representative of promotion (e.g., a stock fund) rather than one representative of prevention (e.g., a bond fund). In other words, people showed less preference for a bond fund when the probability distribution of its expected performance was unknown than when it was known, whereas they showed less preference difference between known and unknown probability distributions for the expected performance of a stock fund. This study has integrated research pertaining to regulatory focus and ambiguity aversion, and the results have confirmed that the impact of regulatory focus on ambiguity aversion is robust across different methods and decision tasks. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper proposes that task format (choosing or rejecting) moderates the effect of ambiguity aversion. Specifically, an ambiguous option is more attractive in a choosing task than in a rejecting task compared with a risky option. The author performed three experiments to test the propositions. In the first experiment, participants showed less ambiguity aversion when they had to choose a preferred option (risky or ambiguous) compared with when they had to reject an option they preferred less. In the second experiment with a monetary incentive, participants had to form a cash-equivalent estimate for both a risky gamble and an ambiguous gamble in a traditional Ellsberg scenario. The ambiguous option emerged as more attractive than the risky option in the choosing task compared with the rejecting task. The third experiment showed that the participants' decision rationale mediated the effect of the task format on choice. These three experiments support the proposition that task formats moderate the effect of ambiguity aversion. On the basis of the findings, the author provides suggestions for practice and further research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In two experiments, decision makers chose between risky and ambiguous gambles under conditions of both single (unrepeated) and multiply repeated choices. The gambles were presented either as modified Ellsberg urn choices or as marketing strategy decisions. In both experiments, decision makers chose the ambiguous options more frequently in the repeated-choice than the single-choice conditions. More decision makers made risky single choices and ambiguous repeated choices than ambiguous single choices and risky repeated choices. Decision makers expressed more self-rated confidence in their repeated than their single ambiguous choices. These findings are interpreted in the light of findings on repeated decision making under risk and theories of loss aversion and ambiguity aversion.

When consumers make a decision under preference uncertainty, they often select the compromise choice. Since the compromise effect of the middle option stems from the relational properties of the choice alternatives, an information format compatible with their characteristics makes the middle option more salient and attractive. Focusing on three studies, this article demonstrates that the middle option is (1) more attractive when presented in the middle position; (2) more attractive when information is presented jointly rather than separately; and (3) most attractive when presented in an information display board format, less attractive in a list by attribute condition, and least attractive in a list by alternative condition. These findings imply that information processing strategies and information format-option characteristics compatibility work in tandem. These three studies thereby show that the information format-option characteristics compatibility effect is robust and that such compatibility effect is not due to different information processing strategies, which makes these results meaningful for marketing practice. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This study probed into tourism satisfaction for the Taipei International Flora Expo using Hybrid MCDM, and the findings can serve as references for decision-makers in festival planning. This study summarized 4 dimensions and 21 factors that affect festivals and mega events, identified their structural relationship using DEMATEL (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory), and obtained the key factors and improvement points., DANP (the DEMATEL-based analytic network process)was employed for calculating influential weights to obtain the influential weights among critical factors. The subject was the 2011 Taipei International Flora Expo, and data collection was based on a questionnaire survey of 26 experts. The results showed that the first dimension of festivals and mega events is “entertainment” and the second is “transport”. Thus, by improving these two dimensions, the tourists' satisfaction and revisit intention will be enhanced. In addition, according to weighting, the influential weight of information (0.2784) is the highest; this is because clear indication of information, such as the event flow, location, and routes, can improve public satisfaction.