Question

Regina is considering different laptop computers before she finally buys a new laptop. She has collected information about four different laptops and is focused on five attributes that she thinks are important. She has rated these laptops on the attributes and has asked you to help her in making a choice. Using the Fishbein Multi-Attribute Model, please answer the question below:

Regina’s Attribute Matrix

Attribute	Importance Weights	HP Pavilion	Dell Latitude	Sony Vaio	Acer Aspire
Weight	0.4	Bad	Very Good	Fair	Very Bad
Integrated camera	0.1	Good	Bad	Very Good	Fair
Display Resolution	0.25	Very Bad	Excellent	Terrible	Good
Built-In Numeric Keyboard	0.05	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent
Energy Star Compliance	0.2	Very Good	Terrible	Good	Terrible

Q. The first step involved in using Regina’s Attribute Matrix to help her evaluate the different options when using the Fishbein Multi-Attribute Model is:

1.Multiplying the attribute values to the scale values and assigning a name to each resulting attribute value.

2. Creating a scale that captures the attribute belief for each brand and assigning values to those beliefs.

3. Converting the attribute names to scale values and assigning a value to each attribute name.

4. Converting the attribute beliefs into numbers by assigning increasing ratings left to right on the grid.

5. Converting the brand names into distinct values.

Answer 1

Option-2 seems to be correct.

The multiplication of weights and scale values will happen once the scale values are formed. The scale values are not there. So, reject option-1. Attribute names or brand names will not be converted to scale values, their various levels are to be converted. So, reject option-3 and 5. The scale values may or may not increase from left to right in the given grid. Reject option-4 also. Option-2 is correct because the scale will be formed based on the range of beliefs possible for each attribute and then the values will be assigned.