Hauser,
John R. and Birger Wernerfelt (1990), "An Evaluation Cost Model
of Consideration Sets," Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.
16, (March), 393-408.
If utility
(net of price) varies by consumption occasion, the consideration
set of a rational consumer will represent trade-offs between
decision costs and the incremental benefits of choosing from
a larger set of brands. If evaluating a brand decreases biases
and uncertainty in perceived utility, the decision to evaluate
a brand for inclusion in a consideration set is different from
the decision to consider an evaluated brand. The decision to
consume is, in turn, different from the decision to consider.
This article provides analytical expressions for these decision
criteria and presents four aggregate implications of the model:
(1) distributions of consideration set sizes, (2) order-of-entry
penalties, (3) dynamic advertising response, and (4) competitive
promotion intensity.