Consumer decision making within a goal-driven framework

Research and theory in consumer decision making has been dominated by a perspective that assumes that a consumer knows what product category he or she needs. This limited view has resulted in equating consumer decisions with brand choice. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for considering a wider range of consumer decision-making processes by linking them to different goals that consumers might pursue. A hierarchical goal structure consisting of four levels of goals; abstract principles or values, action programs, more concrete product acquisition, and brand acquisition goals, is proposed as the theoretical construct which ties together a wide range of consumer decision making phenomena. An experiment in which consumers think out loud in contemplating two levels of more familiar or unfamiliar goals reveals that their thoughts are constrained by the proposed goal hierarchy. The goals provide a useful framework for understanding decision-making processes involving product level consideration, set generation, and the evaluation of those self-generated sets. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The price of unconditional love: Consumer decision making for high-dollar veterinary care

Animal companions play an increasingly important role in consumers' lives, and therefore many pets receive acceptance and treatment as members of the family. As the human-animal bond increases, so does consumer spending on pets, including that on high-dollar veterinary care. Unlike human health care, however, consumers must directly pay for the majority of high-dollar veterinary care. When an animal companion is ill, the consumer faces a stressful decision of whether even to engage in the treatment, along with the hardship of paying for it. Despite a rudimentary understanding of the factors relevant in the decision-making process regarding high-dollar veterinary care, knowledge is lacking about this often heart-wrenching choice. Using a depth-interview method, this study examines the decision-making process consumers go through when facing expensive medical treatment for their pets. The research results in an expansion of three a priori themes and the discovery and discussion of three factors that influence consumer decisions about veterinary care across all three themes.     

Consumer strategic decision making and choice process: prefabricated house purchase

This study examines the consumer choice process in case of strategic purchases, such as house buying. In view of the existing literature exploring consumer decision making and choice for strategically important products, the purpose of this research is twofold: (a) to develop a conceptual model of strategic decision making; and (b) to empirically explore this model with regard to prefabricated house purchases. The results of our qualitative research suggest that in addition to the idiosyncratic characteristics of the customer, his or her personal situation, environmental factors, the role of feelings, experience, subconscious factors, needs, and goals should to be taken into account to better understand strategic consumer decision making and their choice process when buying a house.     

Validation of Consumer Styles Inventory for consumer decision making styles

The Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) developed by Sproles and Kendall, Journal of Consumer Affairs, 1986, 20: 267–279, is one of the most widely used instruments to classify consumers by their decision making styles. With changes in consumption culture attributable to the coexistence of global and local consumer culture in the past few decades, it is essential to reaffirm that the CSI measurement instrument is valid for contemporary consumers and can be applied in various contexts. This study, therefore, aimed to present a set of CSI validation procedures using contemporaneous participants and targeting two groups of participants in the United States. Two sets of exploratory factor analysis using the main data set (n = 390) were performed and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to the main data set and the cross-validation data set (n = 172). Results from both the exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses seem to validate the eight underlying consumer characteristics of CSI.     

Disentangling the respective impacts of assortment size and alignability on perceived assortment variety

Assortment size is considered to influence strongly perceived assortment variety, but this influence depends on assortment organization. We consider assortment alignability (i.e. the degree of comparability between products) and show how it interacts with size to influence perceived variety. When assortment is structured along a unique important attribute (e.g. flavor or format), alignability influences perceived variety but size does not (Study 1). When this attribute is not important, only size influences perceived variety (Study 2). When assortment is structured along several attributes (e.g. flavor and format), alignability positively influences perceived variety, and assortment size reinforces this effect (Study 3).     

The effect of formalism on unethical decision making: The mediating effect of moral disengagement and moderating effect of moral attentiveness

This study examined the relationship between formalism and unethical decision making among Chinese working adults. A total of 316 Chinese adult employees completed measures of ethical predispositions, unethical decision making, moral disengagement, and moral attentiveness. The results showed that formalism was related to a weaker propensity to morally disengage. Moral disengagement positively predicted unethical decision making and mediated the relationship between formalism and unethical decision making. Further, perceptual moral attentiveness negatively moderated the relationship between formalism and moral disengagement. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are presented.     

Multichannel shopping: The effect of decision making style on shopper journey configuration and satisfaction

Prior research demonstrates links between the maximizing tendency in decision making and online shopping behaviour, with maximizers spending considerable time on their online shopping yet being somewhat dissatisfied with their shopping decisions. Our research extends prior knowledge to the multichannel shopping context. Multichannel shopper journeys are an important form of shopping, whereby the activities comprising a shopping event occur in more than one channel. Our quantitative study examines relationships between two dimensions of maximizing, maximization as a strategy and maximization as a goal, multichannel shopper journey configuration and subsequent affect. Maximization as a strategy directly and positively relates to the numbers of channel switches and of pauses in a shopper journey and to the use of product and retailer reviews. It is indirectly associated with increased counterfactual thinking and regret, and with decreased satisfaction. Maximization as a goal has no effect on multichannel shopper journey configuration or on affect. Our findings have managerial relevance for multichannel retailers. We demonstrate that product and retailer reviews are of particular importance to those employing maximization as a shopping strategy, as they mitigate against their increased tendency to engage in counterfactual thinking. As counterfactual thinking leads maximizers to increased regret and decreased satisfaction, multichannel retailers can improve shopper satisfaction by actively directing their customers to reviews. Shoppers using maximization as a strategy could be helped to configure their shopper journeys with fewer channel switches and fewer pauses, as these provide maximizers with opportunities to doubt their decisions.     

Consumer decision making and the nature of the product: A comparison of husband and wife adoption process location

Many studies investigating consumer decision making have implicitly assumed that one individual in a family (most often the wife) makes all of the consumption choices for the family. This study investigated and compared the independent responses of husbands and wives concerning their adoption process location for a series of products. Significant response discrepancies were observed, primarily for products for which the adoption decision likely involves lower levels of involvement. Relatively little agreement was observed between husbands and wives on whether a product was adopted. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Husband-wife innovative consumer decision making: Exploring the effect of family power

The study investigates the effect of one component of spousal influence—family power—on the innovative consumer decisions perceived to be made independently by one's mate. Information was gathered via a questionnaire by personally contacting a sample of 71 married couples. The hypothesis tested was that a wife, by virtue of her greater relative exercise of family power, exerts a high degree of influence over the innovative consumer decisions made by her husband. Specifically, it was hypothesized that a wife will have more influence over the choices perceived to be made by her husband than will he. The results supported the hypothesis.     

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.     

经济管理中的决策制定

领导的过程就是制定决策并实施决策的过程.决策正确与否,关系到事业的成败,经济的兴衰.因此,在经济管理中按照科学的秩序和方法,制定和实施决策,实现决策科学化,这是市场经济的需要,是事业发展的需要,也是检验现代领导者经济管理水平的重要标志.     

Consumer motivation for the decision to boycott: The social dilemma

This study suggests a rational framework to explain consumers’ decision to boycott. We proposed an instrumental boycott framework based on rational response to the offending behaviour of a target company. The hypotheses embedded within the research model are empirically evaluated. The data were collected by questionnaire survey, and structural equation modelling was utilized for data analysis. The results show that social factors (message credibility, expected overall participation and perceived boycott effectiveness) generate motivations for consumers’ boycott decisions. In addition, it is identified that these factors increase consumers’ perceived likelihood of boycott success. Further, it is also found that consumers' perceived likelihood of boycott success positively affect their boycott decision via the possibility of changing a target company's offending behavior and unwillingness to purchase the target company's products. The results of this study explain consumers’ instrumental boycott decision‐making process in terms of social dilemma. Further, this study provides practical contributions for understanding consumers’ rational boycott behaviour. Specific implications for marketing managers and boycott organizations are outlined in the general discussion. Suggestions for future research are also presented in the conclusion.     

Strategic decision making within Chinese firms: The effects of cognitive diversity and trust on decision outcomes

Basing the hypotheses on group process theory, the effects of cognitive diversity on commitment and decision quality were examined, as well as the moderating effects of cognition-based and affect-based trust on cognitive diversity and decision outcomes. Using a survey of 252 Mainland Chinese executives from different firms, it was found that cognitive diversity has a strong negative relationship with commitment and decision quality. In addition, results show that affect-based and cognition-based trust have moderating effects on cognitive diversity and decision outcomes.     

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.

Consumer responses to variety in product bundles: The moderating role of evaluation mode

This article examines the moderating effect of evaluation mode on consumer responses to variety in product bundles. Study 1 finds that consumer preference for the variety bundle (relative to the non-variety bundle) is higher in the joint evaluation mode than in the separate evaluation mode. Study 2 provides evidence that the increased preference for the variety bundle in joint evaluation is driven by the activation of concerns about satiation. Specifically, we find that both the quantity of items in and the category of the non-variety bundle influence consumer concern for satiation and the evaluation of the variety bundle. Study 3 further examines the proposed mechanism by manipulating the information associated with repetition and finds that associating repetition with loyalty (vs. satiation) eliminates the moderating effect of evaluation mode on the preference for variety. We discuss the findings and their implications for marketers.     

The dimensions of assortment: A proposed hierarchy of assortment decision making

Abstract

The merchandise assortment plays a fundamental role in retailing; it conveys the positioning of the retailer, and is a key determinant of image and patronage. However, existing literature covering a 50-year period is somewhat fragmented. A key problem with the literature is that it does not distinguish between different levels and dimensions of assortment, causing potential ambiguity in their interpretation in the modern retailing context. The lack of standardised terminology could potentially inhibit future assortment research in, for example, assortment measurement. In reviewing the literature, the critical dimensions of assortment are clarified with conceptual definitions and a hierarchical classification of assortment being proposed. Further, the assortment research is examined, identifying an imbalance between operational and strategic assortment research. As retail assortments expand and saturate, the need for assortment measurement research is argued with associated implications for retail management.     

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.