Incorporating heterogeneity of travelers’ preferences into the overall hostel performance rating

Hostels have become a very popular form of accommodation and their varieties have grown steadily in recent years. To ensure the sustainability of this business model, it is necessary to understand the main drivers influencing travelers to choose a hostel accommodation. For this purpose, we conducted an online survey using convenience sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Respondents' preferences to six hostel attributes (cleanliness, location, staff, atmosphere, facilities, and cancellation policy) were determined using discrete choice analysis. Sample results showed that the most important attributes are cleanliness and location, while the atmosphere is the least important one. However, widespread heterogeneity in preferences was observed, and cluster analyzes identified three distinct groups of travelers: “cleanliness sticklers”, “location demanders” and “party seekers”. Facilities and atmosphere were found to be very important attributes for particular clusters. These findings can help design a marketing strategy for each of the identified segments to ensure sustainable business. Finally, we have proposed a new approach to calculating the hostel overall rating based on attribute importance, which shows much better discriminatory power compared to the traditional average-based approach.

Port Greening: Discrete Choice Analysis Investigation on Environmental Parameters Affecting Container Shipping Companies’ Behaviors

For centuries, ports have functioned as an economic engine, facilitating maritime transport, offering prosperity and social development to the host communities. Ports are gateways for international trade playing a vital role in the world economy, but it is not excluded that port operations can also have adverse effects on the environment. Air and water emissions, marine sediments, noise, waste generation, loss and degradation of terrestrial habitats and changes to marine ecosystems are just some of the leading environmental challenges with port’s operations. Environmental management within port operations has been a rapidly growing trend, with many ports around the world adopting different types of approaches and initiatives to improve ecological performance. Despite that many ports around the world have implemented greening strategies for growth and sustainable development, there are still many other ports that work less than they should do on environmental aspects and on the generation of ‘green ports’. These latter have fallen behind in the development of the theme. Therefore, the work reported here aims at analyzing what the best way to act should be, even starting from the beginning for a port that is not very innovative, in order to pursue the practical and theoretical levels of ‘green port’.

The Role of Smart Growth in Residential Location Choice: Heterogeneity of Location Preferences in the Chicago Region

We investigate the role of smart growth in household location choice in the Chicago region, using a discrete choice analysis. In the midst of continued region-wide suburbanization, households tend to move to neighborhoods with rich consumption amenities and high transit access. However, this study does not find evidence that the neighborhood’s physical compactness is a significant location factor. Location preference for compact, mixed-use, and transit-oriented neighborhoods is significantly affected by the life cycle stage and income level, but less influenced by generation and age. Millennial households show strong preference for amenities and transit access only before they marry and have children.

Pre-Launch Exploration of Consumer Willingness to Purchase Selenium- and Iodine-Biofortified Apples—A Discrete Choice Analysis of Possible Market Settings

Selenium and iodine are essential micronutrients for humans. They are often deficient in food supply due to low phytoavailable concentrations in soil. Agronomic biofortification of food crops is one approach to overcome micronutrient malnutrition. This study focused on a pre-launch exploration of German consumers’ willingness to purchase selenium- and/or iodine-biofortified apples. For this purpose, an online survey was carried out. In this context, consumers were asked to choose their most preferred apple product from a set card of product alternatives in a discrete choice experiment (DCE). The multinomial logit model results demonstrated that German consumers’ have a particular preference for iodine-biofortified apples. Furthermore, apple choice was mainly influenced by price, health claims, and plastic-free packaging material. Viewed individually, selenium did not exert an effect on product choice whereas positive interactions between both micronutrients exist.

Eat MO beef : effects of regional labeling on Missouri consumers' beef preferences

With recent activity suggesting a desire to increase Missouri's meat processing capacity, it is necessary to provide consumer data for industry consideration. The objective of this research is to empirically measure Missouri consumers' willingness-to-pay for various beef attributes and how this varies by age and location of respondents. Through a statewide survey and discrete choice analysis, this study found statistically significant premiums for all three variables under consideration: Missouri grown, local, and USDA prime. Of these, local demanded the highest premium across all demographics with a maximum of 2.23 [dollars] per pound of top loin steak. These premiums are indicative of value-added opportunities, but do not account for additional processing costs incurred and therefore do not guarantee increased profitability.

Electronic Money and Consumer Spending Behaviour: Evidence from Ghana

This study examines how e-money usage affects consumer spending behaviour through discrete choice analysis considering demographic characteristics. It also assesses people’s attitudes towards the challenges and benefits of using e-money through ANOVA. Our analyses indicate that e-money significantly impacts consumer spending behaviour, with the type of e-money and the expenditure made with e-money both influencing the consumers’ expenditures. Gender, age, and employment status also affected consumers’ spending behaviour as expected. However, the length of e-money usage had no effect. Interestingly, the respondents’ challenges associated with using e-money had no significant effect on the frequency of e-money usage. On the contrary, the derived benefits of using e-money had significant effects. JEL classification numbers: C25, D12, E42. Keywords: Electronic money, Consumer behaviour, Discrete choice, Ordered logit.

Electronic Money and Consumer Spending Behaviour: Evidence from Ghana

This study examines how e-money usage affects consumer spending behaviour through discrete choice analysis considering demographic characteristics. It also assesses people’s attitudes towards the challenges and benefits of using e-money through ANOVA. Our analyses indicate that e-money significantly impacts consumer spending behaviour, with the type of e-money and the expenditure made with e-money both influencing the consumers’ expenditures. Gender, age, and employment status also affected consumers’ spending behaviour as expected. However, the length of e-money usage had no effect. Interestingly, the respondents’ challenges associated with using e-money had no significant effect on the frequency of e-money usage. On the contrary, the derived benefits of using e-money had significant effects. JEL classification numbers: C25, D12, E42. Keywords: Electronic money, Consumer behaviour, Discrete choice, Ordered logit.

Willingness to Purchase Selenium- and Iodine-Biofortified Apples – A Discrete Choice Analysis with German Consumers

Selenium and iodine are essential micronutrients for humans. They are often deficient in food supply due to low phytoavailable concentrations in soil. Agronomic biofortification of food crops is one approach to overcome micronutrient malnutrition. This study focused on German consumers’ willingness to purchase selenium- and/or iodine-biofortified apples. For this purpose, an online survey was carried out. In this context, consumers were asked to choose their most preferred apple product from a set card of product alternatives (Discrete Choice Experiment). The multinomial logit model results demonstrated that German consumers’ have a preference in particular for iodine-biofortified apples. Furthermore, apple choice was mainly influenced by price, health claims, and plastic-free packaging material. Viewed individually, selenium did not exert an effect on product choice whereas positive interactions between both micronutrients exist.

Heterogeneous Choice Sets and Preferences

We propose a robust method of discrete choice analysis when agents' choice sets are unobserved. Our core model assumes nothing about agents' choice sets apart from their minimum size. Importantly, it leaves unrestricted the dependence, conditional on observables, between choice sets and preferences. We first characterize the sharp identification region of the model's parameters by a finite set of conditional moment inequalities. We then apply our theoretical findings to learn about households' risk preferences and choice sets from data on their deductible choices in auto collision insurance. We find that the data can be explained by expected utility theory with low levels of risk aversion and heterogeneous non‐singleton choice sets, and that more than three in four households require limited choice sets to explain their deductible choices. We also provide simulation evidence on the computational tractability of our method in applications with larger feasible sets or higher‐dimensional unobserved heterogeneity.