Effects of providing total cost of ownership information on attribute weights in purchasing decisions

► Total cost of ownership information involves monetary quantification and aggregation, and there may be missing attributes in TCO data. ► Student participants were more inclined to give a higher weight to the attribute missing from the TCO information, while the practitioner participants tended to give less weight to the missing attribute. ► Within the group of practitioners, the pattern was strongest for the most experienced practitioners. ► Experienced decision makers might be less mindful of the imperfections of monetary quantification.