The Interaction Effects of International Service Attributes and Consumer Characteristics on Consumer Preferences: An Ordered Probit Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates effects of both consumer characteristics and product attributes on consumer preferences in the context of an international air travel situation. The main focus is on investigating the interaction effects of consumer characteristics and product attributes, in addition to identifying the main effects, which has been the primary thrust of much of the literature. Previous research in marketing reported significant interaction effects of product attributes and consumer characteristics on consumers– choice (Cordell, 1991; Johansson, 1985). These interaction effects could provide us further insights beyond just the main effects, which may lead to better segmentation schemes. Thus, this study incorporates both the consumer characteristics and product attributes in a model of brand preferences and proposes the significance of interaction effects of the explanatory variables for consumers– brand preferences. Secondly, we use a more appropriate statistical technique (ordered probit analysis) as opposed to multinomial probit, or logit to test our hypotheses and estimate the models.