Dissecting the visiting willingness of driving visitors facing a retail market's dual-pricing policy for parking

Abstract

This study explores the significant elements in driving visitors’ mind while their willingness to visit (WTV) is formed and affected by the dual-pricing policy announced by a retail market. The aim is to investigate the upper (maximally durable) and lower (minimally suggestible) bounds of the hourly parking fee rate (p) and the minimum spending in the marketplace required to receive an hour of free parking (s). Additionally, the perceived importance of p in relation to s (represented by z*) is examined, as both p and s have a “cost price” to visitors who drive and can impact their WTV. The proposed hybrid approach incorporates popular methods such as revealed/stated-preference survey, complete case study, multiple linear regression, simultaneous equation system, and several approaches for model verification. A truth-lossless questionnaire design is implemented to augment the sample, and several interesting findings are obtained from a shopping center empirically based on the survey results, e.g., z* has an approximate ratio of 4:1 in the cultural area investigated. Further insights and implications are justified in terms of transportation pricing, operations management, and consumer psychology. For instance, several market-segmentation strategies are suggested for managing certain consumer groups using either pricing measure or both, and the accurate parameters investigated, estimated or inferred also allow establishing a grounded WTV function for decision-making. These ensure the delivery of satisfactory and profitable parking services for the retail industry.