Virtual Progress: The Effect of Path Characteristics on Perceptions of Progress and Choice

Dilip Soman () and Mengze Shi
Additional contact information
Dilip Soman: Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 105 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6

Management Science, 2003, vol. 49, issue 9, 1229-1250

Abstract: In goal--oriented services, consumers want to get transported from one well--defined state (start) to another (destination) state without much concern for intermediate states. A cost--based evaluation of such services should depend on the total cost associated with the service---i.e., the price and the amount of time taken for completion. In this paper, we demonstrate that the characteristics of the path to the final destination also influence evaluation and choice. Specifically, we show that segments of idle time and travel away from the final destination are seen as obstacles in the progress towards the destination, and hence lower the choice likelihood of the path. Further, we show that the earlier such obstacles occur during the service, the lower is the choice likelihood. We present an analytical model of consumer choice and test its predictions in a series of experiments. Our results show that in choosing between two services that cover the same displacement in the same time (i.e., identical average progress), consumer choice is driven by the perception of progress towards the goal (i.e., by virtual progress). In a final experiment, we show that the effects of virtual progress may outweigh the effects of actual average progress.

Keywords: Goal--Oriented Services; Behavioral Decision Making; Progress; Choice; Path Characteristics; Transportation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.49.9.1229.16574 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:49:y:2003:i:9:p:1229-1250

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().