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Die Macht des Defaults — Wirkung von Empfehlungen und Vorgaben auf das individuelle Entscheidungsverhalten

The power of defaults — Effect of defaults on decision making

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Zusammenfassung

Bei der Wahl vieler Produkte ist der Kunde mit Empfehlungen und Vorgaben der Hersteller und Händler (Defaults) konfrontiert. Bei der online-Konfiguration eines Erzeugnisses (z. B. Pkw) ist für alle zwingend erforderlichen Merkmale (z. B. Motor) jeweils ein Default (d. h. eine Ausprägung, z. B. 3.2 Liter) vorgegeben. Zudem geben die Anbieter Empfehlungen bezüglich bestimmter Merkmalsausprägungen ab, an denen sich die Nachfrager orientieren. Obgleich der grundsätzliche Einfluss von Defaults auf das Entscheidungsverhalten unbestritten ist, sind wichtige Fragen etwa nach dem Effekt unterschiedlicher Default-Varianten noch nicht beantwortet. Anhand einer empirischen Studie, in deren Mittelpunkt ein Car-Konfigurator steht, kann gezeigt werden, wie verschiedene Defaults das Entscheidungsverhalten der Individuen beeinflussen. Die Befunde erlauben Rückschlüsse über den Prozess der Herausbildung von Produktpräferenzen.

Summary

Defaults are those options that customers automatically receive unless they expressly choose an alternative. Should this presetting not correspond to customers’ needs, then they must deliberately replace it with an alternative. A key factor in this situation is the individual effort that must be exerted to deselect the default in favour of a more satisfactory alternative product and/or feature. In this paper it is clarified whether the intensity of the default effect changes over varying default steps. In addition, decision-making behavior involves various communicators (e.g., manufacturer, retailer, other customers) that have varying effects on consumer choice of a product, product feature, or feature option (in terms of price and quality), both the default type and the default step are of central significance in explaining such behavior. Finally, customers do not always select the manufacturer and/or retailer defaults, a default may be considered an anchor point that leads consumers to choose a product or product feature options in its proximity. Thus, this default effect is of central significance to the development of a product line and feature options.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forschungsstelle für Business Metrics und Audi Lab for Market Research, Universität St. Gallen, Guisanstrasse 1a, CH-9000, St. Gallen, Germany

    Benjamin Polak & Andreas Herrmann

  2. Department für Marketing, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Westring 425, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    Mark Heitmann

Authors
  1. Benjamin Polak
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  2. Andreas Herrmann
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  3. Mark Heitmann
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  4. Martin Einhorn
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Correspondence to Benjamin Polak, Andreas Herrmann or Mark Heitmann.

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Koordinator Trendforschung für die Audi AG bis Mai 2008. Leiter Marktforschung der Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG ab Juni 2008

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Polak, B., Herrmann, A., Heitmann, M. et al. Die Macht des Defaults — Wirkung von Empfehlungen und Vorgaben auf das individuelle Entscheidungsverhalten. Z. Betriebswirtsch 78, 1033–1060 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-008-0111-2

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