One of the most significant and robust characteristics of decision making is persistence. An example of this is brand loyalty -- the repeat purchase of new products of the same brand. This paper attempts to show that previous explanations of this phenomenon (switching costs, habit and unobserved...

Consumers in many markets face a growing variety of products grouped under different umbrella brands, and can access vast amounts of information about these products. This may result in increasing product-level competition between firms. However, some observers argue that the increase in the...