A conflict of choice: How consumers choose where to go for dinner

How do spa-goers make decisions when faced with a choice conflict? Discrete choice experiments for day spas in Thailand

“…The choice experiment questionnaire used in this study was adopted from Jung et al (2015) and Kucukusta and Guillet (2014). The list of the choice criteria was developed by reviewing a collection of related studies in the literature.…”

“…The list of the choice criteria was developed by reviewing a collection of related studies in the literature. The four spa choice attributes used in the questionnaire were adapted from the literature: price (Jung et al, 2015;Kim and Perdue, 2013;Kucukusta & Guillet, 2014;Kucukusta et al, 2013), therapist quality (Terry, 2007;Kucukusta & Guillet, 2014), spa product quality (Lo et al, 2013;Kucukusta et al, 2013;Tabacchi, 2010;Ellis, 2008), and ambience quality (Lo et al, 2013;Kim & Perdue, 2013;Heung et al, 2001;Koh et al, 2010;Mak et al, 2009;Yavas & Babakus, 2005;Kucukusta & Guillet, 2014). The questionnaire was designed to examine consumers' trade-offs between quality attributes and price in relation to spa choice aiming (1) to investigate the influence of spa quality attributes and price attribute on consumers' spa choice and (2) to determine the relative importance of the four spa attributes under the study to identify which of the four attributes is the most important factor for spa-goer choice.…”

“…In addition, the price attribute was also rated into three levels: low, average, and high. The definition of each quality level and price level was adapted from Jung et al (2015).…”

“…Moreover, Kucukusta and Guillet (2014) observed that price was the most important attribute in the decisions of spa customers from both the Asia-Pacific region and from Europe and North America. Despite the large number of consumer behaviour studies of decision making and choice in the hospitality literature -including for hotels (Masiero et al, 2015;Kim and Perdue, 2013); restaurants (Jung et al, 2015;Peng et al, 2015;Keane et al, 2012); tourism (Ozdipciner et al, 2010); hotel spas (Kucukusta et al, 2013;Kucukusta and Guillet, 2014;Mak et al, 2009;Koh et al, 2010;Dimitrovski and Todorovic, 2015); and health care (Ryan & Gerard, 2003) -experimental research examining discrete choice trade-offs among day spa attributes is very limited. Consistent with Jung et al (2015), the present study, thus, attempts to examine spa-goer choice or decision making based on competition between the quality and price in spa services to see whether and how spa-goers trade off quality and price when selecting a spa.…”

“…Quality definitions adopted from Jung et al (2015) and Kucukusta and Guillet (2014)Appendix C: A choice set as it was presented to the respondents. The respondents were asked to compare the two options and choose the option they preferred.…”