The Impact of Local Context on the Consumer Choice for Heterogeneity Preferences Product

Unlike the traditional theoretical preferences hypothesis, which holds that consumer preferences are stable, invariant, consistent and transferable, behavioral economists argue that the preference forming process is not independent. Such a process in a local context is a heuristic one. Existing research has verified the local context effect with homogeneity of consumer preferences but has not explored the effect with preference heterogeneity, which is ubiquitous in perception and judgment. This research contributes literature by investigating whether and how local context affects consumer purchase intention for heterogeneity using a product experience experiment. Cooperating with one of largest retailers in China, we test the purchase intention of its customers for different heterogeneity products combination. The results show the following. In terms of the heterogeneity preference, when offered two products with contrastive attribute values together, consumers show a more positive intention for both products than the intention for the two when offered either one of the two respectively. Theoretical and managerial applications are also discussed.