Decision neuroscience and consumer decision making

This article proposes that neuroscience can shape future theory and models in consumer decision making and suggests ways that neuroscience methods can be used in decision-making research. The article argues that neuroscience facilitates better theory development and empirical testing by considering the physiological context and the role of constructs such as hunger, stress, and social influence on consumer choice and preferences. Neuroscience can also provide new explanations for different sources of heterogeneity within and across populations, suggest novel hypotheses with respect to choices and underlying mechanisms that accord with an understanding of biology, and allow for the use of neural data to make better predictions about consumer behavior. The article suggests that despite some challenges associated with incorporating neuroscience into research on consumer decision processes, the use of neuroscience paradigms will produce a deeper understanding of decision making that can lead to the development of more effective decision aids and interventions.     

Intrafamily decision making in family planning

58 expectant couples were counseled about family planning postpartum and husbands and wives were asked to rank preference of methods. Husbands preferred IUDs (12%), the pill (7.6%), or diaphragms (8.2%). Wives preferred diaphragm (10%), foam (8%), jelly (8%), and IUDs (6%). The process of discussion was then charted. It was found that wives were more influential than husbands in the joint ranking process, which put IUDs 1st, followed by diaphragms and jelly. As discussion progressed, side effects became more important and the condom was selected as a compromise more often than any other method. It is suggested that marketing attempts for condoms emphasize the lack of side effects as well as promote the advantages to men.     

In search of fair trade: ethical consumer decision making in France

While the market for fair trade products has been growing in many countries, this paper examines the French market where fair trade remains marginal but is experiencing growth. Using a modified Theory of Planned Behaviour framework the research examines consumer intention to purchase fair trade grocery products in order to explain the pertinent decision‐making criteria of both consumers of and potential consumers of fair trade. Results reveal that concerned consumers should not be treated as one homogeneous group, rather, the distinct variations in the factors that influence their decision making must be considered when promoting, labelling and distributing fair trade products. Implications for both sustaining and developing the market for fair trade products in the future are highlighted and discussed.     

The vices and virtues of consumption choices: price promotion and consumer decision making

As consumers exhibit relatively more self-control over healthy products by limiting the purchase quantity of vice choices and buying more virtue choices to adhere to healthy-eating goals, a price promotion has a stronger effect on virtue than vice choices of healthy food. In contrast, consumers exhibit relatively less self-control over unhealthy products and evaluate price promotions as a persuasive temptation mechanism; thus, a price promotion has a stronger effect on vice than virtue choices of unhealthy food. The results of the empirical analyses provide support for these hypotheses.     

Exploring the contextual and individual factors on ethical decision making of salespeople

This paper studies how salespeople make ethical decisions. For this purpose a structural model has been developed which configures how the organization's environment, the organizations's climate, and personality traits affect ethical decision making. Internal communication and the choice of a control system especially affect ethical decision making. Internal communication also affects the attraction of salespeople with unethical personality traits (Machiavellism), while the control system affects the ethical climate. Ethical climate and salespeople's personality traits also affect the ethical decision making. In fact the study shows that ethical decision making can be influenced by management.Willem Verbeke is assistant professor in marketing, School of Economics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His research concentration is sales management.Cok Ouwerkerk is founder and director of the CSA, a consulting firm for statistical applications, in Mijnheerenland, The Netherlands. He has been involved in many research projects at different Dutch universities and firms.Ed Peelen is associate professor at the School of Economics, The University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research concentration is marketing management and logistics.     

基于消费者购买决策过程的出版社网络营销策略研究

本文以消费者行为研究为基础,分析了出版社网络营销的现状,构建了网络消费者购买决策过程模型,通过对网络消费者购买出版社产品与服务六个阶段影响因素与存在问题的调查,制定出相应的网络营销策略。     

Exploring the structure of ethical attributions as a component of the consumer decision model: The vicarious versus personal perspective

The managerial ethics literature is used as a base for the inclusion of Ethical Attribution, as an element in the consumer's decision process. A situational model of ethical consideration in consumer behavior is proposed and examined for Personal vs. Vicarious effects. Using a path analytic approach, unique structures are reported for Personal and Vicarious situations in the evaluation of a seller's unethical behavior. An attributional paradigm is suggested to explain the results. Joel Whalen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at DePaul University, Chicago. He has published articles in Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Business Ethics. His research has been published in the proceedings of the American Marketing Association's Micro-Computers in Marketing Conference; Atlantic Marketing Association; the American Marketing Association Conference on Culture and Sub-Cultural Influences; Northeast Decision Science Institute, Southern Marketing Association, and Decision Sciences Institute. Robert E. Pitts, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Marketing and the Director of the Kellstadt Center for Marketing Analysis and Planning at DePaul University. He served as a member of the faculty of Jacksonville State University, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Mississippi. Dr. Pitts' research has appeared in numerous publications including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Bank Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Social Psychology, Southern Economic Review, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Behavioral Economics, The Mid-South Journal of Economics, Psychology and Marketing, Marketing and Media Decisions and Journal of Insurance Issues and Practices. Dr. Pitts is the editor of Personal Values and Consumer Psychology (Lexington Publishers, and co-author of Bank Marketing, A Guide to Strategic Planning, and Effective Bank Marketing Issues, Techniques and Application. Over the past decade, Dr. Pitts has served as a consultant to such firms as General Motors Corporation, Congolium Corp-Kinder Division, National Standard Steel Corp, WalMart Corp Training Programs, Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and Council of State Chambers of Commerce. John K. Wong teaches International Marketing Management and Consumer Behavior at DePaul University. He served as a member of the faculty of the University of Missouri at Columbia and Washington State University. Dr. Wong's research has appeared in numerous publications including the International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, International Journal of Bank Marketing and the proceedings of the American Marketing Association, Association for Consumer Research, Academy of Marketing Science, Academy of International Business and Pan-Pacific Business Association.     

A model of the effect of affect on economic decision making

The standard economic model of decision making assumes a decision maker’s current emotional state has no impact on his or her decisions. Yet there is a large psychological literature that shows that current emotional state, in particular mild positive affect, has a significant effect on decision making, problem solving, and behavior. This paper offers a way to incorporate this insight from psychology into economic modelling. Moreover, this paper shows that this simple insight can parsimoniously explain a wide variety of behaviors.

Exploring consumer orientation toward returns: unethical dimensions

As customer return rates increase, retailer bottom lines suffer from customers’ misuse of the policies and to the ethics of such practice. The purpose of this study is to explore customers’ orientation toward return behaviors, and to develop a return orientation assessing these dimensions. This research identified three dimensions relevant to consumer return behavior: the planned/unethical returner; the eager returner; and the reluctant/educated returner. A retest with another sample confirmed these three dimensions. Each dimension was analyzed for its relationship with consumer ethical beliefs as measured by the Muncy–Vitell Consumer Ethics Scale, ethical philosophies and shopping behaviors. These relationships supported the ethical and unethical aspects of returner orientation. Results of this research imply that the core aspect of returner orientation is relevant to ethical behavior and misuse of retail return policies. The three return orientations identified partially support the Rosenbaum & Bitner‐Olson research.     

Ethical decision making: A review of the empirical literature

The authors review the empirical literature in order to assess which variables are postulated as influencing ethical beliefs and decision making. The variables are divided into those unique to the individual decision maker and those considered situational in nature. Variables related to an individual decision maker examined in this review are nationality, religion, sex, age, education, employment, and personality. Situation specific variables examined in this review are referent groups, rewards and sanctions, codes of conduct, type of ethical conflict, organization effects, industry, and business competitiveness. The review identifies the variables that have been empirically tested in an effort to uncover what is known and what we need to know about the variables that are hypothesized as determinants of ethical decision behavior.Robert C. Ford is a professor of management at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has authored or coauthored two texts and a number of published articles in a variety of journals including theAcademy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, California Management Review, andBusiness Horizons. He is the incoming President of the Southern Management Association and has served the Academy of Management as Chairs of the Management History Division, the Management Education and Development Division, and Placement Director.Woodrow D. Richardson is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has published inHealth Care Management Review, Simulation & Gaming, andSmall Business Controlling. He teaches courses in Business & Society and Business Policy, and he was the recipient of the University Excellence in Teaching Award in 1989.     

The Methuselah Market Part II: Decision making and the older consumer

This is the second of two papers on the Methuselah Market, defined as those people within five years of retirement age. The first paper discussed the size, characteristics and potential of the market and identified product areas of particular interest. This second paper reviews the literature on the decision making behaviour of the older consumer and suggests marketing strategies which are particularly relevant to the Methuselah Market.     

Exploring the impact of online privacy disclosures on consumer trust

We explore the impact of privacy disclosures on online shoppers’ trust in an e-tailer through a two-phase study. In the first study, we use a between-subjects factorial design to test whether the presence of an online privacy policy influences consumer trust and find that consumers are likely to respond more favorably to a shopping site with a clearly stated privacy message than to one without it, especially when privacy risk is high. In our second experiment, we examine the effects of different forms of privacy disclosures. The results suggest that online shoppers find a short, straightforward privacy statement more comprehensible than a lengthy, legalistic one. However, how a privacy policy is presented (in terms of wording) does not affect a shopper's trust in the store to any significant degree.     

Personal values: Potential keys to ethical decision making

Personal values have long been associated with individual decision behavior. The role played by personal values in decision making within an organization is less clear. This study examines the relationship between personal values and the ethical dimension of indicated decisions utilizing discriminant analysis. Past research has found that managers tend to respond to ethical dilemmas situationally. The study examines personal values as they relate to four types of ethical dilemmas.David J. Fritzsche was a visiting professor at Florida International University when this article was written. His articles have appeared in numerous journals and books. He is also a co-author ofThe Business Policy Game, a strategic management simulation.     

Competitive decision making: Two and a half frames

We argue that the study of competitive decision making has been heavily influenced by the frames of reference that are adopted by researchers. The dominant economic frame and the emergent behavioral frame describe largely separate phenomena and have little overlap. Drawing from examples of learning in games and markets, we show how each of these frames falls short of capturing some interesting elements in competitive decisions. We then describe how a coevolutionary perspective may be emerging as an integrative paradigm for the study of competitive decisions.This paper was prepared for the conference, Understanding Competitive Decision Making. Comments by the participants of that conference and Paul Shoemaker are gratefully acknowledged, as are discussions with Colin Camerer, Eldar Shafir, and Sharoni Shafir.     

Ethical decision making: An investigation of services marketing professionals

This study investigates the relative influences of professional values and selected demographic variables on the ethical perceptions of services marketing professionals. The relationship between ethical perceptions and ethical judgments of service marketers is also examined. The data were obtained from a mail survey of the American Marketing Association's professional members of service industries. The survey results indicate a positive relationship between a service professional's professional values and his/her perceptions of ethical problems. The results also suggest that ethical judgments of a service professional can be partially explained by his/her perceptions of ethical problems. Implications of the research findings were discussed. Anusorn Singhapakdi is Associate Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University. His research has been primarily in the areas of marketing/business ethics. He published in various journals such as Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. He has presented papers at various professional conferences including the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Marketing Science.C. P. Rao is Eminent Scholar and William B. Spong Chair in Marketing and International Business at Old Dominion University. He has also served on the Marketing faculty at the University of Arkansas and at the Indian Institute of management. He participated in the ICAME program at Stanford University. Dr. Rao was awarded the C.P.M. (Certified Purchasing Manager) by the National Association of Purchasing Manager. Dr. Rao is a frequent contributor to many leading journals and has received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award in the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas three times. Scott J. Vitell is Associate Professor and Phil B. Hardin Chair of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. His work has appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Research in Marketing as well as various other journals and proceedings.     

Household preference revisions and decision making: The role of disconfirmation

In this paper, we examine the role of disconfirmation as an important determinant of household preference revisions and decision making. Although prior research has examined decision influence and information exchange in household decision making, the impact of disconfirmation on individual family member preferences and the joint household preference has not been explicitly studied. Analogous to the main types of social influence found within groups, we identify two types of disconfirmation that impact individual preferences arising from family interaction or discussion. These two types of disconfirmation are informational disconfirmation, related to new product information revealed in family discussion being different than one's prior beliefs, and preference disconfirmation, where a family member has incorrect expectations of the preferences of other influential household members. An empirical study involving a household vacation decision demonstrates significant disconfirmation effects in explaining individuals' post-discussion preferences, as well as the joint household preference and decision. Based on the empirical results, we discuss various implications and suggest future research to study the specific consequences of disconfirmation in household decisions.     

Exploring antecedents and consequences of consumer ethnocentrism: evidence from Asian immigrants in the US

The US is a multicultural society due to its growing number of ethnic minorities. These ethnic populations have made intracultural studies more difficult because of the different senses of identity and degrees of acculturation the varied groups possess. The current study examined the impact of perceived ethnicity (Asian vs. Asian American) and acculturation level (low vs. high) on consumer ethnocentrism towards the country of immigration (the US) and its consequences with respect to Asian immigrants, the fastest growing minority in the US. One hundred and eighty‐five responses from Asian immigrants were collected through a convenience sample from a university campus located in the southwest US as well as a snowball sampling technique. Results revealed that perceived ethnicity and acculturation play an important role in influencing Asian immigrants' ethnocentrism towards the US, which in turn affects their attitudes and behavioural intentions towards products made in the US. Implications and future research directions are suggested.