A New Test of Attribute Significance for Nonparametric Conjoint Models

Abstract

A new chi-square test is proposed to assess significance of attributes for nonparametric conjoint models. The key idea is to form subsets of rankings and test the dependence between the attribute levels and the sets of rankings. The null hypothesis states that the rankings for profiles with the focal attribute are distributed randomly among the sets of rankings. The approach is simple, easy to use, and can be applied at the individual level as well as at the aggregate level. It can be used for the trade-off approach as well as for the full profile approach.