Wertfunktion der Prospect-Theorie, Produktpräferenzen und Folgerungen für das Marketing

Summary Prospect theory has become an important theory in marketing research. Recently, this theory has been used for explaining consumer preferences. In this article the authors analyze possibilities to manipulate preferences by setting an adequate reference point. Therefore several possible approaches concerning the measurement of reference points are discussed and individual value functions are estimated. It can be shown, that consumer involvement is influencing the shape of the value function as well as the position of the reference point itself. Shifting the reference point without changing the shape of the value function seems to be possible only for certain circumstances. Marketing stimuli that provide insights in more sophisticated products without getting the consumer used to a higher aspiration level are examined.