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Call for Papers
Special Issue of the
Journal of Choice Modelling

Topic: Choosing How Best to Choose: Antecedent Volition and Decision Process Representation in Discrete Choice Models

Guest Editors:

Joffre Swait
Centre for the Study of Choice (CenSoC)
University of Technology, Sydney
e: Joffre.Swait@uts.edu.au

Vic Adamowicz
Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology University of Alberta
e: vic.adamowicz@ualberta.ca

Background

Antecedent volition (AV) refers to higher-level decision processes that direct evaluative and selection processes; these include such diverse phenomena as what goals to activate and pursue, what information to use, what products to eliminate and what decision rule(s) to employ to support identification of the preferred alternative in a decision instance. The notion of antecedent volition has yet to be widely incorporated into the study of consumer choice – the topic of this special issue is to propose and test augmentations of the current model of consumer choice with these prior stages to selection.

Choice modelling has been one of the principal methods used in multiple applied fields (transport, marketing, health, labour, environment, to name the major areas) to estimate consumer demand for goods and services. The theoretical perspective underlying consumer choice models has consistently been the one drawn from microeconomic theory: the decision maker is utility maximizing and fully rational, has access to and makes use of all relevant information concerning alternative goods, considers all possible substitutes/goods indefatigably, and observes a known budget constraint. However, each of these assumptions about human decision makers can be called into question, sometimes very generally, sometimes in more restrictive conditions.

A somewhat broader and more useful conceptualization of decision makers (DMs) is that they are adaptive problem solvers that routinely handle complex decisions, but they do so by managing their time, money and cognitive resources. The core concept of AV is that complexity gives rise to higher-level optimization behaviour that reflects DMs resource allocations that lead to efficient means to make specific decisions. Ultimately, DMs decide how to efficiently make a good decision.

Scope and Topics

We invite the submission of papers that present methodological advances in discrete choice models by addressing different forms of antecedent volition, with the ultimate objective of proposing to choice modellers a new generation of statistical models that are process-rich yet usable in practice. An example would be a model that includes multiple stages of problem solving (e.g. choice set formation, then choice; optimal decision rule selection, then choice), where prior stages of the process simplify the decision maker’s overall problem. To illustrate, potential topics include

• Choice set formation (as opposed to imputation), particularly for situations with many alternatives;
• Context-sensitive information usage;
• Context-sensitive activation of alternative strategies or behavioral archetypes;
• Decision strategy selection;
• Decision rule selection, e.g., habit, variety-seeking, utility maximizing, satisficing;
• Goal activation and evaluation;
• Norms and social networks as mechanisms for choice simplification;
• Welfare economics and models of antededent volition;
• Precursors to preference heterogeneity.

This list is suggestive, but illustrates the wide scope of topics that will be considered.

The application domains (e.g., health, marketing, transport) are of secondary interest, methodological advances are of primary interest. Purely theoretical (i.e., mathematical) models are of interest to the extent that the contribution a) emphasizes that the DM is a problem-solver and b) leads to operational models of discrete choice and/or their welfare economic implications. Papers that address formal identification of antecedent volition versus traditional random utility methods or compare performance of alternative modelling approaches are encouraged.

Our objective is to publish contributions that will change the practice of discrete choice modelling with the inclusion of relevant antecedent volition behaviours. To this end, we will strongly encourage authors to make their custom estimation codes available for dissemination with the special issue.

Submission Method

An extended abstract (600 words including title, authors and abstract; word or pdf document) should be submitted directly via email to the Guest Editors by the date specified below. On the basis of the abstract the GEs will invite submission of the paper.

Proposed schedule

• Extended abstract submission November 15, 2013
• Feedback on abstract & invitation to proceed December 15, 2013
• Submission of full paper online March 15, 2014
• Feedback from first-round reviews issued June 15, 2014
• Revised manuscripts due September 15, 2014
• Feedback from second-round reviews issued November 15, 2014
• Final manuscripts due December 15, 2014
• Planned publication 2015

Paper submission requirements are those of the journal. All paper submissions shall be submitted via the online submission system and will go through a normal peer review process.

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