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Figure 1From “A flat rate buys your customer’s worst month.”

The preference at equal money, and what a premium does to it

A collapse, not a plateau: 68% take the flat rate when it costs the same, and pricing the preference cuts it to 23 and then 15. About forty people per condition: coarse percentages, solid direction.

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Figure 1The preference at equal money, and what a premium does to it

Share of purchasing professionals choosing the flat rate: 68% at equal cost, 23% at a 20% premium and 15% at a 50% premium: a collapse, not a plateau.20%40%60%80%100%Same price as pay-per-use68%20% premium23%50% premium15%Chose the flat rate (%)

Source: Kienzler, Kowalkowski & Kindström (2021), Journal of Business Research 132, Study 1, p. 407. Scenario-based choices by purchasing professionals, n = 124, about forty per condition. Single shares read as direction: a presentation-order effect elsewhere in the paper moved them between 45% and 73% (fn. 9).

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  • A KKK21-C1 At equal cost, 68% of purchasing professionals chose the flat rate (Study 1, n = 124, ~40 per condition, cloud analytics). The design is scenario-based: "A series of four experiments showed that experienced purchasing professionals tend to exhibit a flat-rate bias in their price plan choices", and "they preferred the flat-rate over the pay-per-use option" in the equal conditionKienzler, Kowalkowski & Kindström (2021), Journal of Business Research 132, 403–415 · VoR held
  • A KKK21-C2 At a 20% premium 23% still chose the flat rate; at 50%, 15% (p. 407). The authors' benchmark is that absent the bias none would in the premium conditions, since "The flat-rate bias is defined as customers" "preference for flat rates rather than pay-per-use options"Kienzler, Kowalkowski & Kindström (2021), Journal of Business Research 132, 403–415 · VoR held

Grades: A, verified against the printed page of the primary source · B, primary source, text layer only · C, authoritative secondary · D, reported.

From the essay

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APA 7

Isoglu, S. (2026). The preference at equal money, and what a premium does to it [Figure]. isoglu.com. https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-a-flat-rate-buys-the-worst-month-fig01/

BibTeX
@misc{isoglu-2026-a-flat-rate-buys-the-worst-month-fig01,
  author = {Isoglu, Sinan},
  title = {{The preference at equal money, and what a premium does to it}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Figure 1, isoglu.com},
  url = {https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-a-flat-rate-buys-the-worst-month-fig01/},
  note = {From the essay {A flat rate buys your customer’s worst month.}}
}
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  <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-a-flat-rate-buys-the-worst-month-fig01/">
    <img src="https://isoglu.com/social/isoglu-2026-a-flat-rate-buys-the-worst-month-fig01.png" alt="Figure 1: The preference at equal money, and what a premium does to it" width="3200" height="2400">
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  <figcaption>Figure 1: The preference at equal money, and what a premium does to it. Source: Kienzler, Kowalkowski &amp; Kindström (2021), Journal of Business Research 132, Study 1, p. 407. Scenario-based choices by purchasing professionals, n = 124, about forty per condition. Single shares read as direction: a presentation-order effect elsewhere in the paper moved them between 45% and 73% (fn. 9). <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-a-flat-rate-buys-the-worst-month-fig01/">View exhibit</a>.</figcaption>
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