Until 1984, American consumers had only one choice for telephone service-"Ma Bell." However, today consumers have many choices for "data" services. Consumers can choose AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink or relay on Internet service providers like Skype. This increase in the number of service providers indicates an increase in _____.

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The question discusses the shift from a single provider (Ma Bell) to a landscape with multiple data-service choices (AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Skype, etc.) and asks what this increase represents.
Option 1: competitive intensity. This option points to how the presence of more providers and choices heightens competition among firms, leading to stronger rivalry, price competition, and innovation as firms vie for customers. The scenario described is a classic driver of increased competitive intensity in a market.
Option 2: consumer inertia. Consumer inertia refers to a tendency to stick with familiar brands or providers despite available alternatives. The information given actually suggests the opposite—consumers now have more alternatives, implying reduced inertia, not increased inertia.
Option 3: market associability. Market associability is not a standard, widely recognized term in this context. It would be unclear or ambiguous to argue that more providers change how markets are “associated,” making this option an unattractive, ill-fitting explanation for the described change.
Option 4: consumer disconfirmation. Consumer disconfirmation relates to the gap between expectations and actual performance of a product or service, potentially affecting satisfaction. The scenario focuses on the availability of more providers, not on expectation–experience gaps, so this choice misframes the phenomenon.
Option 5: selective density. This term does not correspond to a common concept in market structure or consumer choice theory. It sounds misaligned with the described dynamic of expanding provider options and would be unlikely to correctly describe the situation.
Across the options, the core idea is that more providers increase rivalry and competition among firms offering data services, shaping pricing, features, and quality in the market. The reasoning behind the other choices relies on misapprehending the impact of more options, mislabeling the concept, or applying an irrelevant term to the situation.

MKTG-2910-2 CB quiz 15

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