Strategic vs. Tactical Continuum in Stated Preference Experiments: Jointly Modelling Electric Vehicle (EV) Purchase and Charging Location Preferences

This study examines whether consumers evaluate the same attributes consistently across strategic (longterm) and tactical (short-term) decision contexts. While strategic choices, such as major purchase decisions, and tactical choices, such as everyday operational decisions, are often modelled independently, little empirical work has tested whether preferences remain stable across these layers. Using the case of electric vehicles (EVs), we design two stated preference experiments with 1,243 respondents in Bengaluru, India: one capturing strategic purchase decisions and another focusing on tactical charging location choices. A joint mixed logit framework is employed, with scale parameters used to test for contextual differences. The results reveal that willingness to pay to reduce charging time and emissions is significantly higher in the strategic purchase context compared to tactical charging decisions. Moreover, the estimated scale parameter for the charging location experiment was consistently less than one, indicating greater randomness and heterogeneity in tactical choices relative to more systematic evaluations in strategic decisions. These findings highlight that identical attributes are valued differently across decision layers underscoring that preferences are not stable across strategic and tactical decision contexts, with implications for both modelling practice and the application of behavioural findings in policy and planning.