Part II. Household Economic Behaviour

Transcription

1 Part II Household Economic Behaviour

2 Introduction to Part II: Consumer Behavior CONSUMER BEHAVIOR Too Much Consumer Behavior? Consumer behavior is certainly the most intensively investigated part of economic psychology, due to the interest of marketing scholars, marketing researchers and managers. Many textbooks entitled Consumer or Buyer Behavior exist; these textbooks show a remarkable similarity in their contents and structure. The Consumer Behavior textbooks are often modeled after the successful book by Engel, Kollat, and Blackwell, of which the first edition appeared in The seventeen most familiar textbooks are the ones by Assael (1987), Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1985), Hansen (1972), Harrell (1986), Horton (1984), Loudon and Della Bitta (l984), Markin (1974), Mellott (1983), Mowen (1987), Reynolds and Wells (1977), Robertson, Zielinski, and Ward (1984), Runyon and Stewart (l987), Schiffman and Kanuk (1987), Sternthal and Craig (l982), Williams (1982), Wilkie (1986), Zaltman and Wallendorf (1983). Even more textbooks are now being prepared, mainly for the large market of consumer behavior courses at North-American universities. Next to textbooks, scientific journals populate the bookshelves of consumer behavior researchers and marketing practitioners. We note the Journal of Consumer Research, Psychology and Marketing, and many marketing journals that publish articles on consumer behavior, e.g. the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, the Journal of Advertising Research, the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, the European Journal of Marketing, the Journal of the Market Research Society, the International Journal for Research in Marketing, and the Journal of Retailing. The journals mentioned above have a marketing and/or advertising Van Raaij, W.F., van Veldhoven, G.M. and Warneryd, K.E. (eds) Handbook of Economic Psychology. ISBN , Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

3 perspective in common. The Journal of Economic Psychology has a broader perspective on economic behavior, including consumer behavior. Psychological journals occasionally publish consumer studies, e.g. the Journal of Applied Psychology, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Economics and business journals publish consumer studies as well, e.g. the American Economic Review, and the Journal of Business, Journal of Business Research, and Management Science. Finally, there are two journals with a consumer protection and policy perspective, the Journal of Consumer Affairs in North-America, and the Journal of Consumer Policy in Europe. Too much research has been done in this area, for us to have the illusion that we could completely cover "consumer behavior" in this handbook. With only three chapters we just cover some aspects, although we are confident that these aspects are important ones. Historical Developments In the early ages micro-economics was the first systematic approach to the study of consumer behavior. It started from the assumptions of rationality, well-informedness, and utility maximization. Although the economic approach brought us some explanations, e.g. the Engel curves, price and income elasticities, practitioners became dissatisfied with the explanatory power of micro-economic models. Many aspects of consumer behavior, especially the motives and reasons behind this behavior, remained in the dark. Some anomalies, such as price as an indicator of quality, price thresholds, or unstable preferences, puzzled the hard-core micro-economist, but couldn't easily be explained in an economic framework. In the late 1950s and early 1960s "motivation research" (Dichter, 1964) seemed to fill this knowledge gap. Motivation research had a clinicalpsychological background. Consumer behavior was explained by unconscious, often sexual motives, as compensations for sexual deprivations or as sexual symbols. The 1960s were characterized by partial theories, covering an aspect of consumer behavior, using one or a few concepts, e.g. perceived risk. It was a single-construct approach. Advertising recall was studied, as well as the diffusion of innovations. Personality measurement was also popular, using psychological tests to differentiate 'between types of consumers and corresponding product purchases. In the late sixties, we saw the development of "grand theories", covering a variety of determinants and their interrelationships. Friedman discusses these grand theories in Chapter 9. The grand theories mainly had the function of an inventory of what was known about consumer behavior in 252

4 those years, and provided a state of the art, checklist, and source of creative ideas for the scientist and the practitioner. The 1970s was the period of the cognitive approach: consumer decision making rules and processes were studied. Herbert Simon's studies on human problem solving were very influential for this development. Concepts such as decision networks, cognitive algebra, information overload, consumer purposeful and incidental learning, and computer simulations were popular. This period was concluded with Bettman's book on consumer information processing (1979). Friedman discusses Bettman's model as well. Parallel to the cognitive approach in consumer behavior, we observed a "cognitivistic" approach to the study of attitudes and attitude-behavior relationships in the Fishbein-Ajzen model of reasoned action. The 1980s seem to become the period of the study of "emotion": The role of affect (mood, arousal) in consumer behavior. Opportunism is everywhere, but especially in consumer behavior research. Many researchers are now attracted by studies on mood, attitude toward the ad, and affective conditioning. Time will teach us, whether this observation is correct. New Developments Consumer behavior research may be criticized in many respects. It is not developed in a balanced way with emphasis on the many aspects. Some aspects are much further developed than others. We will mention eight developments for a healthy developments of consumer behavior, we should welcome in the near future. Many consumer behavior studies have a narrow focus on purchase processes from a marketing perspective only. A broader focus should include the complete consumption cycle: purchase, usage, maintenance, and disposition of the goods. Pinson and Roberto describe in Chapter 8 the consumer behavior research from a marketing perspective, although they include product usage as well. Van Raaij and Verhallen discuss in Chapter 18 product usage, maintenance, and disposition in relation to resource conservation. Too little is known of the generic decision-making of consumers. How do consumers allocate their budget for major categories, such as food, clothing, recreation, transportation, and saving? From a societal perspective it is more interesting to know, how consumer spending and saving patterns develop than which brand of soft drink is most perferred. Consumer behavior with regard to the public sector should be developed, along with the knowledge on consumer behavior in the private sector. In a mixed economy, such as in the European countries, the collective sector provides for many services. How do consumers evaluate these services, if no price or a reduced price is to be paid? 253

5 The marketing perspective on consumer behavior should be more often complemented by the consumer policy perspective. Consumer organizations and governments, better business bureaus and consumer affairs departments of firms are interested in research on consumer behavior as well. Studies on consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction and complaining behavior are often initiated from a consumer policy perspective. The consumer policy perspective should include "quality of life ", the environmental and external effects of consumption: The conservation of raw materials and energy, the preservation of nature, and the avoidance of noise pollution. Cross-cultural and comparative studies on consumer behavior should complement the studies done in the Western world. It is unlikely that we could generalize the findings of North-American and Western-European studies to consumer behavior in developing and socialist countries. In these countries scarcity of goods and problems of distribution playa crucial role, rather than, for instance, brand choice in the western supermarket. Already mentioned is the broadening of the cognitive perspective to include affective factors. Chapter 2 by Van Raaij is an example of the cognitive approach, whereas Pieters and Van Raaij discuss in Chapter 6 the role of affect and the cognitive-affective interface. The recognition of the role of affect is a valuable improvement in the understanding and explanation of consumer behavior. The focus has been too often on the individual consumer, as if consumers are isolated information processors. It is more and more recognized that most consumers live in small groups, called households or families, and that the partners decide together about another car or the next summer vacation. Kirchler discusses in Chapter 7 the decision processes in households. Kirchler concludes in Chapter 7 that the research on household decision making is still in its infancy. Although many studies exist on group decisions, only a few employed the household as a group. The family is a unique group, relatively permanent because of the affective ties between the members. Marital roles in spending pertain to autonomous versus joint decisions, bargaining and conflict management between the partners. Kirchler categorizes the studies on family decision making in three classes: studies on role division, process dynamics, and outcomes. Role division is relatively well studied, whereas process dynamics are underresearched, probably because of the inherent measurement difficulties. Pinson and Roberto describe the consumer orientation in the marketing of firms: product positioning, market segmentation. They structuff.! Chapter 8 along the marketing mix factors: product, price, promotion (mass communication), and distribution. Consumer perception and evaluation of products, decision rules, and price sensitivity are discussed. The marketing communication process is connected with consumer information pro- 254

6 cessing. Consumer shopping behavior is related to the distribution strategy of firms. Friedman reviews in Chapter 9 the "grand models" of consumer choice behavior. These models try to be comprehensive by integrating the research findings of explanatory variables that in-fluence consumer choice. Sometimes these models stimulate further research by opening up new research avenues. The grand models were not borrowed from the social sciences, as was done in the years before, but exclusively developed for consumer behavior research. Friedman reviews the models of Andreasen (1965), Nicosia (1966), Howard and Sheth (1969), Engel, Kollat, and Blackwell (1968), later Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1985), and the information-processing model by Bettman (1979). He concludes that these models are still very much marketing oriented; and that more work should be done to develop models that include spending and saving, time use, and product usage and satisfaction. w. Fred van Raaij REFERENCES Andreasen, A.R, 1965, "Attitudes and customer behavior", in: L.E. Preston (ed.), New Research in Marketing, CA: Berkeley: University of California, pp Arndt, J., 1976, Reflections on research in consumer behavior, Advances in Consumer Research, 3, Assael, H., 1987, Consumer Behavior and Marketing Action, Boston, MA: Kent (third edition). Bettman, J.R, 1979, An Information-Processing Theory of Consumer Choice, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Dichter, E., 1964, Handbook of Consumer Motivations, New York: McGraw-Hill. Engel, J.F., RD. Blackwell, and P.W. Miniard, 1985, Consumer Behavior, Chicago, IL: The Dryden Press (fifth edition). Hansen, F., 1972, Consumer Choice Behavior. A Cognitive Theory, New York: The Free Press. Harrell, G.D., 1986, Consumer Behavior, San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Horton, RL., 1984, Buyer Behavior, Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill. Howard, J.A., and J.N. Sheth, 1969, The Theory of Buyer Behavior, New York: John Wiley. Loudon, D.L., and AJ. Della Bitta, 1984, Consumer Behavior. Concepts and Applications, New York: McGraw-Hill (second edition). Markin, RJ., Jr., 1974, Consumer Behavior: A Cognitive Orientation, New York: Macmillan. Mellott, D.W., 1983, Fundamentals of Consumer Behavior, Tulsa, OK: PennWell Books. Mowen, J.e., 1987, Consumer Behavior, New York: Macmillan. I Nicosia, F.M., 1966, Consumer Decision Processes: Marketing and Advertising Implications Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Reynolds, F.D., and W.D. Wells, 1977, Consumer Behavior, New York: McGraw-Hill. Robertson, T.S., J. Zielinski, and S. Ward, 1984, Consumer Behavior, Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company. 255

7 Runyon, K.E., and D.W. Stewart, 1987, Consumer Behavior, Columbus, OH: Merrill (third edition). Schiffman, L.G., and L.L. Kanuk, 1987, Consumer Behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall (third edition). Sternthal, B., and C.S. Craig, 1982, Consumer Behavior: An Information Processing Perspective, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Williams, T.G., 1982, Consumer Behavior. Fundamentals and Strategies, St. Paul, MI: West Publishing. Wilkie, W.L., 1986, Consumer Behavior, New York: John Wiley. Zaltman, G., and M. Wallendorf, 1983, Consumer Behavior, New York: John Wiley. 256