Opportunity Cost Neglect

Shane Frederick, Nathan Novemsky, Jing Wang, Ravi Dhar and Stephen Nowlis

Journal of Consumer Research, 2009, vol. 36, issue 4, 553-561

Abstract: To properly consider the opportunity costs of a purchase, consumers must actively generate the alternatives that it would displace. The current research suggests that consumers often fail to do so. Even under conditions promoting cognitive effort, various cues to consider opportunity costs reduce purchase rates and increase the choice share of more affordable options. Sensitivity to such cues varies with chronic dispositional differences in spending attitudes. We discuss the implications of these results for the marketing strategies of economy and premium brands. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/599764 link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:jconrs:v:36:y:2009:i:4:p:553-561

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Consumer Research is currently edited by Bernd Schmitt, June Cotte, Markus Giesler, Andrew Stephen and Stacy Wood

More articles in Journal of Consumer Research from Journal of Consumer Research Inc.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().