Time to choose. Consumers who make a snap decision about long-term care use different criteria from those who can afford to deliberate.

When consumers face an immediate vs. future need for a long-term health care facility, their decision process is rushed. The authors investigate the possible effects of time on the use of and emphasis on specific evaluative criteria consumers employ in making their choice. Findings suggest that marketers of long-term care facilities should adopt a temporal-based approach to market segmentation.