Hoffman, Donna L., Peter G.M. van der Heijden, and Thomas P. Novak, "Mapping Asymmetry in Categorical Consumer Choice Data," (December 2001).
Abstract. Marketers are often interested in graphically depicting the patterns of consumer choice behavior. In such situations, square asymmetric frequency data arise commonly. We show how to graphically model components of asymmetry in these categorical data applications. Our approach considers asymmetry in terms of its component departures from the overall or total structure in the asymmetric frequency matrix.
Two residual maps are developed which represent distinct sources of asymmetry in brand choice: share driven asymmetry and share-adjusted asymmetry. Thus, the maps show deviations from symmetry due to changes in market shares and consumer heterogeneity. We formulate the problem in the context of loglinear modeling and the singular value decomposition (SVD) of residual matrices. The components of asymmetric structure (residuals from the models) are decomposed via the SVD and represented graphically in a low-dimensional space. We illustrate the method, easily implementable using standard statistical packages, with two examples of automobile choice. One is the well known 16-by-16 car trade-in problem from Harshman, Green, Wind, and Lundy (1982), and the other is a more recent example drawn from the Colombo, Ehrenberg and Sabavala (1994) "car challenge." Download pdf.
Novak, Thomas P., Donna L. Hoffman, and Adam Duhachek, "The Influence of Goal-Directed and Experiential Actitivies on Online Flow Experiences," (December 2001).
Abstract. Recently, it has been proposed that creating compelling experiences in the distinctive consumption environment defined by the Internet depends on facilitating a state of flow. While it has been established that consumers do, in fact, experience flow while using the Web, consumer researchers do not as yet have a comprehensive understanding of the specific activities during which consumers actually have these experiences.
One fruitful focus of research on online consumer experience has been on two distinct categories of consumption behavior – goal directed and experiential consumption behavior. Drawing distinctions between these behaviors for the Web may be particularly important because the experiential process is, for many individuals, as or even more important than the final instrumental result. However, the general and broad nature of flow measurement to date has precluded a precise investigation of flow during goal-directed versus experiential activities.
In this paper, we explore this issue, investigating whether flow occurs during both experiential and goal-directed activities, if experiential and goal-directed flow states differ in terms of underlying constructs, and what the key characteristics are – based upon prior theory – that define “types” of flow experiences reported on the Web. Our approach is to perform a series of quantitative analyses of qualitative descriptions of flow experiences provided by Web users collected in conjunction with the 10th GVU WWW User Survey. In contrast with previous research that suggests that flow would be more likely to occur during recreational activities than task-oriented activities, we found more evidence of flow for task-oriented rather than experiential activities, although there is evidence flow occurs under both scenarios. As a final note, we argue that the role that goal-directed and experiential activities may play in facilitating the creation of compelling online environments may also be important in a broader consumer policy context. Download pdf.
