Take it or leave it: Experimental evidence on the effect of time-limited offers on consumer behaviour

Sugden, Robert, Wang, Mengjie and Zizzo, Daniel (2019) Take it or leave it: Experimental evidence on the effect of time-limited offers on consumer behaviour. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 168. pp. 1-23. ISSN 0167-2681

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Abstract

Making time-limited offers is a common retail pricing strategy. Economic theory implies that such offers inhibit price search, making markets less competitive. We investigate experimentally whether this effect is intensified by behavioural factors – specifically, feedback-conditional regret, reduced decision quality due to time constraints, and aversion to small-scale risk. Participants choose from a sequence of alternative price offers, one of which might be time-limited, under various conditions. These price search problems were matched with equivalent, time-unconstrained binary choices between lotteries. We find no evidence of regret effects. Surprisingly, time-limited offers are more likely to be chosen when the time available for decision-making is longer. Overall, individuals show aversion to small-scale risk; this is stronger in price search than lottery choice. Allowing for this, choices in the two types of task tend to be mutually consistent at the individual level, even when decision-making is subject to tight time constraints.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	time-limited offers,time constraints,consumer search,consumer choice,economics, econometrics and finance(all),sdg 12 - responsible consumption and production ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural Economics Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Economic Theory
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	17 Sep 2019 08:30
Last Modified:	21 Apr 2023 00:07
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/72256
DOI:	10.1016/j.jebo.2019.09.008

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