Quick but not dirty: New meta-analysis shows superiority of direct methods for measuring WTP
A meta-analysis on willingness to pay measurement by Jonas Schmidt (IfM) and Tammo H. A. Bijmolt (University of Groningen) is accepted for publication at the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS). By analyzing 115 effect sizes published in 47 papers, the authors show that direct methods for measuring consumers’ willingness to pay outperform indirect ones in terms of accuracy. More specifically, indirect methods overestimate consumers’ actual valuation by additional 10 percentage points compared to their direct counterparts. This finding contradicts prevailing assumptions in academia and has major implications for researchers and managers trying to assess consumers’ willingness to pay. The article will be published in a special issue on Generalizations in Marketing: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, edited by Mark B. Houston and John Hulland.