Chapter 2Conjoint Analysis21 IntroductionThis Chapter Gives
Chapter 2
Conjoint Analysis
2.1 Introduction
This chapter gives an overview of conjoint analysis. First, section 2.2 briefly describes the general elements in conjoint analysis and several
“classic” conjoint analysis approaches. Next, section 2.3 discusses the conjoint choice approach more extensively and a brief overview is given of recent conjoint choice applications in the (marketing) literature.
2.2 General Concepts and Classic Conjoint Analysis
In marketing one wants to know which characteristics of products or services are important to consumers. A technique, original developed in the early 60's by Luce and Tukey (1964), that could eventually be applied to answer that question, is conjoint analysis. In conjoint analysis products or services are defined on a limited number of relevant attributes or characteristics each with a limited number of levels. These products, called profiles, have to be evaluated by respondents, who have to rank or rate them (this section) or choose their most preferred ones from smaller choice sets (section 2.3). This section describes briefly the general characteristics of conjoint analysis and the “classic” conjoint approaches, including the ranking and rating conjoint. For a more extensive review of these concepts see, e.g., Green and Srinivasan (1978, 1990), Louviere (1988) or Carroll and Green (1995).
The conjoint methodology is a decompositional approach to analyze consumer preferences. Respondents give an overall “score” (a real score in the rating approach or an implicit score in the ranking approach) to a product profile and the analyst has to find out what the preference contributions are for each separate attribute and level, where it is commonly assumed that the overall utility of a profile is constructed by
6
Chapter 2
adding the attributes’ preferences. This means that a compensatory preference model is used, where “low” scores on a certain attribute can be compensated by a “high” score on another attribute. Other,
Conjoint Analysis
2.1 Introduction
This chapter gives an overview of conjoint analysis. First, section 2.2 briefly describes the general elements in conjoint analysis and several
“classic” conjoint analysis approaches. Next, section 2.3 discusses the conjoint choice approach more extensively and a brief overview is given of recent conjoint choice applications in the (marketing) literature.
2.2 General Concepts and Classic Conjoint Analysis
In marketing one wants to know which characteristics of products or services are important to consumers. A technique, original developed in the early 60's by Luce and Tukey (1964), that could eventually be applied to answer that question, is conjoint analysis. In conjoint analysis products or services are defined on a limited number of relevant attributes or characteristics each with a limited number of levels. These products, called profiles, have to be evaluated by respondents, who have to rank or rate them (this section) or choose their most preferred ones from smaller choice sets (section 2.3). This section describes briefly the general characteristics of conjoint analysis and the “classic” conjoint approaches, including the ranking and rating conjoint. For a more extensive review of these concepts see, e.g., Green and Srinivasan (1978, 1990), Louviere (1988) or Carroll and Green (1995).
The conjoint methodology is a decompositional approach to analyze consumer preferences. Respondents give an overall “score” (a real score in the rating approach or an implicit score in the ranking approach) to a product profile and the analyst has to find out what the preference contributions are for each separate attribute and level, where it is commonly assumed that the overall utility of a profile is constructed by
6
Chapter 2
adding the attributes’ preferences. This means that a compensatory preference model is used, where “low” scores on a certain attribute can be compensated by a “high” score on another attribute. Other,