DO RANKS SUFFICE - A COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE WEIGHTING APPROACHES IN VALUE ELICITATION

We compared both attribute weights and overall evaluations for student s' preferences among apartments described to them in terms of nine ind ependent attributes. Methods used for eliciting attribute weights were (a) 7-point scales; (b) value hierarchy; (c) swing weights; and two m ethods using importance rankings only: (d) rank order centroid and (e) rank sum weights. Multiple linear regression was also used to infer a ttribute weights. Test-retest reliability of overall evaluations was f ound to be modest. Evaluation models based on all five weight elicitat ion methods were superior to an equal weights model, with rank order c entroid weights modestly superior to Other methods. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.