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  • Publication
    Purchasing a General Ticket for Public Transport - A Means-End Approach
    (Elsevier, 2014-06-26) ;
    Switzerland offers a dense network of public transport means. The Swiss General Ticket (GT) is a popular travel pass, which allows the use of most of the public transport facilities in Switzerland. The buying behavior for public transport general tickets underlies a complex decision process. Public transport customers can deal with the complexity in two ways: either one decides on choice heuristics according to ones rather emotional beliefs or decides systematically based on a rational price comparison. Judgment and decision theory creates the basis for the discussion of heuristic versus systematic decision-making in this paper. The goal of the study is the explanation of the two consumer typologies when buying a GT along the continuum from more heuristically to systematically made decisions. Drivers for a more heuristically based as opposed to. a systematically based decision process, taking into consideration endogenous and exogenous factors, are evaluated. Literature provides some relevant heuristic and systematic decision factors. Primary research with railway customers in Switzerland (research panel) was conducted using an exploratory, semi-standardized approach using the laddering technique, which helps to identify relevant factors involved in the buying decision process. Functional attributes, which were put into context of higher-level personal values using the means-end approach, were detected. These functional attributes are the ones influencing a buying decision. Results show that convenience factors have a high influence when it comes to purchasing a season ticket, but price is the crucial factor behind the final purchase decision.
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    Scopus© Citations 3
  • Publication
    Purchasing a General Ticket - a Means End Approach
    (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 2013-07-15) ; ;
    Joao, Victor
    Consumer behavior or decision making by consumer can be viewed from different perspectives. In the case of the underlying study judgment and decision theory and systematic versus heuristic decision making build bases for the research discussion. The buying behavior of season tickets underlies a complex decision process. The railway customer can deal with complexity in two ways. Either he decides on the based on heuristics of his rather emotional beliefs or systematic based on a rational calculation. The goal of the study is the explanation of the two consumer typologies when buying seasonal tickets along the continuum from rather heuristically to systematically made decisions. Drivers for a rather heuristically based vs. a systematically based decision process under consideration of endogenous and exogenous factors and the willingness to pay are evaluated. Literature review is used to find relevant heuristic and systematic decision factors. Further expert interviews verify those factors. Primary research with railway customers in Switzerland is conducted using implicit and explicit research methods to find the relevance of factors influencing a buying decision. Results show the decision process of rail season ticket customers. It is shown that convenience factors have a greater impact on season ticket sales than systematic factors. Furthermore, it is shown that customers who base their buying decisions on heuristic convenience factors rather than systematic price calculations are less price sensitive. Elements of customer benefits have come out of the research. From those benefits factors which make rail travels more valuable will be derived. The knowledge of the impact of heuristic and systematic factors on the buying decision of seasonal railway tickets allows an explanation of willingness to pay for those tickets.