Characterizing the Retailer's Preference for Demand–Control and Demand–Promotion Efforts
研究了零售商在需求控制（减少波动）和需求促进（提升水平）两种努力之间的偏好偏差，发现低利润条件下更偏好促进努力，高利润条件下无显著偏差，并基于参考依赖模型解释了该行为。
This article investigates a setting where the retailer invests costly effort to shape demand, such as reducing demand fluctuation through demand–control effort or increasing demand levels with demand–promotion effort. We explore the preference bias between these two effort types and examine the impact of such a bias on profit performance. The experimental findings reveal that actual effort investments exhibit a significant preference bias for promotion effort in the low-profit condition, while no significant preference bias is observed in the high-profit condition. This behavioral pattern can be captured by a reference-dependent behavioral model incorporating the retailer's optimism level in the reference point. Additional analyses, such as robustness experiments and model extensions, provide further support for the promotion-effort bias in the low-profit condition. Our analysis presents a comprehensive understanding of demand-shaping effort preferences and extends the application of the reference-dependence framework. It provides insights for managers in identifying potential biases and mitigating profit loss in demand-shaping activities.