A study of preferences in a simulated online shopping experiment

Asle Fagerstrøm, Erik Arntzen and Gordon R. Foxall

The Service Industries Journal, 2010, vol. 31, issue 15, 2603-2615

Abstract: The current study seeks to expand understanding of how brand loyalty develops by arranging environmental contingencies in online stores. A simulated online shopping experiment was prepared where participants purchase products (116 in all) from two different online stores. A concurrent reinforcement schedule was arranged for two groups of 20 participants. Free shipment was presumed to reinforce purchase behaviour. For the first group, the concurrent schedule was a VR4/VR8 arrangement for choices between two online stores. The researchers wanted to replicate this with different VR values and the second group was exposed to a VR4/VR16 arrangement for choice between two online stores. The results showed that the preference of 13 out of the 40 participants was not under the control of the experimenter-defined contingencies. For the remaining 27 participants, it was found that 18 showed preferences according to the experimenter-defined contingencies. In the first phase of the experiment, there was more variability, switching between the alternatives, than in the maintenance phase. In addition, average choice time decreased as a function of number of trials.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2011.531121

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The Service Industries Journal is currently edited by Eileen Bridges, Professor Domingo Ribeiro, Ronald Goldsmith, Barry Howcroft and Youjae Yi

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