Abstract
In a duopoly market, aspiration levels express how much sellers want to earn given their expectations about the other’s behavior. We augment the sellers’ decision task by eliciting their profit aspiration. In a first experimental phase, whenever satisficing is not possible, sales choices, point beliefs, or aspiration levels have to be adapted. This allows us to compare “aspiration-based satisficing” to “aspiration adaptation”. In a second phase, testing the absorption of satisficing, participants are free to select non-satisficing sales profiles. The results reveal that most participants are satisficers who, in line with aspiration adaptation theory, tend to adjust aspiration levels and to keep sales behavior nearly unchanged.
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Berninghaus, S., Güth, W., Levati, M.V. et al. Satisficing search versus aspiration adaptation in sales competition: experimental evidence. Int J Game Theory 40, 179–198 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00182-010-0232-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00182-010-0232-z