The Relative Importance of Information Sources in Consumers' Choice of Hospitals

1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra K. Smith Gooding
Keyword(s):  
Information Sources ◽  
Relative Importance

scholarly journals Paternal care effects outweigh gamete-mediated and personal environment effects during the transgenerational estimation of risk in fathead minnows

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Meuthen ◽  
Maud C. O. Ferrari ◽  
Douglas P. Chivers
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Pimephales Promelas ◽  
Alloparental Care ◽  
Risk Allocation ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Risk Environment

Abstract Background Individuals can estimate risk by integrating prenatal with postnatal and personal information, but the relative importance of different information sources during the transgenerational response is unclear. The estimated level of risk can be tested using the cognitive rule of risk allocation, which postulates that under consistent high-risk, antipredator efforts should decrease so that individual metabolic requirements can be satisfied. Here we conduct a comprehensive study on transgenerational risk transmission by testing whether risk allocation occurs across 12 treatments that consist of different maternal, paternal, parental care (including cross-fostering) and offspring risk environment combinations in the fathead minnow Pimephales promelas, a small cyprinid fish with alloparental care. In each risk environment, we manipulated perceived risk by continuously exposing individuals from birth onwards to conspecific alarm cues or a control water treatment. Using 2810 1-month old individuals, we then estimated shoaling behaviour prior to and subsequent to a novel mechanical predator disturbance. Results Overall, shoals estimating risk to be high were denser during the prestimulus period, and, following the risk allocation hypothesis, resumed normal shoaling densities faster following the disturbance. Treatments involving parental care consistently induced densest shoals and greatest levels of risk allocation. Although prenatal risk environments did not relate to paternal care intensity, greater care intensity induced more risk allocation when parents provided care for their own offspring as opposed to those that cross-fostered fry. In the absence of care, parental effects on shoaling density were relatively weak and personal environments modulated risk allocation only when parental risk was low. Conclusions Our study highlights the high relative importance of parental care as opposed to other information sources, and its function as a mechanism underlying transgenerational risk transmission.

How Dependent Are Consumers on Others When Making Their Shopping Decisions?

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makoto Nakayama ◽  
Yun Wan ◽  
Norma Sutcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Product Quality ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Credence Goods ◽  
Purchase Decisions ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Perceived Importance ◽  
Web Access ◽  
The Web

Consumers now have a variety of shopping information sources online and offline in making purchase decisions. How has the Web changed the perceptions of consumers regarding the relative importance of different shopping information sources? Applying the attribution principle and the least effort principle, the authors hypothesize the relative importance of self-evaluation and three types of recommendations from others (word-of-mouth or WOM, expert opinion, and electronic WOM or eWOM). The data collected from 549 consumers show that the perceived importance of WOM remains equal to or even higher than that of self-evaluation for credence goods (product quality unknown even after purchase and use) and the so-called digital goods without Web access. However, the importance of self-evaluation increases when consumers have both Web access and non-Web sources of shopping information. The Web appears to make self-evaluation by consumers more important than inputs from others.

Valuing information for sewer replacement decisions

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 796-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter van Riel ◽  
Jeroen Langeveld ◽  
Paulien Herder ◽  
François Clemens
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Asset Management ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Decision Criterion ◽  
Comparative Judgment ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Questionnaire Response ◽  
Replacement Decisions ◽  
Common Framework

Decision-making for sewer asset management is partially based on intuition and often lacks explicit argumentation, hampering decision transparency and reproducibility. This is not to be preferred in light of public accountability and cost-effectiveness. It is unknown to what extent each decision criterion is appreciated by decision-makers. Further insight into this relative importance improves understanding of decision-making of sewer system managers. As such, a digital questionnaire (response ratio 43%), containing pairwise comparisons between 10 relevant information sources, was sent to all 407 municipalities in the Netherlands to analyse the relative importance and assess whether a shared frame of reasoning is present. Thurstone's law of comparative judgment was used for analysis, combined with several consistency tests. Results show that camera inspections were valued highest, while pipe age was considered least important. The respondents were pretty consistent per individual and also showed consistency as a group. This indicated a common framework of reasoning among the group. The feedback of the group showed, however, the respondents found it difficult to make general comparisons without having a context. This indicates decision-making in practice is more likely to be steered by other mechanisms than purely combining information sources.

How Dependent Are Consumers on Others When Making Their Shopping Decisions?

2013 ◽  
pp. 204-224
Author(s):  
Makoto Nakayama ◽  
Yun Wan ◽  
Norma Sutcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Product Quality ◽  
Expert Opinion ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Purchase Decisions ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Perceived Importance ◽  
Web Access ◽  
The Web

Consumers now have a variety of shopping information sources online and offline in making purchase decisions. How has the Web changed the perceptions of consumers regarding the relative importance of different shopping information sources? Applying the attribution principle and the least effort principle, the authors hypothesize the relative importance of self-evaluation and three types of recommendations from others (word-of-mouth or WOM, expert opinion, and electronic WOM or eWOM). The data collected from 549 consumers show that the perceived importance of WOM remains equal to or even higher than that of self-evaluation for credence goods (product quality unknown even after purchase and use) and the so-called digital goods without Web access. However, the importance of self-evaluation increases when consumers have both Web access and non-Web sources of shopping information. The Web appears to make self-evaluation by consumers more important than inputs from others.

Goal directed meaning connects perception and specification

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Foo ◽  
J. A. S. Kelso
Keyword(s):  
Information Sources ◽  
Voluntary Movements ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Task Goal ◽  
Different Sources

We believe that the task goal in voluntary movements provides meaning to existing information sources in the environment and determines, in a dynamic way, the use and relative importance of these different sources. This task-centered meaning bridges the apparent controversy between what information is available in principle (i.e., specification), and what information is perceived.

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