10.31

Some people enjoy the anticipation of an upcoming product or event and prefer to pay in advance and delay the actual consumption/ delivery date. In other cases, people do not want a delay. An article in the Journal of Marketing Research reported on an experiment in which 50 individuals were told that they had just purchased a ticket to a concert and 50 were told that they had just purchased a personal dig-ital assistant ( PDA). The participants were then asked to indicate their preferences for attending the concert or receiving the PDA. Did they prefer tonight or tomorrow, or would they prefer to wait two to four weeks? The individuals were told to ignore their schedule constraints in order to better measure their willingness to delay the consumption/ delivery of their purchase. The following table gives partial results of the study:

When to Receive Purchase Concert PDA

Tonight or tomorrow 28 47

Two to four weeks 22 3

Total 50 50

Source: Data adapted from O. Amir and D. Ariely, " Decisions by Rules: The Case of Unwillingness to Pay for Beneficial Delays," Journal of Marketing Research, February 2007, Vol. XLIV, pp. 142- 152.

a. What proportion of the participants would prefer delaying the date of the concert?

b. What proportion of the participants would prefer delaying receipt of a new PDA?

c. Using the 0.05 level of significance, is there evidence of a significant difference in the proportion willing to delay the date of the concert and the proportion willing to delay receipt of a new PDA?