Utility adjustment for non Choice Simulator users

Question

Gentlemen, good afternoon.

Currently using Sawtooth Software SMRT, version 4.23.0.

I am interested in applying the individual level Utility Adjustment method with a combination of 2 or more attributes with more than 2 levels (say, Brand and Rregion). How can one "undo" the combination of utilities to insert them into the .hbu file that is imported into SMRT?

Thanks in advance.

Best,

Mauricio.

Answer 1

Dear Mauricio,

The .HBU file is just a text-only file that can be edited using Notepad or your favorite text editor.  

You can change the utilities themselves for individual respondents.  And, you can change the organization of the attributes and levels as well by modifying the header section of the .HBU file.

The documentation explaining what the fields represent in the .HBU file may be found in Appendix A of the CBC/HB software manual:  https://www.sawtoothsoftware.com/download/techpap/CBCHB_Manual.pdf

Comments

Bryan,

thanks for the response. If I insert my combined utilities, however, I lose the ability to discriminate the importance of attributes, right?

Thanks in advance!

Best.

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If you collapse two attributes into a single attribute in the .HBU, then the software will report the importance score for the new combined attribute rather than the two attributes separately.