Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 27, Number 4
Fall 1996
On the Rank-Based Selection Strategy for the Group Interview
Problem
Young H. Chun
Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences, College of
Business Administration, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge,
LA 70803-6316
ABSTRACT
For the so-called group interview problem in which several groups
of choice alternatives are presented sequentially to the decision
maker, the optimal selection strategy is derived that minimizes the
expected rank of the selected choice or purchased product. For the
case in which the sequence of groups can be rearranged by the
decision maker, a simple heuristic procedure is proposed for
obtaining a near-optimal sequence of groups, and the performance of
the heuristic procedure in a Monte Carlo simulation is accessed.
According to the heuristic procedure, the consumer is advised to
visit smaller stores first and then move to larger stores later to
increase the likelihood of finding a better product. Finally, the
optimal selection strategy and the heuristic procedure are compared
with those proposed by Chun, Moskowitz, and Plante (1993) and the
problem of locating a new store in an area where there are several
competing stores is discussed. The optimal selection strategy and
the heuristic procedure can be applied to many sequential decision
problems such as the consumer search and purchase process.
Subject Areas: Heuristic Procedure, Nonparametric
Procedure, Optimal Stopping Rule, and Sequential Decision Process.
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