Deferring Versus Expediting Consumption: The Effect of Outcome Concreteness on Sensitivity to Time Horizon

Journal of Marketing Research, Forthcoming

37 Pages Posted: 13 Nov 2005

See all articles by Selin A. Malkoc

Selin A. Malkoc

Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University

Gal Zauberman

Yale

Abstract

This work examines consumers' preferences for consumption timing. Specifically, we examine how temporal framing (deferring vs. expediting) of a decision moderates the sensitivity of consumers' pattern of discounting to changes in time horizon. In three experiments, we show greater decline in consumers' discount rates with time horizon (i.e., greater present bias) when deferring than when expediting consumption. The results are robust to using monetary and non-monetary outcomes, as well as to different time horizons (months, days). We further demonstrate that this difference in sensitivity is moderated by the different levels of mental representations (concreteness) triggered by the two decision frames.

Keywords: Intertemporal Choice, Temporal Framing, Hyperbolic Discounting, Temporal Construal

JEL Classification: D90, M0, M30

Suggested Citation

Malkoc, Selin A. and Zauberman, Gal, Deferring Versus Expediting Consumption: The Effect of Outcome Concreteness on Sensitivity to Time Horizon. Journal of Marketing Research, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=846924

Selin A. Malkoc (Contact Author)

Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University ( email )

2100 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1144
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://fisher.osu.edu/people/malkoc.5

Gal Zauberman

Yale ( email )

165 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
United States

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