The Customer Cannot Choose


Speaker


Abstract

People can choose and they do make many choices each and every day. What most people are unaware of is how strong the impact of their environment is on the choices they make. This inaugural address highlights the impact of what people see (and what they don’t see), of what people experience (and what they don’t experience), or more general the impact of salient decision characteristics. Evidence will be provided in a number of applications that range from online consumer search behavior to physician prescription behavior. The lessons to be learned from this for marketers and policy makers alike are highlighted in the context of pension savings decisions and health state valuations.