Order in product customization decisions: Evidence from field experiments
Levav and colleagues tested the assumption that a product's utility is the sum of the utilities of its attributes, by changing the order in which attributes were presented during product customisation. One framed field experiment and two natural field experiments used custom-made suits and automobiles. Order affected the design of the suit people configured and the design and price of the car they bought, by changing the likelihood that they would accept the default option suggested by the firm.
Levav and colleagues tested the assumption that a product's utility is the sum of the utilities of its attributes, by changing the order in which attributes were presented during product customisation. One framed field experiment and two natural field experiments used custom-made suits and automobiles. Order affected the design of the suit people configured and the design and price of the car they bought, by changing the likelihood that they would accept the default option suggested by the firm.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-25 via OpenAlex.
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Levav, J., Heitmann, M., Herrmann, A., & Iyengar, S. S. (2010). Order in product customization decisions: Evidence from field experiments. Journal of Political Economy, 118(2), 274-299. doi:10.1086/652463