The heterogeneous best-worst choice method in market research

Abstract

The article presents a market research technique for obtaining information on consumer preferences, called the heterogeneous best-worst (HBW) choice method. It accounts for preference heterogeneity, making it more accurate than the direct method (DM), and causes less information overload than other indirect methods. An example involving undergraduates picking a business school is presented to illustrate how the HBW choice method operates. It is demonstrated that the HBW and DM approaches produce very similar results, but the HBW method allows for more differentiation of extreme preferences.