Consumer's optimal policies for purchasing durable goods. (6th May 2010)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jia, Junxiu; Du, Rong; Hu, Qiying
• Is Part Of: International journal of services technology and management. Volume 14:Number 1(2010)
• Page Start: 41
• Page End: 57
• Publication Date: 2010-05-06
• Subjects: durable goods -- consumer behaviour -- discrete time Markov decision process -- DTMDP -- MDP -- optimal purchase policy -- perceived value -- optimal purchasing decisions; Service industries -- Management -- Periodicals; Service industries -- Technological innovations -- Periodicals; 658.005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1460-6720

Abstract

With a new durable good appearing, the price of old model tends to decrease and the performance of the new one tends to be improved. Thus, a consumer who has purchasing desire could make decision of buying a new one or the old one. The purchasing problem is presented as a Discrete Time Markov Decision Process (DTMDP) model with consumer reserve prices to different durable generations as the states, and the objective is to maximise consumer's purchasing value. Then, a modified MDP model and several assumptions are given. With a new concept of perceived coefficient introduced, purchasing value reward in a stage could be described by durables' physical and perceived values. It is shown that the optimal purchasing points exist in a special case with two generations attracting the consumer in one stage and optimal purchasing decisions vary with the consumers' preference, which are shown with a numerical example.