Satisficing in sales competition: experimental evidence

Siegfried Berninghaus (), Werner Güth (), Maria Vittoria Levati () and Jianying Qiu

Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck

Abstract: In a duopoly market, aspiration levels express how much sellers want to earn given their expectations about the other’s behavior. We augment the sellers’ decision task by eliciting their profit aspiration. In a first experimental phase, whenever satisficing is not possible, sales choices, point beliefs, or aspiration levels have to be adapted. This allows us to investigate which of these three aspects individuals revise more often. In a second phase, testing the absorption of satisficing, participants are free to select non-satisficing sales profiles. The results reveal that most participants are satisficers who tend to adjust aspiration levels if they cannot be satisfied.

Keywords: Satisficing behavior; Duopoly; Profit aspiration; Theory absorption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 C72 D43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
Date: 2009-05

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Related works:
Working Paper: Satisficing in sales competition: experimental evidence (2007)
Working Paper: Satisficing in sales competition: experimental evidence (2006)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inn:wpaper:2009-14

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