Behavior & Technology Lab

The consumer credit use project has gained a lot of attention. From the lens of behavioral economics, we investigates consumers´ choice between saving and credit use. Understanding of consumers’ credit use is of vital importance as well as for the responsible policy-makes, credit card companies, researchers, as for the individual credit users. This research is done by Asle Fagerstrøm (Westerdals Oslo ACT, Norway), Donald Hantula (Temple University, US) and Lars Sydnes (Westerdals Oslo ACT). Our research is published in The Psychological Records and has been mentioned in Forskning.no, Aftenposten, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation).

This study aims to investigate the impact of a seller’s facial image and their expression upon buyers’ behavior in on Airbnb. The impact of facial expressions was investigated together with other relevant variables (price and customer ratings). Findings show that the impact of a seller’s facial expression on buying behavior in an online peer-to-peer context is significant. A negative facial expression and absence of facial image (head silhouette) abates approach and evokes avoidance tendencies to explore a specific web page on Airbnb, and, simultaneously decrease the likelihood to rent. The reverse effect was true for neutral and positive facial expressions. We found that a negative and positive facial expression had more impact on likelihood to rent, for women than for men. Further analysis shows that the absence of facial image and an angry facial expression cannot be compensated for by a low price and top customer ratings related to likelihood to rent. The study published in Computers in Human Behavior and is presented at ScienceNordic, Forskning.no, and Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

Our research on the impact of Wi-Fi service on consumers´ hotel booking online is presented in ScienceNordic. The study aim to expand understanding of the relative importance of Wi-Fi when consumers book hotel rooms online.When looking only at Wi- Fi, results show that previous guests’ Wi-Fi reviews have a higher impact on booking than Wi-Fi price. Further analysis shows that Wi-Fi can be a “deal breaker” in a competitive and/or undifferentiated market. We propose that the impact of Wi-Fi can be understood as rule-governed behavior. Consequently, behavioral understanding of the impact of Wi-Fi could aid hotel managers in developing more effective marketing strategies. The study is done by Niklas Eriksson (Arcada University of Applied Sciences) and Asle Fagerstrøm (Westerdals Oslo ACT), and is published in Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research