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Proposes the use of integrated conjoint experiments to measure perceived service quality. It also demonstrates the process of modelling the hierarchical relations between operationally defined service attributes, strategically relevant service dimensions, and overall preference for banks or banking products. The proposed method, which is based on hierarchical information integration theory, avoids some of the limitations and problems of SERVQUAL and traditional conjoint analysis. The approach is demonstrated with an application to retail banks involving four service dimensions and 28 attributes. Conclusions are drawn about which dimensions and attribute changes will yield the strongest improvements in a bank’s utility and competitive position. The paper ends with a discussion of topics for further research.

This paper investigates how respondents to conjoint experiments process information and choose among product profiles, and how this varies with their knowledge about the product. Models for estimating conjoint attribute weights are almost exclusively based on principles of compensatory decision making. The paper aims to explore to what extent and in what way these basic principles of conjoint modelling are violated.

Data were obtained from a verbal protocol study where 18 undergraduate students each performed a total of 28 stated choice tasks while “thinking aloud”.

Results show that cognitive operations consistent with compensatory decision rules constitute a majority of the total number of operations performed across tasks and respondents. However, few respondents exhibited a consistent use of compensatory‐type processes throughout their choice sets. Results suggest that individual preferences interact with characteristics of the choice sets to instigate changes in information processing. It also appears that complete strategies are seldom used. Finally, respondents' knowledge about the product influences the cognitive operations that respondents use in solving conjoint tasks.

Results are based on responses from 18 undergraduate students, which makes generalizations hard.

One implication of this work is that one should apply a more flexible model framework to allow detecting the existence of non‐compensatory strategies.

This paper is one of few which aim to implement findings in behavvioral decision research within the context of conjoint analysis.

Dolphin excursions have become increasingly popular worldwide. Many past studies assessing the value of dolphin excursions use choice-based methods such as the conjoint analysis. However, this method is often criticized as being hypothetical. The purpose of this paper is to describe a relatively low cost but effective approach to enhance understanding of consumer preference obtained by conjoint analysis. The method relies heavily on using internet-based survey tools.

Enabled by an online tool, individuals are asked to self-explicate their preferred alternatives using the same attributes as are found in the conjoint design. The difference between the self-constructed, preferred alternatives and those offered in conjoint experiment are incorporated into choice models. Unlike previous research where only rough estimates can be provided, the proposed method allows precise capture of respondents’ preferred alternative through the automated online survey design.

Results show that although the extra effort involved in data collection is small, the gain in model fit, choice interpretation, and the value (welfare) estimation is sizeable. Evidence indicates that consumers would be willing to pay up to $50 more for adventurous excursions and guarantees that they will interact with dolphins could worth up to $70 per trip. The approach presented in this paper can also serve as a method to test for preference consistency.

This study is the first using an online survey to assess values associated with dolphin excursion. It describes the benefit of involving online tools to enhance modeling and interpretation of consumer behavior. Applications of internet-based surveys on household consumer products are abundant (such as food and electronics) but this study offers a much less discussed application in environmental service.

Given the growing number of firms that use direct mail, it is important to develop methods to improve response rates. Better selection methods are useful for this improvement; determining the important characteristics of the mailing and constructing an optimal design is another way to improve the response. In this paper we focus on the latter. A framework is presented to obtain the optimal direct mail design. We propose and compare two ways of data collection, one in an experimental setting and one in a field‐experimental setting. Both approaches are illustrated with an empirical application for a charity institution, referring to the development of an optimal design of an envelope and a letter.

This article aims at contributing to the literature using conjoint experiment methods for political economic problems. The author measures the stated willingness of young adults to start an enterprise in hypothetical realities described by different levels of six institutional factors pertaining to the business environment.

The author conducts the “forced-choice” conjoint experiment on a sample of 200 young Polish students. This analysis allows for the verification of the expectations concerning the differences in the respondents' stated preferences relating to the potential obstacles to their entrepreneurial inclinations. The author estimates the average marginal component effects (AMCEs) and the marginal means (MMs).

Evidence is provided that the institutional factors are not similarly significant to the stated entrepreneurial preferences of Polish young adults. Legal certainty and economic freedom are the attributes of the most notable effect on respondents' feelings about perceived entrepreneurial barriers; however, the results vary across the subgroups.

The study results provide a tentative perspective on the Polish young adults' feelings about institutions as a potential obstacle to their entrepreneurial inclinations. The employment of conjoint methodology lays the groundwork for scholars studying the entrepreneurial environment, legal institutions and current public mood of different social groups.

This study is a unique attempt to answer political economic questions concerning entrepreneurial institutions in Poland through the implementation of a comprehensive market research method. In addition, the author indicates a specific set of six institutional factors as well as define a distinct group of young adults.

What do principals look for when hiring teachers? The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge concerning what aspects of teacher quality are in demand among the individuals who administer schools and make hiring decisions.

Rather than employing interviews or surveys, the authors utilized a conjoint instrument that assembled teacher characteristics into fictitious applicant profiles. Participating North Carolina public school principals (n = 467) then chose among the computer-generated options and regression analysis allowed the authors to identify preferences in the aggregate.

Principals in this study preferred applicants with classroom experience, but those with 15 years were no more preferred than those with 5. They also preferred applicants with more education, but an advanced degree was no more preferred than a bachelor’s from a highly selective institution. Preference for teachers who are committed to state standards varied with schools’ performance on state tests.

Conjoint analysis is a useful tool for measuring preferences but is underutilized in research on education administration. This paper contributes not only to the body of knowledge about school principal behavior but also to the field’s familiarity of research techniques.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and disentangle the home bias in equity crowdfunding to better understand irrational decision making of investors.

A first choice-based conjoint (CBC) experiment with 217 participants was conducted in central Europe in order to single out different factors contributing to an apparent home bias of capital providers.

The authors find that investors show an avoidance of foreign currency, while payment methods seem to have no considerable influence on the decision making. Furthermore, participants significantly decided against national legislation in favor for EU legislation.

This study predominantly helps to gain deeper insights into influencing factors in crowdfunding markets with a special concern on a cross-border context. For capital-seeking companies, the home bias of potential investor has to be taken into account, when designing a crowdfunding campaign. For legislators, the apparent influence of the legal framework should serve as a wake-up call to consolidate the regulation of crowdfunding in the EU.

This is the first CBC experiment application in a cross-border crowdfunding context. It provides deeper understanding of the importance of geographical proximity between crowdfunding projects and investors and calls for further research to examine how such an effect could be diminished.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the emerging field of experimental research on entrepreneurship to better understand its development and potential.

A systematic, evidence-based literature review was applied, resulting in a sample of 47 articles having used experiments in entrepreneurship research so far. The papers are analyzed according to their topic, methods, and research design, revealing insight into their limitations and prospective contributions.

The paper discusses the potential and disadvantages of experimental methods while arguing for experiments as the method of choice for answering causality questions. This study finds a persistent increase in experimental entrepreneurship research since its introduction in 1990.

The study provides research from the field of entrepreneurship with future directions, with potential research areas and an orientation for those interested in conducting experiments.

Experiments are employed in a variety of research areas and have become more and more popular in the field of entrepreneurship. No study has analyzed the experimental studies in entrepreneurship. This paper contributes by providing an overview of the field, reflecting and discussing the outcomes while characterizing the methods employed.

This research measures the causal effects of pertinent agricultural credit policy attributes on farmers' participation probability and their willingness to pay (WTP) for agricultural credit and its associated services.

A randomized conjoint field experiment is conducted in three districts of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, capturing stated-preference data of 300 farmers. Each survey participant was provided with two hypothetical choices and one opt-out option to generate rankings based on their preferences. The levels of six attributes—namely, the credit service provider's location, the time required to obtain credit, the frequency of installments, the type of loan security, the provider of the credit services and the annual membership fee to participate in the proposed policy—are randomly assigned to produce the alternative choices.

The results reveal that farmers support the suggested agricultural credit services policy (ACSP), and the lower bound of their WTP for participation in the policy is as high as 5% of their average annual income.

This study provides evidence-based policy input for designing effective agricultural credit policies in Afghanistan, which can be extended to other countries with a similar context.

This is the first study estimating the causal effects of formal agricultural credit policy attributes on farmers' participation probability. Further, this study nonparametrically measures farmers' WTP for participation in the proposed policy.