Understanding Consumer Choice shows how attempts to relate consumers' attitudes and actions have implicitly incorporated measures of the very variables at the heart of a situational theory of consumer choice. These are the buyer's consumption history and the physical and social setting in which consumer behaviour occurs. The book explores the capacity of the resulting model to explain consumer behaviour in retail and consumption situations, and to elucidate brand choice. The result is a novel interrogation of cognitive and behavioural perspectives, an overarching philosophy for consumer research.
Product Assortment and Consumer Choice: An Interdisciplinary Review examines existing literature and builds on the current theoretical developments across different research domains to develop a set of research propositions delineating the impact of product assortment on consumer choice. Taking a consumer's perspective to examine how product assortment influences decision making and choice, this monograph defines the consumer aspect of assortment research to answer three key questions. First, how do consumers perceive the variety of items in an assortment? The first part of this review examines factors that influence consumer perceptions of the variety of an assortment. In particular, it investigates how factors such as assortment size, the degree of distinctiveness of assortment options, the dispersion of option frequencies, and the organization of the assortment influence consumer perceptions of assortment variety. Second, how do consumers choose an item from a given assortment? The second part discusses factors that influence consumer choice of an item from a given assortment. It examines the impact of assortment size on the purchase likelihood from a given assortment, the number of options purchased, and the particular options chosen from the assortment. Third, how do consumers choose among assortments? The third part examines factors that influence consumer choice among assortments. In particular, it investigates how assortment size, assortment structure, and purchase quantity influence consumers' choice of an assortment. Conceptual analysis of the existing research in each of these three areas is summarized in a series of research propositions that integrate current findings and offer directions for future research. Product Assortment and Consumer Choice: An Interdisciplinary Review concludes with a discussion of the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of existing product assortment research and identify venues for further investigation.
Technology and Household Consumption is a comprehensive text that provides insights into technology’s impact on consumer behavior and the household environment. Consumption and consumer behavior has become a very important subject of study that is now covered in many disciplines including family economics, culture studies, and feminist/women studies. In the first section, this book provides a historical perspective on how consumer behaviors have changed because of technology and how technology itself has changed. Data on ownership and expenditures is detailed in describing the penetration of technology in the household and changes over time. In the examination of demographics and social changes, an emphasis is placed on women and children. As it is important to understand the entry paths and factors that influence them, the book also introduces a research framework to understanding the adoption and utilization of household technologies. In the second section, the book examines specific household technologies and consumption experiences including shopping choices and behaviors, entertainment outlets and availability, communications technologies, and working at home. The book concludes with a section on the relationships between marketers and consumers.
Interpretive consumer research usually proceeds with a minimum of structure and preconceptions. This book presents a more structured approach than is usual, showing how a simple framework that embodies the rewards and costs associated with consumer choice can be used to interpret a wide range of consumer behaviours from everyday purchasing and saving, innovative choice, imitation, ‘green’ consumer behavior, to compulsive behaviors such as addictions (to shopping, to gambling, to alcohol and other drugs, etc). Foxall takes a qualitative approach to interpreting behavior, focusing on the epistemological problems that arise in such research and emphasizing the emotional as well as cognitive aspects of consumption. The author argues that consumer behaviour can be understood with the aid of a very simple model that proposes how the consequences of consumption impact consumers’ subsequent choices. The objective is to show that a basic model can be used to interpret consumer behaviour in general, not in isolation from the marketing influences that shape it, but as a course of human choice that is dynamically linked with managerial concerns.
This edited volume will help business and academic researchers understand the means-end approach to understanding consumers. This is a qualitative marketing research method to gain customer insight into decision making.
This book is the most up-to-date account of research based on the Behavioural Perspective Model of consumer choice. Foxall's contribution is explored in relation to marketing management, the adoption of innovations and further research in consumer behaviour. It is a major contribution to consumer research and marketing theory.
Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—both big and small—have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice—the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.
"Emotions, Advertising and Consumer Choice focuses on recent neurological and psychological insights - originating from brain scanning or neurological experiments - on basic emotional processes in the brain and their role in controlling human behaviour. These insights are translated by the authors to cover the behaviour of ordinary individuals in everyday life. The book looks at these developments in the light of traditional cognitive theories of consumer choice and it discusses the implications for advertising and other communication testing."--Jacket.
