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Overall Average Utilities The overall average utilities derived from this process are presented in table on the following page. Note that because of the exact scoring rules used, positive utilities indicate a preference in the derived preference score (alternative) model whereas for the classic conjoint model negative utilities indicate a preference.
All utilities are rounded to three decimal points. The results indicate substantial convergence between the two methods. Attribute number 1 is the most important attribute in both models. Both models exactly concur in the three least important characteristics attributes 3, 5, and 8. Some slight differences occur with the relative rankings of the remaining four attributes. While attribute 6 is the second most important in the classic model, it is only the fourth most important in the alternative model after eliminating the problems introduced by rounding. Attribute 2 is the third most important attribute in both the classic model and the alternative model. Attribute 7 is the fourth most important characteristic in the classic model, and the fifth most important in the alternative model. Finally, attribute 4 is only the fifth most important characteristic in the classic model but is the second most important in the alternative model. In large part, the small discrepancies in the relative importance of the attributes do not disturb us. The size of the utilities are approximately equal, regardless of the method used. The one exception to this statement concerns the utilities for attribute 4, which is clearly the fifth most important in the classic model but, by a narrow margin, is the second most important in the alternative model. |