Malleable Conjoint Partworths: How the Breadth of Response Scales Alters Price Sensitivity

1. A
Presenta*on
from
The
NewMR
“Advances
in
Quan*ta*ve
Research”
Event
19
September,
2012
Event
sponsored
by
Affinnova
All
copyright
owned
by
The
Future
Place
and
the
presenters
of
the
material
For
more
informa=on
about
Affinnova
visit
www.affinnova.com
For
more
informa=on
about
NewMR
events
visit
newmr.org
Malleable
Conjoint
Partworths:
How
the
Breadth
of
Response
Scales
Alters
Price
Sensi=vity
Jane
Tang,
Vision
Cri/cal

2. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Conditioning via Broad
versus Narrow Categories:
How the Breadth of Response Scales
Alters Price Sensitivity
Jane Tang
Advanced Analytics
Vision Critical

3. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Respondents are often asked other questions
before the conjoint exercise begin (e.g. screening
criteria, demographic questions, current product
usage, etc...)
The response categories used in the questions
before a conjoint task provide conditioning and
affect choices made in the conjoint section,
altering respondents’ price sensitivity.

4. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Broad Narrow
Under
18
years
old Under
18
years
old
18
to
34 18
to
24
35
to
54 25
to
29
55
or
older 30
to
34
35
to
39
40
to
44
45
to
49
50
to
54
55
to
59
60
to
64
65
to
69
70
to
74
75
to
79
80
or
older

5. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
• AMITAV CHAKRAVARTI – London School of Economics
• VICKI G. MORWITZ – New York University
• GÜLDEN ÜLKÜMEN - University of Southern California
• AMITAV CHAKRAVARTI – London School of Economics
• VICKI G. MORWITZ – New York University
• GÜLDEN ÜLKÜMEN - University of Southern California
“Categories Create Mindsets: The Effect of
Exposure to Broad versus Narrow Categorizations
on Subsequent, Unrelated Decisions,”
Journal of Marketing Research, 2010

6. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
• Scale type used in decision context #1
Basic Premise
Decision context #2
– Subsequent and unrelated
– Judgments and decisions
Broad
Scale
Narrow
Scale

7. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Decision Context #1: Manipulation
Broad Scales Narrow Scales

8. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
8
Study 1: Effects on Object Sorting

9. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
9
Number of Categories

10. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Study 2: Category Inclusion Task
• Continuum of Chinese-Western European faces
10
Check
the
appropriate
buTon
a) This
is
a
Chinese
face
b) I
am
not
sure
Results
– Those
who
responded
on
Broad
scales
accepted
a
greater
number
of
faces
to
be
Chinese
before
expressing
their
uncertainty
than
did
those
who
responded
on
Narrow
scales
(MBROAD
=
3.33,
MNARROW
=
2.53)

11. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Overview of Findings
11
Grouping
Task
(Study
1)
Few,
large
groups
Many,
small
groups
Categoriza*on
Task
(Study
2)
Lenient
inclusion
criterion
Stricter
inclusion
criterion
General
Findings
Survey
Scale
Changes
in
Informa=on
Processing
Style
Broad
Narrow
Lenient
&
less
careful
less
conceptual
complexity
few,
salient
dimensions
Cri=cal
&
careful
more
conceptual
complexity
mul=ple,
salient
&
non-­‐salient

12. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Survey
Scale
Changes
in
Informa=on
Processing
Style
Broad
Narrow
Lenient
&
less
careful
less
conceptual
complexity
few,
salient
dimensions
Cri=cal
&
careful
more
conceptual
complexity
mul=ple,
salient
&
non-­‐salient
Conjoint
Study
Focusing
on
fewer
product
features
More
Price
Sensi*ve
Focusing
on
more
product
features
Less
Price
Sensi*ve

13. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
13
• Screening questions:
– Decision maker, gender, age, occupation, devices inventory (own & plan
to buy)
• Mobile device usage:
– Frequency of usage of devices own/plan to buy
• Introduction to Mobile Internet Device (MID) concept
• Evaluation of the concept:
– Overall appeal and impressions.
• Introduction to conjoint:
– Education about the features
• CBC exercise
• Profiling questions:
– Game playing, Attitudes toward technology, (open-end) thoughts about the survey.
Questionnaire Flow

14. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
14
Scale Manipulation: Broad vs. Fine
• The number of response categories in each of the cells were as
follows:
# of response categories Broad Narrow
Age 4 14
Occupation 4 39
Devices own/plan to buy 8 20
Frequency of usage of the device 4 10
Evaluation of Product concept 3 10

15. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
15
The CBC exercise

16. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
16
Relative Importance of Factors
Rela*ve
Importance
of
Factors
Broad
Condi*on
Narrow
Condi*on
t
= p
=
Connec*vity 24% 24% 0.08 0.94
Internet
Browsing 14% 17% 2.90 <0.01
eMail 7% 5% -­‐2.00 0.05
GPS 2% 3% 2.54 0.01
Phone 13% 18% 3.19 <0.01
Storage 5% 4% -­‐1.83 0.07
Price 35% 29% -­‐2.24 0.03

17. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
17
Price Elasticity
Broad Narrow
$99 18% 21%
$499 5% 8%
Price
Elas*city -­‐0.87 -­‐0.67
Difference -­‐0.2
SD 0.07
t= -­‐2.78
p-­‐value 0.006

18. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
The conditioning respondents receive before the
conjoint task (via the nature of the response
categories) matters.
Can we strategically make use of this conditioning
to make respondents/consumers pay more or less
attention to certain types of information?

19. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Jane Tang
Vision Critical
Thank you
Jane.Tang@visioncri=cal.com

20. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Q & A
Jane Tang
Vision Critical
Ray Poynter
VCU, Vision Critical

21. Speaker Jane Tang, Vision Critical, Canada
NewMR Advances in Quantitative Research Event, 19 September 2012, Session 2
Jane Tang
Read
Jane’s
blog
@
hTp://vcu.visioncri=cal.com/blog/
Jane.Tang@visioncri=cal.com
Please
write
to
me
to
for
the
full
working
paper

22. A
Presenta*on
from
The
NewMR
“Advances
in
Quan*ta*ve
Research”
Event
19
September,
2012
Event
sponsored
by
Affinnova
All
copyright
owned
by
The
Future
Place
and
the
presenters
of
the
material
For
more
informa=on
about
Affinnova
visit
www.affinnova.com
For
more
informa=on
about
NewMR
events
visit
newmr.org
Malleable
Conjoint
Partworths:
How
the
Breadth
of
Response
Scales
Alters
Price
Sensi=vity
Jane
Tang,
Vision
Cri/cal