Teleshopping versus shopping: A multicriteria network equilibrium framework

This paper proposes a network equilibrium framework for the conceptualization, modeling, and analysis of consumers' selection of teleshopping versus shopping for a frequently purchased product. The shoppers or consumers are assumed to be multicriteria decision-makers with each class of consumer characterized by a finite number of criteria which may include, for example, time, cost, opportunity cost, as well as security/safety, among other criteria. We construct the network structure of the consumers' choices with an explicit identification of the nodes, links, paths, and origin/destination pairs, and allows each class of consumer or shopper to weight his criteria in an individual manner on each link of the shopping network. The framework is the first to capture teleshopping versus shopping alternatives with predictive equilibrium flows.