In line with the significant impact of information overwhelming on consumer behavior, the study conducted by Iyengar and Lepper (2000) showed that information overload could merely happen while being presented by too much choice, which is also referred as the phenomenon of “choice overload.” In contrast to the classic economic and psychological theories that the more choice, the better, their field observation and lab experiment concluded the finding that having more choice may be demotivating. Through the classic jam study of theirs, which was conducted in an upscale grocery store, they found that while displaying 24 different exotic jams at the sample booth (the large choice set) in the store, only three percent of the sampling shoppers actually purchased one of the jams. However, 30 percent of the sampling shoppers purchased one of the jams during the display of six jam samples (the small choice set). The too-much-choice effect was observed not only in the supermarket but also in an educational context. While providing six versus 30 essay topics to students, the quality of essays was found to be significantly better in the limited-choice (6) condition than in the extensive-choice (30) condition. In marketing practices, marketers tend to provide abundant alternatives to consumers because it increases the likelihood to match different needs and interests of various consumers (Haynes, 2009). However, researchers have noticed that providing extensive choice could result in negative consequences such as making one dissatisfied and unconfident with the choice or defer the decision. Although many empirical studies have shown that the too-much-choice effect occurs in different contexts (e.g. charity donation, prize drawing, and essay topics) or with various product categories (e.g. mp3 players, pens, and chocolates), it has not been consistently observed. Scheibehenne, Greifeneder, and Todd (2009) did not find the statistically significant relation between the size of choice sets (small vs. large) and the percentage of the participants who made a choice in the restaurant-picking task and charity donation task. To better understand the too-much-choice effect, thus, the purpose of this study is to develop a holistic and theoretical model of the too-much-choice effect inductively based on empirical findings. To date, most of the studies that have been conducted focus on experimental examinations, which are essential building blocks for theory development. However, experimental findings only provide fragmentary explanations about the phenomenon. By assembling the pieces derived from those segments, therefore, the too-much-choice effect is treated as a continuum, which may better explain under what situation the effect is more likely to appear and what consequences it may result in.

Purpose – There are numerous theories for retail trade area analysis which are designed to select candidate locations for new stores. In this study, comparative analysis on the characteristics from those of the theories are shown, and the explanation for the power in consumers’ store-choice behaviors and their limitations are examined. Also, plans for improving commercial sphere analysis are explored. Research design, data, and methodology – This study is based on literature reviews with normative research methodology. Among many researches regarding the analysis on the location and commercial sphere for launching a new store, researches relying on statistics are excluded in this study since they belong to the marketing research area,. Results – In the Law of retail gravitation, Huff’s model multinomial logit model and etc. are mutual complementary mathematical techniques for analyzing commercial spheres and each of them has its own characteristics. These theories rely on the same hypothesis in which consumers are all believed to be behaving rationally under a similar behavioral system. However, the trial in explaining or estimating behavior of choosing a store with only a select size of the population that is objectively estimated by some major properties has limits in its credibility. Conclusion – Research on consumer’s spatial behaviors can be fully illustrative and explainable when it has both quantitative approaches such as ‘law of retail gravitation’, ‘logit model’ and etc., and qualitative approaches like consumer’s ‘cognitive structure’, ‘learning status’, ‘image formation’, ‘attitude’ and etc.

According to the globalization of world economy on distribution and sales, logistics and transportation parts are playing an important role. Especially, they have to decide what is the key factor of route choice model and how to choose the right transport route in multimodal transport system. By considering the key factors in rote choice model for freight forwarders between Mongolia and Korea, this paper propose 4 main factors: Cost, Delivery time, Freight and Logistics service with 13 sub factors. The importance of factors is surveyed base on AHP through interview with freight forwarders. In results, the empirical insights about current status of Mongolian forwarders are provided with different factors between transportation modes. Expecially, the Time factor is a role factor to choose transport route for air transportation forwarders.