Operations, Information and Decisions Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
3-2010
Publication Source
Marketing Letters
Volume
21
Issue
1
Start Page
17
Last Page
35
DOI
10.1007/s11002-009-9087-0
Abstract
How do decisions made for tomorrow or 2 days in the future differ from decisions made for several days in the future? We use data from an online grocer to address this question. In general, we find that as the delay between order completion and delivery increases, grocery customers spend less, order a higher percentage of “should” items (e.g., vegetables), and order a lower percentage of “want” items (e.g., ice cream), controlling for customer fixed effects. These field results replicate previous laboratory findings and are consistent with theories suggesting that people’s should selves exert more influence over their choices the further in the future outcomes will be experienced. However, orders placed for delivery tomorrow versus 2 days in the future do not show this want/should pattern, and we discuss a potential explanation.
Copyright/Permission Statement
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11002-009-9087-0
Keywords
lead time, intertemporal choice, want/should, E-commerce, intrapersonal conflict
Recommended Citation
Milkman, K. L., Rogers, T., & Bazerman, M. H. (2010). I’ll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: A Study of Online Grocery Purchases and Order Lead Time. Marketing Letters, 21 (1), 17-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11002-009-9087-0
Included in
E-Commerce Commons, Marketing Commons, Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons
Date Posted: 27 November 2017
This document has been peer reviewed.