Modeling Inertia and Variety Seeking Tendencies in Brand Choice Behavior

Abstract

Theories of exploratory behavior suggest that inertia and variety-seeking tendencies may coexist within the individual, implying that the same individual may exhibit inertia and variety-seeking at different times depending on his/her choice history. Past research has not allowed for such -consumer variability in these tendencies. The purpose of this study is to present a choice model that allows us to identify such “hybrid” behavior (i.e., a mixture of inertia and variety-seeking), and to distinguish hybrid behavior from simpler types of behavior such as pure inertia, pure variety-seeking and zero-order behavior. The model is estimated at the household level using panel data for three product classes, covering a total of 1069 households. The empirical analysis shows that more than half the households analyzed exhibited hybrid behavior rather than simpler types of behavior.brand switching, variety-seeking, inertia, purchase event feedback

The Effects of Variety-seeking Buying Tendency and Price Sensitivity on Utilitarian and Hedonic Value in Apparel Shopping Satisfaction

“…This study considers variety-seeking buying tendency (Bawa, 1990;Steenkamp & Baumgartner, 1995;Menon & Kahn, 1995;Kahn, 1995;Van et al, 1996) and price sensitivity (Han et al, 2001;Jin & Kim, 2003;Goldsmith et al, 2005) as consumers' buying tendencies.…”

“…Bawa (1990) argued that there are two mutually exclusive types of consumers' variety-seeking: one is a variety-seeking consumer assumed to derive no utility from making habitual (repeat) purchases, and the other, an inertial consumer is similarly assumed to have no utility for variety. As Rogers (1979) argued, "… a tendency to avoid variety may coexist with the tendency to seek variety" (p. 88).…”

Price Competition in Markets with Consumer Variety Seeking

“…4 This explanation has governed the subsequent development of a number of statistical models of variety seeking (see Givon 1984;Kahn et al 1986;Bawa 1990;Trivedi et al 1994;Roy et al 1996;Seetharaman et al 1999;Seetharaman 2003Seetharaman , 2004). An alternative explanation of variety-seeking behavior provided by McAlister (1982) is that consumers become satiated after exposure to some attributes and seek alternatives that offer some other attributes.…”

Market Share Response When Consumers Seek Variety

“…Since that time, research has focused on describing consumer varietyseeking behavior (Jeuland 1978;McAlister 1979McAlister , 1982McAlister and Pessemier 1982;Givon 1984;Lattin 1987;Bawa 1990), on describing product classes in which variety-seeking occurs (Kahn, Kalwani, andMomson 1986, 1988), and on describing relationships between brands that consumers select for variety (Lattin and McAlister 1985). We move beyond description to start the process of prescribing action for managers.…”